Bob Yudin

At a packed meeting of the county committee tonight in the Franklin Lakes Firehouse, Bergen County Republican Party Chairman Bob Yudin endorsed incumbent District 40 Assemblymen Scott Rumana and David C. Russo.

Earlier today, Yudin told PolitickerNJ.com that prior to Feb. 2nd he would make a decision about whether he would back the incumbents or candidates backed by former chair Peter Murphy, an ally of former Assembly Majority Leader Paul DiGaetano (R-Passaic).

Tonight, Yudin announced that decision in what was a victory for current Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce (R-Parsippany-Troy Hills), who had feared a primary battle fueled by Yudin's support of candidates other than Rumana and Russo.

In a tortured political terrain, Republican power players in the 36th  legislative district appear to be slowly coalescing around East Rutherford Councilman/businessman Joel Brizzi and Nutley businessman Carmen Pio Costa as their best chance ticket this year. 

It’s not yet set – in this geographically jagged district encompassing battle weary portions of Bergen, Passaic and Essex counties – nothing is ever really set, and there are candidate screening opportunities, after all; but there remain real factors immediately outside the district threatening party implosion. 

Sensing opportunity after coming close to victory two years ago, the party – and this goes all the way up to the top of the hierarchy - wants to stay focused here in the 36th despite the flailing fortunes of divided Republicans in the neighboring 40th.  

Toward that end, local leaders will sit down tonight at the Franklin Lakes Firehouse and try to re-establish in their sights the deeply fractured Bergen Democrats as their enemies and Assemblyman Gary Schaer (D-Passaic) and Assemblyman Fred Scalera (D-Nutley) as statehouse targets one and two.

MERKT VOICES SUPPORT FOR BCRO CHAIR

YUDIN IS REBUILDING BERGEN COUNTY GOP, DESERVES STATE GOP SUPPORT

Our national freedoms, which we cherish so much and yet so often take for granted, would soon evaporate if it were not for the brave men and women willing to put on a uniform and fight for this great nation.

The Bergen County Republican Organization has become the voice of the taxpayer and the voice of those who are truly interested in representing the people who live in Bergen County. We emerged as a respected watchdog party.

Only in New Jersey: Republican Vice-Presidential nominee Sarah Palin goes moose hunting in Hackensack, only to learn a Bergen County Republican freeholder candidate was once a socialist.

The humorous radio ad, produced by the Bergen County Democratic freeholder and county clerk slate, has drawn outrage from the Bergen County Republicans, who called part of it an attack on Freeholder candidate Paul Duggan’s Irish heritage.

The ad, which is interspersed with moose calls, begins with an unidentified male voice asking a Palin impersonator what she’s doing in Hackensack.

“Me and my maverick friends hear that there’s some darn good moose hunting here,” she says, before adding that she’s heard that “the Republican candidates are some pretty serious reformers.”

The Bergen County Republicans promised to raise the specter of indicted Democratic Chairman Joe Ferriero a campaign issue, and they’ve done so, tying alleged corruption within the party to higher taxes in a new campaign commercial called “Corruption Tax.”

The advertisement, which was produced by the Bergen County Republican Organization, shows someone wearing an FBI jacket in front of a giant Bergen Record headline about Ferriero’s indictment on eight corruption counts last month.

In front of a pile of cash are pictures of Democratic incumbents Bernadette McPherson, David Ganz and Vernon Walton.

“Party boss Joe Ferriero gave them millions. They did what he told them. The Democrats raised spending $133 million,” says the narrator. “Waste. Abuse. Patronage. Now Ferriero is indicted for corruption. Higher taxes plus corrupt government equals corruption taxes. You pay.”

The Joe Ferriero indictment has spilled over into the 5th District Congressional race.

Bergen County Republican Chairman Bob Yudin today asked Democrat Dennis Shulman, who’s challenging U.S. Rep. E. Scott Garrett in the Bergen-dominated district, to call on Ferriero – who was indicted last week on eight corruption counts along with former BCDO general counsel Dennis Oury – to permanently resign from his chairmanship.

“If Mr. Shulman is to seriously demonstrate his commitment to the people of the Fifth District and to clean government, why then has he not called for the resignation of a corrupt party boss?” said Yudin. “At a time when Democratic leaders such as Gov. Jon Corzine and Democratic State Chairman Joseph Cryan have already asked for Ferriero to step aside, I question why Mr. Shulman has not followed suit?”

Bergen County Republican Chairman Bob Yudin was so incensed by Freeholder David Ganz’s defense of indicted Bergen County Democratic Chairman Joe Ferriero that he called on the freeholder himself to resign this morning.

Yudin said that, while Ferriero remains innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, an indictment is cause enough to remove him from his chairmanship of the Democratic organization.

“This is a person running a political organization, and an indictment is damning enough that he should resign,’ he said. “If there is a prima facie case as there is here, it is outrageous that an elected official like Ganz says he should not resign. Not only is it outrageous, but if that’s his position, then he honestly doesn’t understand what being an elected official means. He’s betraying the voters’ trust.”