With all eyes on Bergen County Democrats tonight, where Andy Kim is battling Tammy Murphy for the organization line in a secret ballot convention in the state’s most populated county, Bergen Republicans will vote to recommended candidates after their screening committee this evening.
The Bergen County Republican Policy Committee vote is not binding, but potentially signals strength among candidates heading into the March 19 GOP convention for U.S. Senate, Congress, and County Commissioner.
Worth watching in the Republican U.S. Senate race is whether Cresskill businessman Fred Schneiderman can break out in his home county in his relatively quiet statewide bid.
Eight Republicans filed letters of intent to seek the Bergen County GOP organization line, including the Big Three: real estate developer Curtis Bashaw, Mendham Mayor Christine Serrano Glassner, and former News 12 New Jersey reporter Alex Zdan. Bashaw has won conventions in Atlantic, Cumberland, and Ocean counties, Serrano Glassner has scored county lines in Hunterdon, Morris, Union, and Warren, and Zdan won the Monmouth GOP convention.
Also seeking party support for the Senate seat held since 2006 by indicted Democrat Bob Menendez are former Tabernacle Deputy Mayor Justin Michael Murphy, Dumont businessman Brian Jackson, U.S. Navy veteran Albert Harshaw, and Ocean City entrepreneur Steve Boston.
Schneiderman has not competed in any other conventions across the state, and his highest-profile public endorsement so far has come from Melinda Ciattarelli.
He sought the GOP nomination to take on Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-Wyckoff) in 2022 but withdrew a month before the primary and after it was too late to take his name off the ballot. In that race, he had the backing of Kellyanne Conway, a Bergen County resident and former Trump White House senior advisor.
Schneiderman received just four votes (6%) in that race in the policy committee vote. He received fifteen votes (3%) at the Bergen GOP convention.
There are contests to pick challengers against two Democratic incumbent congressmen.
In New Jersey’s 5th district, four Republicans are facing off for the chance to take on Gottheimer: Englewood GOP Municipal Chair Dierdre Paul; Mary Jo Guinchard, a former actress and mayor of Tuxedo Park, New York; Paramus school board member George Song; and Sandy Gajapathy, a political newcomer from Ridgewood.
This is Paul’s second run for Congress; she challenged Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson) in 2014, when Englewood was in the 9th district, and won 30% of the vote. She’s also run for State Assembly, County Commissioner, and in 2023 for the State Senate. Guinchard ran for County Commissioner last year and lost by 16,319 votes; that was her second try after losing the 2022 GOP primary.
To run against Pascrell in the 9th district, Republicans will choose between Billy Prempeh, a U.S. Air Force veteran who won 32% against Pascrell in 2020 and 44% in 2022, and Hector Castillo, who won 28% against Pascrell in 2018.
Prempeh is the overwhelming favorite.
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.
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.
Countywide offices
In the race for Bergen County Sheriff, now vindicated Saddle Brook Police Chief Robert Kugler is seeking a rematch with Democrat Anthony Cureton, but first must secure the Republican nomination against former Lyndhurst school board member Christopher Musto and Michael Devine, a former Bergen County police officer.
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.
Kugler is also the Saddle Brook GOP municipal chairman.
Three Republicans are vying for the chance to take on four-term Democratic incumbents Tracy Silna Zur and Steven Tanelli for County Commissioner: Michael Joseph, a 21-year-old county committeeman from New Milford who worked as an intern on the staff of Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-Dennis) in 2023; David Plotkin, a 19-year-old who came within 396 votes of winning a seat on the River Edge Borough Council in 2023; and Linda Barba, a Fort Lee realtor who lost a GOP primary for Bergen County Executive in 2022 by 45,236 votes (59%-41%). A fourth candidate, Thomas Toscano, Jr., whose late father was an influential GOP insider, dropped out of the race on Sunday.
Republicans have not won a countywide election in Bergen County since 2013 and have not prevailed in a presidential year since 2004.
Correction: an earlier version of this story said the policy committee vote would be an early test of strength for former GOP congressional Frank Pallotta, who is considering a bid for county chairman. Pallotta told the New Jersey Globe he has no interest in running and has not endorsed candidates for any office this year.