Thomas Adamo has won the Democratic nomination for Passaic County Sheriff, fending off a challenge from former Sheriff Jerry Speziale, the New Jersey Globe projects.
The win by Adamo is a huge victory of the Passaic County Democratic organization, which picked Adamo to run for sheriff this year after Sheriff Richard Berdnik fatally shot himself earlier this year. As of 9:54 p.m., Adamo leads Speziale, who served as sheriff from 2002 to 2010, 58%-42%.
Passaic Dems’ choices for three county commissioner spots – incumbent Commissioners Sandi Lazzara and John Bartlett and their running mate, Rodney De Vore – are also in the lead. Lazzara has 21.7% of the vote in a six-way race, while Bartlett and De Vore have 19.5% and 18.5%; Speziale’s slate of Sean Duffy, Pedro Liranzo, and Derya Taskin have 16.4%, 12.0%, and 11.8%.
De Vore’s lead over Duffy for the third spot currently stands at 1,266 votes.
The other incumbent seeking re-election, Nicolino Gallo, is a Republican.
After Berdnik fatally shot himself in January with almost two years remaining in his term, his predecessor, Speziale, announced that he would seek his old job in the Democratic primary. The party organization backed Adamo, a career law enforcement official and the son of a former Republican freeholder.
With name recognition and a $500,000 warchest left over from 2010, Speziale was instantly a formidable candidate in a planned off-the-line candidate campaign; when U.S. District Court Judge Zahid Quraishi tossed the line in favor of office block ballots, the lesser-known Adamo lost his greatest asset.
A Wayne school board member and Paterson firefighter, Duffy is the son of longtime County Commissioner Terry Duffy. If the entire Speziale had won, that could have meant the end to a regime Passaic Democratic Chairman John Currie assembled piece by piece since taking over the party chairmanship in the 1990s when Republicans had a 7-0 majority.
Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop helped Speziale, with Currie likely to go with either Josh Gottheimer or Mikie Sherrill in next year’s gubernatorial primary instead of Fulop. Speziale had also secured several labor union endorsements, including the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 825 and the Eastern Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters.
Adamo, who had endorsements from Gov. Phil Murphy, U.S. Senator Cory Booker, and Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson), accused Speziale of making false claims about both of their records. He has denied allegations that as a former Republican, he voted for Donald Trump. Democrats took to calling Speziale “MAGA Jerry.”
In turn, Speziale criticized Adamo for allegations of workplace harassment at the Passaic County Sherriff’s office, where he is a chief.
A former New York City Police detective, Speziale had won three sheriff races in the early 2000s. After Edwin Englehardt, a nine-term Republican, resigned under an ethical cloud, Democrats picked Speziale to take on acting Sheriff Ronald Fava, a former assemblyman, Passaic County Prosecutor, and Paterson municipal court judge. Speziale won an especially bitter campaign by less than one percentage point. He was re-elected in 2004 with 75% of the vote; Republicans didn’t bother to run someone against him in 2007.
In 2010, Speziale left the sheriff’s post for a job as the deputy superintendent of the Port Authority Police Department. Adamo characterized the circumstances of Speziale’s hiring as a dirty political deal with Republican Gov. Chris Christie, and for his past support of Republicans, but wrongly alleges an FBI investigation into the matter.
He mulled running against Berdnik in 2019.