Dennis McNerney

Superior Court Judge Harold Hollenbeck will reach the mandatory retirement age of seventy on December 29, possibly ending a career in public service that began with his election to the East Rutherford Borough Council in 1966. But some Republican insiders say that Hollenbeck could be the GOP’s strongest candidate to challenge Bergen County Executive Dennis McNerney in 2010.

Hollenbeck was elected to the State Assembly in 1967, at the age of 29, as part of a Republican sweep of Bergen County in the second mid-term election of Democratic Gov. Richard Hughes. After two terms in the Assembly, he won a State Senate seat in 1971.

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?

If Dennis Levinson loses his bid for re-election as Atlantic County Executive, that would mean that Democrats would control all five County Executive offices in New Jersey.  Five years ago, Republicans had four County Executives: Atlantic, Bergen, Essex and Mercer. 

Hudson County has always had a Democratic County Executive.

Bergen went Democratic after William "Pat' Schuber retired in 2002 (Democrat Dennis McNerney beat Henry McNamara), Essex moved to the Democratic column the same year when James Treffinger gave up the post to run for the United States Senate (a campaign that endedfollowing an FBI raid of his offices), and Democrats won Mercer following Robert Prunetti's retirement in 2003; Brian Hughes just narrowly defeated Republican Catherine DiCostanzo.

The last time one party held all County Executive posts was in 1979, when Democratic incumbents were unseated in Atlantic and Mercer.

If Democrats really wanted to get serious about ousting Congressman Scott Garrett next year, they would recruit Bergen County Executive Dennis McNerney to run.  In the fifth district towns, McNerney won 54% of the vote in his 2006 re-election campaign against Republican Todd Caliguire (and 60% countywide), and carried 23 of the 36 municipalitie in Garrett's district. A recent Democratic poll in Bergen County shows him with job approval ratings countywide at over 60%. 

Before Frank Blee lost to Sonny McCullough, who was the last sitting Assemblyman to lose a Special Election for the State Senate?

It was Paul DiGaetano, who lost a March 24, 1987 Special Election for State Senator to Democrat Gabriel Ambrosio. DiGaetano had been elected to the Assembly in 1985, and tried to move up to the Senate after veteran Democratic Senator Joseph Hirkala passed away. Bergen Republicans had swept the 1986 elections four months earlier, winning the County Executive post and all seven Freeholder seats, but DiGaetano (who was also a Passaic City Councilman) was soundly defeated. Still upset over his loss, he declined to run for re-election to the Assembly in 1987. He lost a bid to return in 1989, but won in 1991.

The 1987 Special Election was the first of four times when the Bergen County Republican Organization Men's Club passed over Kathleen Donovan to nominate someone who eventually lost a general election to the Democrats. Donovan wanted to run in the 1987 Special -- she had outpolled DiGaetano in '85 when they ousted six-term incumbent Democrat Richard Visotcky and Robert Hollenbeck -- but the Bergen Boys picked DiGaetano. By the time she ran for the Senate in November, Ambrosio already had incumbency on his side.

Donovan, elected County Clerk in 1988, sough the GOP nomination for Bergen County Executive in 2002 -- but the local powers decided State Senator Henry McNamara would be their candidate. After a lackluster campaign -- and a massive spending frenzy by Bergen Democrats -- McNamara lost to Dennis McNerney by 10,000 votes.

In 2003, Donovan had agreed to run for State Senate against Paul Sarlo, who had won the post in a Special Election Convention after Garry Furnari resigned. But the Bergen Boys -- pushed by DiGaetano and then-Senate Co-President John Bennett -- instead picked John Kelly, a 77-year-old former Assemblyman who had lost to Furnari two years earlier. Sarlo won easily.

Donovan made a second bid for County Executive in 2006, but the BCRO decided to back Todd Caliguire, a former Freeholder. Caliguire narrowly won the primary, and got smashed by McNerney in a campaign picked by PoliticsNJ.com as the worst of the year.

For extreme political junkies: If Donovan had won the State Senate seat in 1987 -- could the three-term Senator from South Bergen have beaten Bob Torricelli for Congress in the 1994 Republican landslide?

The race for Bergen County Executive -- viewed as potentially competitive earlier this year -- now looks like an easy win for incumbent Democrat Dennis McNerney. Sources say that a Democratic poll shows McNerney leading Republican Todd Caliguire by a margin in the high teens. McNerney is also outspending his GOP rival by a 10-1 margin: The Record reports that McNerney has spent $1 million (including New York network TV), while Caliguire, a wealthy businessman and former Freeholder who sought the GOP nomination for Governor in 2005, has brought in less than $100,000.