Bob Yudin

Bergen County Republicans Rob Hermansen and John Driscoll won two freeholder seats with a micro-targeted, internet heavy ad campaign that focused on a positive message, according to Hermansen’s campaign manager.

Ramsey Republican activist Deirdre Woodbyrne, who ran Hermansen’s campaign but not Driscoll’s, said that her candidate smartly focused on things like a front page newspaper “popper,” Facebook ads and YouTube videos more than more traditional mediums like television, radio and mailers.

“Where Christie lost, we won. We didn’t have any money for TV ads. We didn’t have any money for radio ads.  We used the internet and we used the positive message,” she said.

Woodbyrne said the campaign got especially positive feedback from a YouTube ad they put up featuring footage of the all-Democratic Bergen County freeholder board unable to explain what a $100,000 project they were about to vote on entailed.  They voted for it anyway, drawing a rebuke at the meeting from Hermansen that was featured at the end of the video.  

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“Ultimately, the money advantage of the Democrats was overshadowed by their own taxing and spending policies, which have taken a terrible toll on middle class suburban taxpayers

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The District 38 Republican challengers are capitalizing on The Record's endorsement with thousands of robocalls.  

The paper's editorial said that the paper would have endorsed incumbents Joan Voss (D-Fort Lee) and Connie Wagner (D-Paramus) had they not sent out a negative mailer associating their opponents with "porn and guns."

Bergen County Republican Chairman Bob Yudin said that the two underdog Republicans – Ridgefield Councilman Nicholas Lonzisero and Fort Lee activist Judith Fisher – are capitalizing on the flyer's backlash.  

“Because of The Record endorsement in District 38, and because of the outrage at the two Democrats for charging the two Republican candidates with guns and porno, the campaign over the weekend is making tens of thousands of robocalls advising voters that The Record has endorsed two Republicans,” said Yudin. Read More >

Bergen County Republican Chairman Bob Yudin said he will not gloat about the three count corruption conviction of his former Democratic counterpart, Joe Ferriero.

“This is a sad day, and in no way am I happy about this because it shows that I was right since I started running for freeholder that everything was for sale in Bergen County to the highest bidder,” said Yudin, who ran for freeholder three times and faced some criticism for focusing too much on corruption as a campaign issue.

Ferriero, who took over the Democratic Party in 1998, transformed it from perennial minority status to the county's dominant party.  By the time of his indictment last year, Republicans were left holding only one county-wide office.  

Now, Republicans think they have a good shot at picking up two freeholder seats. 

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Bergen County Republican Chairman Bob Yudin said Republican gubernatorial nominee Chris Christie deserves credit for the guilty plea of Dennis Oury, the former Bergen County Democratic counsel and municipal attorney for several of the county’s towns.

Christie indicted Oury and Bergen County Democratic Chairman Joe Ferriero last year, when he was still U.S. Attorney.

“Chris Christie is still batting 1,000.  He hasn’t lost a case yet.  As far as Ferriero’s concerned, that’s up to the jury,” said Yudin.

Bergen County is a major battleground this year, and Christie dealt the Democratic Party there a serious blow when he indicted Oury and Ferriero.  Ferriero, chairman since 1998, was a prolific fundraiser who took the Democrats from being a perennial minority party to controlling all but one county-wide office.

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“If $187,000 in salary is not enough of an incentive to work at a high school, then I don’t know what is,”

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If Mr. Carroll is so interested in job creation, perhaps he can explain what happened to the 20,000 jobs that were supposed to be created at Xanadu

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Bergen County Republican Organization (BCRO) Chairman Bob Yudin reads Gov. Jon Corzine's decision to hire Democratic strategist Bill Maer, a former spokesman for the Bergen County Democratic Organization (BCDO), as one more flailing sign from the incumbent governor.

"This shows the absolute desperate nature of Jon Corzine," said Yudin, referring to a report that the Corzine '09 team bringing Maer into the campaign fold. 

"Bill Maer is the ultimate political hachet man, and this clearly shows Corzine's people will have to do desperate things," the GOP chairman added. "By selecting the former spokesman for the Ferriero organization, they are willing to resort to politics at its filthiest in an attempt to reverse their fortunes. I can't be more emphatic about this. This shows desperation."

Maer's former boss, former BCDO Chairman Joe Ferriero, faces federal corruption charges in court this fall.

Chairman of a massive battleground county where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans, 159,771 to 104,084, but where 225,753 voters call themselves independents, Yudin said GOP gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie's nine-point lead in this morning's Quinnipiac University poll is good news.

"Consider the fact that Corzine is spending a million per week," he said. "For Chris to maintain a lead of nine points shows the rock-hard support he has. As he is not relying on public financing, Corzine can spend tens of millions of dollars - and is. Chris is limited by public financing and can't do any advertising until after Labor Day but he's still up by nine points. It's outrageous that the governor in these ads can't talk about any accomplishments. It's clear that Corzine can't buy this one."

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Bergen County Republican Chairman Bob Yudin said today that the corruption allegation against Ridgefield Mayor Anthony Suarez helps put the 38th Legislative District in play.

"It is in play because of the rampant Democratic corruption, first with Senator (Joseph) Coniglio and now with Mayor Suarez," said Yudin.

The 38th is considered a relatively safe Democratic district, although Republicans have indicated that they're keeping an eye on it this year.  Even after Coniglio (D-Paramus) had to drop his candidacy for re-election to a third term after receiving a target letter from the U.S. Attorney's office in 2007, the Democratic slate, led by Robert Gordon (D-Fair Lawn) as Coniglio's replacement, won easily.

But Yudin thinks the corruption issue may have reached critical mass there.  Republican candidate Nick Lonzisero is council president in Suarez's town, and, if Suarez resigns, he will become interim mayor.  

In April, Coniglio was convicted of steering state funds to Hackensack University Medical Center, which employed him as a consultant.  Former Bergen County Democratic Chairman Joseph Ferriero and ex-BCDO counsel Dennis Oury are set to have corruption trials that parallel the general election.  Yudin thinks all that, combined having former U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie - who got the ball rolling on the investigations that ensnared the Democrats - at the top of the ticket, will make corruption a winning issue.

Yudin's focus on corruption - or the "corruption tax" that he ran last year's unsuccessful freeholder campaigns on - has drawn criticism from some Bergen Republicans in the past.

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