Six Democrats will seek the support of the Passaic County Democratic Committee on Saturday to run for Sheriff in the June primary, but one of the announced candidates, former Sheriff Jerry Speziale, is not one of them.
Democrats are seeking a successor to Richard Berdnik, a five-term sheriff who took his own life in January.
One of the candidates seeking the Democratic line is Mason Maher, a Paterson police detective and union leader who was the Republican nominee for sheriff against Berdnik in 2022.
Also joining the race are: Thomas Adamo, a chief in the sheriff’s office and a 27-year veteran law enforcement official from Wayne; former Paterson Public Safety Director Safety Glenn Brown, who briefly ran for mayor in 2018; Paul Cell, the chief of the Montclair State University Police Department with 42 years of law enforcement experience; Mike Kassai, a former Elmwood Park police captain; and Thomas Marinaro, a former Bloomingdale councilman and Democratic municipal chairman who served as chairman of Law Enforcement Against Drugs and Violence.
“We are committed to finding a leader who exemplifies not only the integrity, dedication, and vision that former Sheriff Berdnik stood for but also someone who can continue the positive work being done by our county board of commissioners to enhance public safety and overall quality of life in Passaic County,” said John Currie, the Democratic county chairman.
Speziale, now the Paterson police director, served as sheriff from 2002 to 2010, when he resigned to become deputy superintendent of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Police Department. His decision to drop his 2010 re-election bid after the primary and then resign paved the way for Berdnik to succeed him.
Last Friday, Speziale formally announced his bid to run for his old job. He plans to run off the line on a ticket with county commissioner candidate Sean Duffy; Duffy is the son of Democratic county commissioner Terry Duffy.
Speziale, who ran on the organization line four times, said he no longer believes “a handful of political insiders on a so-called screening committee” should make the call.
“That’s why I am joining the growing number of Democrats throughout the state who believe that this entire county line preferred ballot system is unfair and should be discarded. All the current system does is take power away from the people and give it to party bosses and machine politicians,” he said. “New Jersey is the only state that still uses this archaic system, and it should be abolished. I will not participate in a screening process that is based on a rigged, unfair system.”
He claims he was offered party support to run after Berdnik’s death, “but only if I agreed to allow an unelected party boss with no law enforcement experience to actually run the sheriff’s office.”
“During one of several conversations we had about the campaign, Chairman John Currie told me he was imposing a ‘new structure’ where he would name the undersheriffs and make all personnel and financial decisions within the department,” Speziale said. “Of course, I refused to even entertain this — any candidate who would agree to accept that kind of political interference would be unfit to serve as sheriff.”
Keith Furlong, a spokesman for Currie, disputed Speziale’s claims.
“MAGA Jerry Speziale has a long, tortured history of saying and doing whatever it takes to keep himself employed. He worked against the Democratic Party with top Republicans to take a job from Chris Christie and leave his running mates high and dry in the middle of a campaign and he’s endorsed among the worst MAGA Republicans in the country for Congress,” Furlong said. “Any words that come out of MAGA Jerry’s mouth as they relate to integrity, honor or truth should be taken with a grain of salt. We are talking about an individual who, literally, lied about giving to charity.”
The winner of the screening committee will run with President Joe Biden, U.S. Senate candidate Tammy Murphy, one of three Democratic House incumbents representing Passaic County, incumbent County Commissioners Sandi Lazzara and John Bartlett, and first-time candidate Rodney DeVore.