Bergen GOP has 520 unfilled county committee seats going into June primary

Bergen County Republicans, who had a county executive, a sheriff, three freeholders, and a congressman as recently as 2013, are heading into the June primary with 520 unfilled county committee seats – the latest sign of a once potent county political organization now able to recruit candidates for just 54% of its posts.

The huge vacancy rate follows last week’s filing deadline, where Republicans in six municipalities, including Hasbrouck Heights, the hometown of Bergen County GOP Chairman Jack DeLorenzo, filed zero county committee candidates for 18 seats.

The other five towns – East Rutherford, Englewood, Harrington Park, Haworth, and Teterboro – account for 70 unfilled seats and a 100% vacancy rate.

The significant number of vacancies isn’t as alarming as it seems, since it takes only a relatively small number of write-in votes to win a seat, and those who win can appoint people to fill the remaining empty seats.   Increasingly, there are county committee members who find it less work to get a handful of write-in votes or just get appointed than to go through the effort of completing a nominating petition.

There are 23 more municipalities with at least half their seats vacant after the filing deadline: Bergenfield (34 seats, 33 vacancies, 97%); Tenafly (24 seats, 23 vacancies, 96%); Fairview (12 seats, 11 vacancies, 92%); Ridgewood (38 seats, 34 vacancies, 89%); Palisades Park (18 seats, 16 vacancies, 89%); Moonachie (6 seats, 5 vacancies, 83%); Leonia (12 seats, 10 vacancies, 83%); Little Ferry (12 seats, 10 vacancies, 83%); Hackensack (50 seats, 41 vacancies, 82%); River Edge (16 seats, 13 vacancies, 81%); Cliffside Park (30 seats, 24 vacancies, 80%); Fort Lee (38 seats, 30 vacancies, 79%); Ridgefield Park (16 seats, 12 vacancies, 75%); Wood-Ridge (12 seats, 9 vacancies, 75%); Garfield (30 seats, 19 vacancies, 63%); Rutherford (24 seats, 15 vacancies, 62%); Teaneck (46 seats, 27 vacancies, 59%); Glen Rock (16 seats, 9 vacancies, 56%); Elmwood Park (22 seats, 12 vacancies, 55%); Lodi (22 seats, 12 vacancies, 55%); Bogota (14 seats, 7 vacancies, 50%); and New Milford (18 seats, 9 vacancies, 50%).

Some vacancies exist in New Milford (18 seats, 8 vacancies, 44%), Midland Park (10 seats, 4 vacancies, 40%), Maywood (14 seats, 5 vacancies, 36%), Paramus (40 seats, 14 vacancies, 35%), Lodi (24 seats, 8 vacancies, 33%), and Fair Lawn (46 seats, 15 vacancies, 33%).

Eight towns have all but one seat filled, and five more have just two or three vacancies so far.

There are 21 municipalities where every county committee seat was claimed on filing day; the seats in Alpine, Closter, Demarest, Hillsdale, Ho-Ho-Kus, Lyndhurst, Norwood, Oakland, Old Tappan, Ramsey, Ridgefield, Rochelle Park Saddle River, South Hackensack, Upper Saddle River, Washington, Waldwick, Wallington, Woodcliff Lake and Wyckoff make up 210 of the 606 seats that have a candidate on the ballot.

Bergen Democrats have 303 vacant seats after filing day.