In a win for the faction of the Sussex County Republicans allied with Jill and Parker Space, Earl Schick defeated Alan Henderson to capture the county commissioner seat left vacant last month after Dawn Fantasia (R-Franklin) resigned to become Sussex’s new assemblywoman.
Schick, a county committeeman from Newton, defeated Lafayette Councilman Alan Henderson, 71-52, a margin of sixteen percentage points in a special election convention held this morning.
In a race for a sixteen-month unexpired term as the Republican state committeeman, Sussex County Young Republican Chairman Billy Marotta and a rising star in GOP politics, edged out Jonathan Rose, a former freeholder and Sussex Borough mayor, by nine votes, 66-57. Nicholas D’Agostino has resigned the state committee seat he won in 2021.
Jill Space is the director of the Board of County Commissioners and Parker Space (R-Wantage) is the state senator from the 24th district.
The Sussex GOP has been sharply divided in recent years. Fantasia won a tough primary for two open Assembly seats, and 23-year-old farmer Jack DeGroot ousted two-term County Commissioner Herb Yardley by 23 percentage points.
But in a race for Sussex County GOP Chairman two weeks later, Skylands Tea Party President Joseph Labarbera was elected by six votes against a candidate backed by then-State Sen. Steve Oroho (R-Franklin), Assemblyman Hal Wirths, DeGroot, and the Spaces.
The results represent another setback for controversial political consultant Bill Winkler.
LaBarbera appears to have distanced himself from Winkler, who backed his county chair bid last year. In comments made at this morning’s meeting, LaBarbera told GOP county committee members that he will not be using Winkler.
“Consultants will no longer run the party,” LaBarbera said. “The party will run the party.”
Sussex County Democratic Chair Zoe Heath isn’t buying it.
“I’ll believe it when the chairman can run his party,” she said.
LaBarbera is up for re-election in June 2025.