Tim Howes Archives - New Jersey Globe

A look at federal, county and municipal races in Somerset County in 2026

July 8, 2026 4:23 pmJuly 9, 2026 3:57 pm

For more than a century, Somerset County stood among New Jersey’s premier Republican strongholds. It backed Herbert Hoover over Franklin D. Roosevelt at the height of the Great Depression, remained reliably Republican through the New Deal and postwar eras, and...

DiFrancesco defeats Howes for Somerset GOP chair

June 18, 2024 9:00 pmJune 18, 2024 9:34 pm

Tracy DiFrancesco, the Watchung GOP municipal chair and daughter of former Gov. Donald DiFrancesco, unseated two-term incumbent Tim Howes in the race for Somerset County Republican chair. DiFrancesco won 222-140, a 61%-39% margin. She was boosted by allies of Republican...

Tracy DiFrancesco launches bid for Somerset GOP chair

February 28, 2024 6:47 amFebruary 28, 2024 5:19 pm

Watchung Republican Municipal Chairman Tracy DiFrancesco will run for Somerset County GOP Chairman when the party reorganizes in June, setting up a showdown with the incumbent, Timothy Howes. “I am running to restore the trust, transparency, and leadership of the...

Somerset Republicans settle on slate for two county commissioner seats

March 14, 2023 12:33 pm

Peapack and Gladstone Councilman Don Lemma and Warren Township Republican municipal chairman Dan Gallic will run for Somerset County Commissioner this year, as Republicans fight once again to flip the county-level offices that they lost during the Trump era. Lemma...

Republicans voluntarily end Mendham election challenge

February 7, 2023 3:25 pmFebruary 7, 2023 3:31 pm

The saga of a 2022 township committee election in Mendham Township ended at last today, with former Committeeman Thomas Baio voluntarily dismissing his election challenge against Lauren Spirig, the Democrat who defeated him, after a truncated Superior Court hearing. “I...

Somerset and Burlington Republicans look to regain lost ground in 2022

August 5, 2022 4:00 pmSeptember 6, 2022 1:52 pm

The recent history of the Somerset and Burlington County Republican parties can be summarized in two simple sentences. When Donald Trump took office as president in 2017, they each held every single county office. Today, they hold none. It’s not...

Montgomery elects first Sikh woman to head local GOP

January 28, 2022 9:22 am

Somerset County – and possibly the state – has elected the first Sikh woman to serve as a Republican municipal chair. Rosy Thakkar was elected on Thursday to lead the local Republican Party in Montgomery, a one-time GOP stronghold that...