Morris GOP seeks to block appointed Parsippany county committee

Morris County Republicans have filed a lawsuit challenging the legality of thirteen post-election appointments to the Parsippany Republican County Committee in advance of a race for municipal chairman – votes that could tilt the results of the party leadership election one way or the other.

Peter King, the Morris GOP vice chairman and the party’s lawyer, maintains that the current party chair, Dee dePierro, lacked the authority to fill vacant seats on her own under the party’s bylaws and state law.

King is asking a Superior Court Judge for an injunction to block the appointed county committee members, which include three people who lost the June 6 primary election but were named to fill open seats in other districts, and former Assemblywoman BettyLou DeCroce (R-Parsippany).

In court documents, the Morris GOP alleged that the move was made to “stack the deck” in the municipal chairman race between Mayor James Barberio and Suzy Golderer, the school board president and that Ann Grossi, the Republican county clerk, improperly added the appointed members to the county committee list even though she was notified that no election took place.

Assemblyman Brian Bergen (R-Denville), who defeated DeCroce in the Assembly primary, said in an affidavit filed with the court that Grossi told him she and her husband had also been appointed to the county committee.  When the county clerk posted an updated list, she and her husband were not on it.

No hearing has been scheduled yet, court records show.  But the Morris County assignment judge, Stuart Minkowitz, will likely act quickly to obviate any appearance that the judiciary might be giving a favorable advantage to Democrats in the upcoming township council election by keeping the Republican Party leadership in flux.