Cureton wins Bergen sheriff race

Anthony Cureton beat his Republican John DeLorenzo in a special election kicked off by former Bergen County Sheriff Michael Saudino’s resignation.

Cureton’s margin was a little slimmer than that of some other countywide candidates in the increasingly-blue county.

The sheriff-elect beat DeLorenzo by 16 points, 53%-37%.

Cureton secured 153,682 votes, while 108,081 cast ballots for DeLorenzo.

Saudino resigned earlier this year after a recording of racist remarks made by the former sheriff was made public. A number of high-ranking Democrats, including Gov. Phil Murphy and Rep. Josh Gottheimer, called for Saudino’s resignation, as did a number of Republicans.

That resignation came in the latter half of September, and only after some confusion about when he actually resigned.

A number of independents ran for the seat. Robert Tormo and Robert Kugler got 4% of the votes case, with the former receiving 11,810 and the latter getting 11,976. About 1% of voters, 3,018 of them, cast ballots for a third independent, James Ahearn.