Tedesco names ex-Obama West Wing aide as his new chief of staff

Bergen County Executive James Tedesco has reshuffled some of his top staffers during the first year of his third term.

Craig Dorsett, a Ridgefield councilman and a top official at the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, has become Tedesco’s new chief of staff.  He replaces Michele Dilorgi, who has moved to the Bergen County Housing Authority as deputy executive director.

The new deputy county administrator will be Kenneth Ehrenberg, the retired Paramus police chief.  The post became available after Michael Bellucci moved to the Bergen County Utilities Authority.

Dilorgi had been Tedesco’s top aide since he unseated Republican incumbent Kathleen Donovan in 2014.  She had served as clerk of the Bergen County Board of Freeholders and as director of constituent services to Rep. Steve Rothman (D-Englewood).

Dorsett has a long history of involvement in government and politics.  He started out working for Martha Coakley’s bid for attorney general in Massachusetts in 2006 and then worked briefly as her assistant after she won.  He was an aide to Rothman and ran the field operation for Barack Obama’s Bergen County campaign in 2008.   He worked on Gov. Jon Corzine’s advance staff in 2009 and returned to Coakley’s team to do the same on her unsuccessful bid for U.S. Senate in 2010.

In 2010, Dorsett joined Obama’s White House staff as a special assistant to the White House Chief of Staff.  He moved to the U.S. Department of the Interior in 2013, and joined DEP after Gov. Phil Murphy took office in 2018.  He served as an acting assistant commissioner and ran the state’s Urban Parks system, including Liberty State Park in Jersey City.

“Craig’s impressive career is a testament to his ability to get things done,” said Democratic strategist Michael Soliman, who hired Dorsett when he was Rothman’s district director.  “This new role will be great for him and great for the people of Bergen County”

Ehrenberg retired after a decade-long stint as police chief in May.