Hache will step down as Bergen county commissioner, Marte is top candidate to replace him

Update: DMR Architects announced on March 2 that Hache has resigned to become the CEO of the Ridgewood YMCA.  

Bergen County Commissioner Ramon Hache will not seek re-election to a second term and will resign his seat in the near future, with Bergenfield Councilman Rafael Marte emerging as the leading candidate to replace him.

Hache can no longer devote the time needed for his county government post.  His decision not to run was sudden and comes just before today’s 4 PM filing deadline to compete at the Bergen County Democratic convention.

Once Hache resigns, the Bergen County Democratic county committee must meet to complete his unexpired term, which ends on December 31.

The 59-year-old Marte has served two stints in the borough council.  He was appointed in 2017 when now-Assemblyman Christopher Tully resigned to become Rep. Josh Gottheimer’s district director.  He had been appointed to fill another vacancy in 2013 after Carlo Aguasvivas resigned his council seat to become acting mayor after the death of Timothy Driscoll.  He lost his bid to keep the seat in a special election that year to Republican Kathleen Salhberg.

A retired case manager for the Westchester County Department of Social Services, Marte easily won local elections for the borough council in 2017 and 2020.

Hache was serving as mayor of Ridgewood three years ago when Bergen County Democrats tapped him to replace David Ganz, the longest-serving freeholder in Bergen County history when he retired in 2020.

To compete for the county commissioner post at the Bergen Democratic convention, candidates must file letters of intent with signatures of at least five county committee members from six different municipalities.

Democrat Joan Voss, 82, a former Fort Lee councilwoman and four-term assemblywoman, is seeking re-election to a fifth term as a county commissioner.  After 2011 legislative redistricting moved Fort Lee from the 38th into the 37th district – the move made the 38th considerably more competitive — Voss side-stepped a primary fight with incumbents Valerie Vainieri Huttle and Gordon Johnson by replacing another Democrat, Bernadette McPherson, on the Bergen County Board of Freeholders.