Bergen County Republicans will hold their convention tonight to endorse candidates for U.S. Senate, Congress, and Sheriff in the last major showdown of the GOP pre-primary season.
Unless lines go away this year, tonight is a critical moment for Mendham Mayor Christine Serrano Glassner, who entered the race days before Democratic incumbent Bob Menendez was indicted on federal corruption charges. A former George W. Bush administration official with close ties to Donald Trump, Glassner was the early frontrunner for the chance to take on Menendez.
Six months later, Menendez won’t be the Democratic nominee, and the race to take on Rep. Andy Kim (D-Moorestown) or First Lady Tammy Murphy drew a large field of candidates, some serious and a few cartoon characters.
During county conventions, it’s been a three-way race between Serrano Glassner, real estate developer Curtis Bashaw, and former News 12 New Jersey reporter Alex Zdan.
But in Bergen, there’s a fourth candidate, Fred Schneiderman, a Cresskill businessman, is mounting a one-county strategy to propel himself into the GOP Senate nomination. Schneiderman has not competed in any of the other counties and is betting his campaign on a home county line in Bergen.
In recent weeks, Bashaw has emerged as the frontrunner after winning conventions in Ocean, Mercer, Middlesex, and Somerset and securing party endorsements in seven South Jersey counties.
Bashaw is a right-of-center Republican who will find himself on the ballot with Trump, even though he’s opposed him three times. New Jersey Republican insiders don’t appear bothered by Bashaw’s past opposition to Trump or his apparent ties to former Gov. Chris Christie.
Serrano Glassner has secured organization lines in Morris, Hunterdon, Union, Hudson, and Warren counties and needs a big county line like Bergen—if the lines survive a legal challenge seeking to abolish them. In 2020, Bergen County represented 8.5% of the total votes cast in the statewide GOP primary, the fourth largest in the state.
Zdan won the Monmouth GOP convention and a screening committee vote in Passaic. He’s aggressively campaigning in Bergen County.
The Bergen County Republican Policy Committee, which screens candidates in advance of the convention, backed Serrano Glassner by one vote over Schneiderman, 17-16. Close behind were Zdan (13) and Bashaw (12). Four votes were cast for two other candidates.
Assemblyman Bob Auth (R-Old Tappan) has been working on Serrano Glassner’s behalf and issued a statement this morning.
“Christine is a mom and a small business owner who is serving her second term as mayor of her hometown. She’s a true-blue American who will fight for secure borders and fiscal sanity, not a corporate elitist or establishment politician,” Auth said. “We can trust her to put New Jersey’s – and America’s – interests first when she gets to Washington.”
Bashaw received an endorsement from former Franklin Lakes Council President Chuck Shotmeyer this morning. His wife, Darlene, is the vice chair of the Republican State Committee and a possible candidate for Republican National Committeewoman.
“This year is one of the best chances New Jersey Republicans have to win a U.S. Senate seat in 50 years, and Curtis is the guy who can do it,” said Shotmeyer. “He’s also the only candidate with the financial resources to beat the Democrats in November.”
Four other candidates are on the Bergen convention ballot: former Tabernacle Deputy Mayor Justin Michael Murphy, Dumont businessman Brian Jackson, U.S. Navy veteran Albert Harshaw, and Ocean City entrepreneur Steve Boston.
Race for Congress
Three Republicans are competing for the chance to take on four-term Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-Wyckoff) in New Jersey’s 5th district: Mary Jo Guinchard, a former actress and Tuxedo Park, New York mayor who ran for county commissioner in 2022 and 2023; Paramus Board of Education member George Song; and newcomer Sandy Gajapathy.
Guinchard won the policy committee votes, 28-21, against Paramus school board member George Song. Englewood GOP Municipal Chair Dierdre Paul finished third with 13 votes and has dropped out of the race; Gajapathy received one vote.
In the 9th district, where Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson) is seeking a fifteenth term in Congress, Republicans must choose between Billy Prempeh, a U.S. Air Force veteran and the frontrunner, and Hector Castillo, a Paterson physician and frequent candidate.
In a call with the New Jersey Globe, Castillo denied being behind attacks on Prempeh, but later his campaign manager acknowledged that Castillo was behind the assault on Prempeh.
Prempeh won a massive 61% over Castillo in a policy committee vote. He won 32% against Pascrell in 2020 and 44% in 2022, and Castillo won 28% against Pascrell in 2018.
Castillo is a frequent candidate for public office: he won 4% in a 2002 race for mayor of Paterson, 1.3% as an independent candidate for governor in 2005; 28% in a 2012 congressional primary against Rabbi Shmuley Boteach; 39% in a 2013 State Senate primary; and 5% in a 2020 primary in the 5th district.
The 87-year-old Pascrell will face a primary challenge from Prospect Park Mayor Mohamad Khairullah.
Song and Prempeh have won the organization line in the Passaic County portion of the district.
One key difference between the policy committee vote and the is that all municipal chairs vote in both of the county’s congressional districts; convention votes are limited to the district they live in.
County Offices
Saddle Brook Police Chief Robert Kugler is seeking a rematch with Bergen County Sheriff Anthony Cureton and won 56% in a vote of the policy committee over former Bergen County Police Officer Michael Devine, 36-17. A third candidate, former Lyndhurst school board member Christopher Musto, finished third with 11 votes and has since withdrawn from the race.
Kugler’s 2021 campaign was derailed by an indictment alleging that he detailed police escorts for funeral processions to cemeteries involving a local funeral home he owns.
Superior Court Judge Marilyn Clark dismissed the charges against Kugler one year later after finding that embattled Deputy Attorney General Eric Cohen, who prosecuted Kugler for the Office of Public Integrity and Accountability (OPIA), left out critical information that might have benefited the suspended police chief to the grand jury that indicted him. Cohen is no longer employed by the attorney general’s office.
Then-Attorney General Gurbir Grewal announced charges against Kugler in March 2021 after he had already joined the race for sheriff. The indictment came on September 24, just as vote-by-mail ballots had gone out.
Despite the allegations against him, Bergen County Republicans stuck with Kugler, who spent four decades as a police officer and 30 years as chief.
He defeated Harry Shortway, Jr., the 82-year-old Midland Park mayor, at the party convention by a vote of 269-98, 73%-27%. In the primary, he defeated Shortway by an 82%-18% margin.
The indictment didn’t stop Kugler from mounting a strong challenge against Cureton. He lost by a 54%-46% margin.
In a campaign mailer, Devine used portions of clips from a New Jersey Globe story that mischaracterized what was written to portray Kugler in a negative light. Kugler’s indictment may have been politically motivated—Grewal had strong ties to the Democratic party—and a judge dismissed the charges.
In the race for Bergen County Commissioner, Republicans are going with two young candidates: Michael Joseph, 21, and David Plotkin, 19. They are unopposed after two other candidates dropped out and will face four-term incumbents Tracy Silna Zur and Steve Tanelli.