Middlesex Dems have county commissioner primary; eight-way Democratic primary for Edison council

Two Middlesex County commissioners will face challenges in the June Democratic primary.

Leslie Koppel and Charles Tomaro, who have the backing of the county Democratic organization, will face Lawrence Zee Liu and Frances Bustos-Santiago.

The two challengers are running under the “Dems for Justice, Transparency and Fairness” slogan.

Koppel, a former Monroe council president, has served as a county commissioner since 2017.  Tomaro served sixteen years as an Edison councilman and has been a county commissioner for 12 years.

In Edison, eight candidates filed for four council seats in the Democratic primary.

Incumbent Richard Brescher filed a joint petition with Asaf Shmuel, Lav Patel, and Robert Kentos.  All four won a vote on the embattled local Democratic organization that declined to back three incumbents seeking re-election.

Two of the councilmen, Ajay Patil and Joseph Coyle, filed for re-election.  But another incumbent who was denied party support, Joyce Ship-Freeman, did not file petitions in advance of yesterday’s 4 PM filing deadline.

Biral Patel, a school board member, and Thomas White, who finished eighth in the county committee vote, also filed.   Neither did Rajesh Pandya and Shilpan Patel, who also lost the party insider vote.

Democrats also have a fight brewing for control of the Edison county committee.

Republicans are funning Russell Azzarello, Paul Bravo, Meredith Matthews and Gerald Shine for council.