Undermentioned on today’s Super Tuesday political calendar is the Somerset County Republican convention, where the party will pick candidates for U.S. Senate, County Commissioner, and President this evening.
Mendham Mayor Christine Serrano Glassner, former News 12 New Jersey reporter Alex Zdan, businessman Curtis Bashaw, and U.S. Navy veteran Albert Harshaw will face off for party support in their bids for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Democrat Bob Menendez.
Under Somerset County GOP convention rules, a candidate must win 50% +1 to secure the organization line; with four candidates on the ballot, it’s possible that a second round of voting will be needed.
There will also be a vote between Donald Trump and Nikki Haley to award the line in the presidential race. Three of the four Senate candidates – Serrano Glassner, Zdan, and Harshaw – have endorsed Trump.
Four candidates are vying for two county commissioner seats: Nick Cuozzo, a Bernards Planning Board member and former Somerset County grants coordinator; Noah Fofanah, a former Franklin council candidate and manager of a biotechnology company; Rocky Ganta, an engineer and businessman who serves on the Warren Township Environmental Commission; and Kirsten Light, an accountant, and Bernards school board member.
Two of those candidates will take on Democratic County Commissioners Shanel Robinson and Sara Sooy. Robinson and Sooy ousted incumbents in 2018 as the first Democrats to win freeholder seats since 1979.
Rep. Thomas Kean (R-Westfield) is unopposed for the Somerset line in the 7th district; two minor primary opponents, Raafat Barsoom and John Sauers, did not file to compete at tonight’s convention.
In the 12th district, Darius Mayfield is unopposed in his bid for a rematch with Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing). His lone opponent, North Plainfield school board member Thomas Jones, Jr., has dropped out of the race.
Five other GOP U.S. Senate candidates – Fred Schneiderman, Justin Michael Murphy, Brian Jackson, Michael Estrada, and Steve Boston – did not enter the Somerset Republican convention contest.