The hard-charging LD38 GOP ticket fell short of its goal last week by about 5,000 votes, but two of its candidates think the campaign may need to continue. This time, saving the long-declining BCRO from itself may be the new aim. Save Jersey has learned that retired Bergen deli tycoon Barry Wilkes and businesswoman Micheline Attieh are actively considering a run for BCRO chair and vice chair, respectively, ahead of next year’s chairman’s election.
I’m told the duo was been solicited by concerned county Republicans who are upset – and in many cases angry – after another disappointing cycle in the state’s most populous county. They plan on spending the next few to several weeks speaking to County Committee members about their concerns and the need to equip Bergen County candidates with the organization and structure they need to be competitive.
“This race isn’t for or against anyone,” one North Jersey GOP insider explained. “After Barry and Micheline ran as a part of the most successful challenger campaign of the cycle, their only interest is in the future and how the county organization can help candidates locally and statewide heading into 2024 and 2025.”
Wilkes and Attieh may be striking a forward-thinking tone in their conversations with fellow Republicans, but a series of major recruitment flubs by the Zisa-led organization are still very much on increasingly salty Bergen GOPers’ minds. Matters came to a head in LD36 this year when one Assembly candidate was discovered to have a checkered criminal past including having smeared crap on the doorway of a daycare center.
Bergen’s fate controls the destiny of many. Republicans can’t win statewide without playing in Bergen County. Chris Christie carried Bergen in his 2013 landslide and came within approximately 2-points of winning there in 2009. By contrast, Jack Ciattarelli lost Bergen in 2021 by close to 6-points (he lost by 3-points across all 21 counties). What’s more, influence over the BCRO line could play a decisive role in what’s expected to be a brutal 2025 gubernatorial primary.
Zisa won a third two-year term in 2022.
