By Matthew Gilson | The Save Jersey Blog
While it has garnered nearly zero attention with much bigger fish to fry in the state’s populous county, for the first time in the past few years, Republicans will see a contested primary for freeholder next Tuesday, Save Jerseyans.
Both Yudin and Paul DiGaetano, the combatants in this year’s headline-occupying Republican county chairman’s race, treat the BCRO-backed slate as inevitable and are already looking ahead to November.
That’s not without justification. The catalyst for the battle for the three freeholder seats began as an attempt to recruit a full-slate via Facebook and other means by perennial primary challenger Michael Cino of Demarest.
Cino, who has run unsuccessfully in the past against Senator Gerry Cardinale and Congressman Scott Garrett (failing to get 10% in his last go-around), enjoys almost no support from party loyalists, but he has cultivated a few loud vocal followers.
The general lack of campaigning from the opposition would seem to confirm suspicions that the CINO-backed candidates were only recruited to give Cino ballot position.
The party-backed slate consists of two-term incumbent Freeholder Maura DeNicola of Franklin Lakes, former Freeholder John Driscoll of Paramus, and Closter Councilman Bob DiDio. The three challengers, who did not challenge the ultimately-endorsed slate of candidates at the BCRO convention, are John Zoller, Paul Fisher, and Richard Marshall.
The marquee contest is June 21 and not the primary; all the same, if the challengers manage even modest success in cutting into the likely victors’ margins, the results will have been worth keeping an eye on going forward.
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