Hunterdon Republicans hold four countywide offices

The New Jersey Globe projects that Republicans have swept all four Hunterdon County contests for county office, with four incumbents winning re-election and Republicans maintaining their 5-0 majority on the Board of Commissioners.

Sheriff Frederick W. Brown scored a fifth term, leading Democrat Dominick Puzio, a career law enforcement officer, by a 58%-42% margin as of 2:16 a.m.

Incumbent County Commissioners John Lanza (29%) and Zachary Rich (28%) lead Democrats Hope Cohen (22%) and Donald Becker (21%). Now comfortably re-elected, Lanza must decide if he will challenge State Sen. Andrew Zwicker (D-South Brunswick) in the 16th legislative district next year.

And in a race for the unexpired term of Matthew Holt, who resigned earlier this year and moved out of Hunterdon County, interim County Commissioner Jeff Kuhl leads Democrat Justin Balunsat 58%-42%.  Holt was the grandson of Clifford P. Case, who represented New Jersey in the United States Senate from 1955 to 1979; Kuhl, a former Raritan Township mayor,  is the son of Henry Kuhl, who served as Hunterdon County Republican Chairman for 37 years.

A former Raritan police chief, Brown was first elected in 2010 after mounting an off-the-line victory in the GOP primary against former Readington Police Chief James Paganessi and George Muller, a former freeholder and the undersheriff.

Lanza was first elected in 2013 and Rich, a former West Amwell mayor, in 2019.