Tedesco, Bergen Democrats hold countywide offices

The New Jersey Globe projects that Bergen County Executive James Tedesco has been re-elected to a third term, leading Republican Todd Caliguire by a 55%-45% margin as of 11:52 p.m. Three Democratic commissioners also won re-election over their Republican opponents, defending the party’s 7-0 majority.

The three Democratic incumbents, Mary Amoroso (18.0%), Thomas Sullivan (17.9%), and Germaine Ortiz (17.6%), defeated Republicans Douglas Holden (15.6%), Ronald Lin (15.5%), and Dierdre Paul (15.4%).

If Republicans had captured two of the seats, the 2023 race for county commissioner would have been a control election, but instead Democrats retained their complete stranglehold on county government.

Bergen County Republicans haven’t won any countywide offices in Bergen since 2013, and Caliguire is a perennial office-seeker who hasn’t won an election since 1995 and has lost two State Senate bids and a 2006 race for county executive.

Sullivan is the president of the IBEW Local 164 and a former councilman in Bergenfield and Montvale. Amoroso, a former Bergen Record reporter and editor, was elected councilwoman in Mahwah in 2015 and freeholder in 2016.  Ortiz, a former Palisades Park councilwoman and school board member, was also elected in 2016; Amoroso and Ortiz flipped two Republican seats.

Lin, a Franklin Lakes resident, lost county commissioner race last year by 12,881; Paul is an educator and community leader from Englewood and has lot races for State Assembly in 2013 and Congress against Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-Paterson) in 2014.

Tedesco becomes the first three-term county executive since Republican Pat Schuber defeated Democratic Assemblywoman Loretta Weinberg in 1998.  The former Paramus mayor is the first Democrat to score a third term.