Ben Focarino, who came in third in Tuesday’s election for Bergen County Republican chairman, has thrown his support behind challenger Bob Yudin in next weeks runoff against current Chairman Robert Ortiz.

If Focarino’s former supporters follow his lead, the endorsement could be significant. Ortiz had 277 votes on Tuesday to Yudin’s 262. Focarino had 115 votes in this week’s election.

Whoever wins the election next Tuesday will preside over the party for the next two years. Ortiz has led it since winning a special election in July after former Chairman Guy Talarico resigned.

State Sen. Joe Pennacchio won Somerset County tonight, easily rolling over his only opponent, Andy Unanue, at the Somerset County convention.

Pennacchio won almost 80% of the vote, getting 247 votes to Unanue’s 51. 

Pennacchio already has the county line in Passaic, Bergen, Middlesex, Hunterdon and Salem Counties, along with hometown status in Morris County. 

One Robert Ortiz critic isn’t impressed that the Bergen County Republican chairman has reportedly pulled the party out of debt.

Three-time freeholder candidate Bob Yudin, who blamed Ortiz for not spending enough money on his last race and is considering challenging him for the chairmanship, doesn’t give Ortiz much credit for bailing out the local organization.

In southern Bergen County, Republicans are focusing much of their energy on one town: Rutherford.

Democratic Mayor Bernadette P. McPherson, who is also a Bergen County Freeholder, is up for re-election along on a slate with Democratic Councilmen Ray Frazier and Richard Reyes.  Currently, the balance of power on the council is 5-1 Democratic.  The Republicans have fielded attorney John Hipp for mayor, along with Rose Inguanti and John Sasso in an attempt to tie council. 

But more is at stake that just the leadership of this town of 18,000.  The election is one of the first offensive moves by new Bergen County Republican Chairman Robert Ortiz, who’s trying to slowly claw the Republicans back to power town by town.  And it just so happens that this was one of the first towns that Bergen County Chairman Joseph Ferriero turned over to Democrats, with McPherson’s election in 1999 and winning a council majority the year before that.

News that the entire membership of the all-Republican governing body in Lyndhurst and more than half of Lyndhurst’s Republican County Committee will switch to Democrat was greeted with regret in the Freeholder and Sheriff’s campaign.

Bergen County Republican Organization Chairman Rob Ortiz responded today to the Democratic coup in Lyndhurst, where the town’s entire governing board decided to abandon the GOP for the Democrats.

While losing a whole town doesn’t bode well for the county’s beleaguered Republican Party, Ortiz’s response was summed up by the heading of his press release: “Good riddance to bad rubbish.”

Ortiz said that Lyndhurst Mayor Richard Dilascio was already known to be an ally of Bergen County Democratic Chairman Joe Ferriero and of State Sen. Paul Sarlo, and re-hashed the charge that DiLascio was offered county job in exchange for making nice with officials at EnCap, a controversial Bergen County mixed-use development.

Robert Ortiz is starting his third week as Bergen County Republican Chairman by taking advantage of local Democrats’ ethical troubles.

Ortiz issued a statement today outlining what he called a “Democrat disgrace" -- the federal investigation of state Sen. Joe Coniglio for his work as a hospital plumbing consultant; “extraordinary” state aid to 18 towns, 17 of which are controlled by Democrats; and the alleged misuse of public resources for campaign purposes by Democratic Freeholder Tomas Padilla.

ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER DEMOCRAT DISGRACE 

Democrats continue long-running pattern of abuse of taxpayer dollars to further partisan political interests

HACKENSACK, N.J. (August 6, 2007) – In response to yet another scandal in a seemingly endless litany of Democrats’ exploitation of the public trust and public treasure, Bergen County Republican Organization (BCRO) Chairman Rob Ortiz today issued the following statement:

“Democrats in Bergen County and around the state continue to show their contempt for the people they purport to represent...

I N   C A S E   Y O U   M I S S E D   I T:

Comeback time 

A lead editorial in today’s Record outlined what it believes is necessary for Republicans to make a comeback in Bergen County – highlighting many of  the same points on which newly-elected Chairman Rob Ortiz ran his campaign.   

ORTIZ WINS
Rob Ortiz elected new BCRO chair

Hackensack, NJ (July 23, 2007) - Signaling their readiness to move forward in a new direction, Bergen County Republicans tonight delivered a strong mandate by electing Ridgewood attorney Rob Ortiz as their new Chairman. Ortiz garnered over 57% of the vote in a special election at BCRO headquarters in Hackensack.