Passaic Democrats win

Passaic County Democrats swept four county elections on Tuesday, retaining complete control of the Board of County Commissioners and extending their dominance of county government after a brief period when Republicans appeared to be making a comeback.

Commissioners Orlando Cruz and Nicholas Veliky won full three-year terms, while Haledon Councilwoman Aleksandra Tasic captured a special election for an unexpired commissioner term.

Surrogate Zoila Cassanova also won a second five-year term.

Cruz and Veliky defeated Republicans Ed Leonard, a Wanaque councilman, and John Rodriguez, a former law enforcement official and longtime New Jersey Transit locomotive engineer.

Tasic defeated Republican Marko Kopec in the special election to fill the seat vacated by John Bartlett, who resigned to become general counsel of the Gateway Development Corporation.

Veliky had been appointed to temporarily fill Bartlett’s vacancy, but was nominated for a full term in the seat held by retiring Commissioner Bruce James.

Cassanova defeated Republican Jessica Sprague, a prominent family law attorney.

A former attorney for the New York Supreme Court Criminal Division in Queens and the Bronx, Cassanova first won the surrogate’s office in 2021 after incumbent Bernice Toledo decided not to seek re-election following disciplinary proceedings over her handling of an executorship.

Republicans have not won the Passaic surrogate’s office since 1992, when Rosalie Masarie defeated the Democratic incumbent.

The Democratic victories preserve a 7-0 commissioner majority, continuing a political recovery after Republicans briefly gained ground.

Republicans captured three commissioner seats in 2009, only to lose them in 2012. They won another seat in 2021 but lost it in 2024, returning the board to unanimous Democratic control.

The county’s political volatility was particularly evident in 2024, when Donald Trump came within five percentage points of carrying Passaic, a dramatic improvement over his earlier performances.

But Gov. Mikie Sherrill restored a more traditional Democratic margin in 2025, winning the county by 16 points.