Bob Yudin

Favorite for Tuesday Chairman runoff prepares to take the reins

Chairman-in-waiting outlines BCRO rebirth

Leadership for the Bergen County Republican Organization is in flux tonight, as Chairman Rob Ortiz will have to fight on another week to keep his post.

Ortiz was the narrow top vote-getter in tonight’s election, with 277 votes to former freeholder candidate Bob Yudin’s 262 and Ben Focarino’s 115.

That means there will be a runoff election next Tuesday between Ortiz and Yudin.

“We won, just not by enough,” said Ortiz.

Fresh from his U.S. Senate candidacy, newly minted Bergen County Committeeman Murray Sabrin walked into Republican Headquarters tonight to cast his vote for county chairman. 

Sabrin was accompanied by his wife, Florence, who started a freeholder bid here on Sabrin’s rebel slate before Chairman Rob Ortiz’s allies successfully challenged her petition signatures.  She is now also a county committeewoman. 

Sabrin, a Fort Lee resident, wouldn’t say who he planned to vote for, but he eliminated one of the three choices.

“Let’s put it this way: it’s not Rob Ortiz,” said Sabrin.

Immediately after Rob Ortiz was elected to preside over the beleaguered Bergen County Republican Organization ten months ago, he told the party rank and file not to expect any miracles.

While Bob Yudin and Ben Focarino did not expect divine intervention, the two believe that Ortiz has failed to deliver on last summer's campaign promises, and both are competing with him for the party's top post tomorrow night.

Ortiz campaigned last year on his ability to raise money and has pulled the Republican Party out of debt - even if the party coffers are far from flush. And Ortiz touts local pickups in several Bergen County municipalities last November, even after just three months in office. But that's not enough for Yudin and Focarino, who feel that Ortiz has turned inward to a small circle of advisors and hold that, while Republicans made progress in some local towns, it was in spite of - not because of - Ortiz.

Lobbyist Boss continues non-inclusive trend

The race for Bergen County Republican Chairman between incumbent Robert Ortiz and challenger Robert Yudin is being viewed as a proxy fight of sorts between two outsiders with influence over Bergen County politics.  Ortiz has the backing of State Sen. Kevin O’Toole, the Essex County Republican Chairman, while Yudin is receiving help from former Assembly Majority Leader and gubernatorial candidate Paul DiGaetano.  O’Toole and DiGaetano are political rivals whose relationship has deteriorated exponentially over the last two years.

Bergen County Republicans feel that the scene is set for a competitive freeholder race.

Three incumbent Democrats are up for reelection to the all-Democrat board. There’s Bernadette McPherson, who just lost her mayoral seat in Rutherford by a landslide; David Ganz, who lost his mayoral seat in Fair Lawn to Republican Ed Trawinski in 2005 (although he was reelected to the freeholder board that same year); and the brand new Vernon Walton, a former Englewood councilman who lost that seat to Democratic Assemblyman Gordon Johnson in 2006.

“McPherson and Ganz, I think, are the soft underbelly of the Democratic freeholder board,” said Republican state Sen. Gerald Cardinale.

Add to the chastened incumbents a few local circumstances, like the growing EnCap controversy, the indictment of former Democratic state Sen. Joe Coniglio and having the popular Republican Kathleen Donovan on the ballot for reelection as county clerk, and some Republicans feel that they have the makings for a good race and a chance to win a Freeholder seat for the first time since Lisa Randall won one in 2003.

“The (Democrats) each have baggage,” said Republican strategist Thom Ammirato. “You’ve got great issues floating around them.”

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.

When Rob Ortiz assumed the chairmanship of the Bergen County Republican Organization five months ago, he made it clear in his inaugural speech not to expect any miracles. And it would indeed take a miracle to bring unity to the organization so quickly, which today seems to remain almost as fractious as when he took over.

Already, two potential challengers to Ortiz come June appear on the horizon: former Bergen County Utilities Authority Chairman Ben Focarino, an old hand in the BCRO who ran against Ortiz in July, and former freeholder candidate Bob Yudin.

So far, Ortiz has touted some municipal victories, particularly in Rutherford, as evidence that the party is clawing its way back to relevance against the dominant Bergen County Democrats. But many Bergen County Republicans who agreed to put aside loyalties and give Ortiz a chance to revive the party have already started making noise about the glacial pace of progress, and are disappointed that Ortiz – who largely ran on his fundraising abilities – has yet to bring the party out of debt, which stands at a better-than-expected $38,000 (a number discovered after an audit commissioned by Ortiz).