Party-backed freeholder candidates in Union easily defeat progressive challengers

Organization-backed freeholder candidates in Union County easily defeated five

Freeholders Christopher Hudak and Angela Garretson received 17,462 and 19,005 votes, respectively, while and their running mate, freeholder candidate Lourdes Leon, got 18,018.

Progressive candidates Justin O’Hea, Hector Meneses, Jr. and Aissa Heath got 3,298, 3,853 and 4,349 votes, respectively.

Brianna Armstead had 1,561 ballots cast in her name, while Daniel Yamakaitis got 815.

The establishment-backed freeholder candidates will face Republicans Joseph Sarno, Mark Shore and Paul Verzosa in November.

Union County Clerk Joanne Rajoppi easily defeated progressive challenger Sean Smith, winning 20,491 votes to his 3,317. Republicans nominated Peter Lijoi for the seat.

Sheriff Peter Corvelli fared only slightly worse against former Jack Molenaar, defeating the former Fanwood councilman 19,205 to 4,035. Corvelli will face Dorothy Burger in the general election.

In Linden, incumbent Councilman John Francis Roman, an ally of State Senator And Union County Democratic Chairman Nicholas Scutari, leads challenger Joao Goncalves 295 votes to 82.

Goncalves has the backing of Linden Mayor Derek Armstead, a frequent Scutari opponent.

Those tallies do not include uncounted mail-in ballots received by Tuesday, late-arriving vote-by-mail ballots postmarked by 8 p.m. Tuesday, provisional ballots that won’t be counted for at least a week and mail-in ballots that were disqualified but may be cured at a later date.

In Plainfield, Fourth Ward Councilman Steve Hockaday leads progressive challenger David Rutherford 1,612 to 458.

Counts are not yet available in Councilman Charles McRae’s race against progressive Emily Morgan, though the party-backed candidate is expected to have little trouble winning re-election.