Bergen County is apparently immune from the "change" bug that has swept the rest of the nation.

Not even a federal investigation and eight-count indictment could convince Bergen County Democrats to dump their long-time corrupt leader Joe Ferriero. Note how three Democrats responded to calls from other elected officials for their chairman to step down:

"Steve Rothman ought to know better...he knows the constitutional presumption of innocence." -Freeholder David Ganz

"Everybody's presumed innocent..." -Surrogate Michael Dressler

"We all have the presumption of innocence..." -Sheriff Leo McGuire

If this were college, they'd be expelled for plagiarism, but in Ferriero's Bergen County that kind of lemming-like ability to follow orders is demanded and rewarded. It's embarrassing to see these supposedly grown men get played like fiddles by the state's new poster boy for corruption, but they've been doing it for so long they don't know anything else.

“The Democrats want to turn small towns into large inefficient, wasteful cities that will become patronage pits for putting more people on the public payroll,

Micco: The Record's "Shortchanged Again" Should be Catalyst for Change in Ninth District

Sarlo Says Andrews' Election to Senate Would be
Shot in the Arm to Bergen County Projects

SARLO - STATE MUST ENSURE ADEQUATE POLICE PRESENCE IN BERGEN COUNTY

TRENTON – Senator Paul A. Sarlo, D-Bergen, Essex and Passaic, the Vice Chair of the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee, issued the following statement regarding today’s Committee hearing on the FY 2009 Department of Law and Public Safety Budget, and the need to provide funding for a State Police barracks in Bergen County:

NO DEALS, NO GAMES. A FIRM ENDORSEMENT FOR SENATOR LAUTENBERG FROM ASSEMBLY MEMBERS VALERIE VAINIERI HUTTLE AND GORDON M. JOHNSON

Englewood- Bergen County's District 37 State Assembly members Valerie Vainieri Huttle and Gordon M. Johnson offered their unequivocal support for the re-election of United States Senator Frank R. Lautenberg.

Bergen County Republican Freeholder candidate Paul Duggan’s image has apparently been co-opted by an alternate Republican Freeholder slate.

Last month, Republican Senate candidate Murray Sabrin, disenchanted with the mainstream State Republican Party, pledged to run alternate slates of candidates for all levels of government – from Senate on down.

After being approached by the Sabrin camp, Duggan had pledged to stick with the Bergen County Republican Organization’s ticket. Duggan told the Bergen Record’s Charles Stile "I don't get off trains to get on an unknown train coming in the opposite direction.”

But Duggan’s picture appears on the Sabrin slate’s Web site, www.best4bergen.org, along with the photographs of three Sabrin-sponsored county-wide candidates: Chris Harvey, Tom Flannery and Edward Durfee.

Bergen County Executive Dennis McNerney, a Democrat, has proposed some regionalization of local government services, which prompted The Record to run a pair of Op-Ed items from small-town Mayors who oppose the possible challenge to their home rule.  Should the newspaper have noted that both the Mayors -- Sophie Heymann of Closter and George Fosdick of Ridgefield Park -- are registered Republicans?

Since the Bergen County-based 38th legislative district was created, every State Senator has eventually failed to win re-election. Republican Frederick Wendel, elected in 1971, lost to Democrat John Skevin in 1973. Skevin was defeated by Republican John Paolella in 1981, and Paolella was ousted by Democrat Paul Contillo in 1983. Contillo was unseated by Republican Louis Kosco in 1991, and Kosco lost in 2001 to Democrat Joseph Coniglio. Coniglio dropped his bid for a third term after the 2007 primary after published reports that he was the target of a federal criminal probe.  He was indicted last week.

Hillary Clinton went to Hackensack yesterday to accept Bergen County Democratic Chairman Joseph Ferriero’s endorsement – a stop she had to make because Ferriero refused to officially support her unless she came to Bergen County for a public kissing of the ring. So with Ferriero and Assemblywoman Valerie Huttle nearby, Clinton said: "Let's reform the government so it ends the no-bid contracts and the cronyism and the incompetence."