County Committee

The two Republican Assemblymen from the eleventh district have never been very close -- Steve Corodemus worked fairly hard to defeat Sean Kean in a 2002 Special Election Convention after the death of Thomas Smith -- and the relationship became even more competitive in September 2004, when longtime State Senator Joseph Palaia announced that he would not seek re-election in 2007. Palaia's early announcement created a three-year contest for an open Senate seat that by all accounts created some internal problems in running a competitive re-election campaign in 2005.

There is little chance of a Corodemus vs. Kean primary; party insiders say the contest will be decided at an open GOP convention -- if it goes that far -- and that the loser will keep his Assembly seat. And several Republican insiders with an ability to count County Committee votes say that Kean seems to have become the front runner over Corodemus, who was first elected in 1991. Kean seems to have been more aggressive in courting potential delegates -- and filling County Committee seats -- over the past three years, and appears to have a fundraising edge. One state Republican leader told PoliticsNJ.com that Kean, who won several key labor endorsements in his last re-election campaign, seems to be a safer bet for the GOP in a district where Democrats have pledged to spend money next year.

Possible Democratic candidates for Palaia's seat include former Assemblyman John Villapiano, who lost to Corodemus in the 1991 GOP landslide, and '05 Assembly candidate Matthew Doherty, now a candidate for Belmar Councilman.

Burlington County Democratic Chairman Gary Karr lost his own County Committee seat in Tuesday's primary. He lost by one vote to challenger Jim Moffat in Riverton's first district.

Bergen County Freeholder Tomas Padilla lost his seat on the Democratic County Committee in Park Ridge, where a slate of Democratic candidates considered to be against Democratic County Chairman Joseph Ferriero won. In Oradell, Bergen County Republican Chairman Guy Talarico won re-election to his County Committee seat by just four votes, but his wife was defeated in her bid for another term.

In one race of note to Bergen County political insiders, Rocco Mazza, the Chief of Staff to Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle and a fierce opponent of Democratic County Chairman Joseph Ferriero, lost his bid for re-election to his County Committee seat in Lyndhurst to James Savino. Savino, who comes from an old Lyndhurst political family, had Ferriero's backing.

It seems to bother Passaic County GOP Chairman Michael Mecca that his friend-turned-rival, Wayne Mayor Scott Rumana, has forged a political alliance with Clifton Republican Municipal Chairman John Traier. Here's what Mecca had to say in a letter to County Committee members: "Political marriage of Scott Rumana and John Traier. As the old political adage goes, "politics sure does makes strange bedfellows." John Traier is the municipal leader of Clifton. In 1997, when Rumana ran for Freeholder, Scott and I started to walk door to door on January 20, 1997. Every night and weekend, we knocked on doors for over nine months. Not once did John Traier help Scott Rumana in his quest for Freeholder. Most night in 1997 and 2000, Scott and I ate dinner at my house which my wife Susan prepared for us. Personally, I should have written Scott off as a dependent on my tax return. John Traier was nowhere to be found in the campaigns of 1997 or 2000. In return in 2003 when Traier was the candidate for Freeholder, Rumana did not help Traier at all. What great political bedfellows."

Veteran lobbyist Alan Marcus has approached some Republican leaders about running for Bergen County Republican Chairman. His Op-Ed on recent failures by the Bergen GOP attracted considerable notice earlier this month, and County Committee members received a follow up letter from Marcus over the weekend. Marcus began his political career as Executive Director of the Republican Organization in 1968 and 1969, and was 21-years-old when he became Assembly Clerk in 1969. He has since built a successfull public affairs and advertising firm, The Marcus Group. The incumbent is Guy Talarcico, a former Assemblyman; some GOP insiders speculate that he won't seek re-election to another term in June.

Democratic County Committee in the 37th district will hold a Special Election Convention on Thursday to fill Loretta Weinberg's seat in the State Assembly. Weinberg resigned after being sworn in as a State Senator. Bergen County Freeholder Valerie Vainieri Huttle was elected to a two-year term that begins in January, and she is likely to be unopposed in her bid to fill the remaining five weeks of Weinberg's current term.