![BCRO Voting](https://savejersey.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Av8jL6NCEAAw6lz1.jpg)
HACKENSACK, N.J. – Bergen County used to have one of the state’s most open, democratic Republican primary conventions. Not in 2020.
On Thursday, according to a source with knowledge of Bergen County Republican machinations, Save Jersey learned about a Wednesday night decision by Chairman Jack Zisa to award the county’s June primary lines to NJ-05 candidate John McCann and U.S. Senate candidate Rik Mehta.
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Other counties adjusted to the COVID-19 pandemic by hosting successful online votes, specifically Cumberland County and Middlesex County.
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Bergen failed to adjust, canceling its usually robust county convention at the Hackensack BCRO headquarters and defaulting to the results of its policy (aka screening) committee’s weeks-old selections.
Today’s news does impact both competitive federal primary contests on Bergen’s 2020 ballot.
NJ-05 candidate Frank Pallotta has the line in Passaic County; he also boasts as the endorsement of the Morris and Sussex county Republican parties (but neither of those counties has a line of their own). With the Bergen line in hand, it now looks like essentially a two-man contest between Pallotta and McCann, the latter having won the 2018 party nomination before losing to incumbent Democrat Josh Gottheimer by a double-digit margin.
Mehta, for his part, has one every county line, slogan, and/or endorsement awarded to date with the notable exceptions of Ocean, Cape May, Cumberland and Atlantic counties.
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