Bergen County Republican Chairman Bob Yudin today seized on an investigative report by The Record on a loan program of the Bergen County Improvement Authority’s Municipal Banc, calling on incoming state Attorney General Paula Dow to investigate.

The Record details how Rutherford, Fair Lawn and Hackensack “let a total of more than $1.6 million in loans sit idly in Commerce Bank accounts while taxpayers paid more than $200,000 in interest and fees.”  At the time the loans were taken out, Freeholder David Ganz was mayor of Fairlawn and Freeholder Bernadette McPherson was mayor of Rutherford. The report also mentioned that several major Democratic donor firms worked as consultants for the BCIA, earning at least $1.8 million over a four year period.

Bergen County Republican freeholder candidates made a campaign issue out of the agency’s bonding fees during the 2008 race. 

"We said it before and we will continue to say it: the BCIA is a runaway train whose primary purpose is to support the corrupt Bergen County Democratic ORganization by making quesitonable loans in order to churn out millions of dollars in feeds for major donors to the county Democratic machine," said Yudin.

Incoming Bergen County Republican freeholders Rob Hermansen and John Driscoll will be outnumbered by Democrats 5-2 on the board, but they plan to propose some bold initiatives as soon as they are sworn in - ideas that will probably be met by a tough crowd.

Driscoll and Hermansen want to enact their campaign pledge of cutting each freeholders' pay by 25%, end pay-to-play by limiting political donations from contractors doing business with the county to $300 and limit county officials - both elected and appointed - to just one pension.

Hermansen said that he would "reach across" to the Democrats "to see if we can get things done."  But that may not be easy, since three of the five remaining Democrats on the board have public jobs in addition to their roles as freeholders.

"This is the part where I'm going to come off a little harsh -- that's not my issue," he said.  "My issue is the taxpayer. And if the freeholders themselves are truly up there to take care of the taxpayer, then guess what?  They're going to start doing it."

Hermansen admits that, while it will be hard enough to institute a county-wide pay-to-play ban, the prolific practice of wheeling contractor donations to freeholder campaigns through PACs -- the most recent cast reported by The Record's Charles Stile and John Reitmeyer - can only be addressed on a state level.

Although pushing those reforms is bound to be contentious, the grace period between the campaign and swearing in continue.  For no, the Democratic incumbents and incoming Republicans all express a hope and willingness for bipartisanship.

"They're just two or three things. There are going to be a lot of things over the years we're going to work on," said Driscoll, who said another priority of his is to bring controversial Bergen County Technical School District Superintendent Robert Aloia in front of the board to answer questions about his travel and expenses. "I have the feeling at the end of the day you're going to be pleasantly surprised when we start working together."

Democratic Freeholder David Ganz, for his part, said he had a pleasant conversation with Hermansen last night at Freeholder Director James Carroll's party at the League of Munipalities convention.

"The vitriol from the campaign appears to be gone.  It thought personally it showed a lot class," he said.

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.

Since taking over one of the most powerful county political parties in the state just ten weeks ago, Bergen County Democratic Chairman Michael Kasparian has brought a leadership style to the job that's drastically different from his predecessor, Joe Ferriero.

"I think in general in politics, the catalyst for conflicts is people or factions feelings alienated," said Kasparian, who served on Barack Obama's National Finance Committee and said that Obama's "no drama" slogan resonated with him.  "If you don't have the ability to sit down with someone and listen to a contrarian view without getting emotional and excited to the extent you can't be constructive, then you don't deserve a seat at the table. That's the kind of discipline I want our party to implement."

Ferriero, who supported Kasparian to take over the party several months after his indictment for alleged corruption, was flamboyant, high profile and autocratic.  Kasparian is quiet, plodding and open to compromise, according to members of both sides of a major party schism.

"It's a very different party today than it was a year ago. It's not focused on any individual.  It's focused on the party itself," said Democratic Freeholder David Ganz, who was loyal to Ferriero and supported Kasparian's ascendancy to the post.

HACKENSACK – The Bergen reformer’s fear is someone disgraced or incarcerated will be running the party, giving orders via cellphone or BlackBerry to drones working in the service of a political patronage system that grinds forward unchanged even as the feds expose and prosecute the upper eschelons. 

But it’s also an election year – for governor, no less – and in that all important, 70-community county of Bergen, which Democrats or Republicans must win in order win it all in 2009 – tampering with the Democratic Party infrastructure and leaving it depleted or less than muscular could give the GOP that one opportunity they’re seeking. 

Indeed, even as Joe Ferriero wrote his letter of resignation as chairman of the Bergen County Democratic Organization (BCDO), former U.S. Attroney Chris Christie – the man whose office last year indicted Ferriero on federal corruption charges – filed his papers to run for governor against Democrat Jon Corzine, setting up that most dramatic contrast of party plot lines, which the GOP wants to translate into crumbling utterly the Dems’ most vulnerable fault line here in Bergen.

Freeholder David Ganz is among Bergen County’s elected officials who have called on indicted Democratic Chairman Joe Ferriero to resign by January 15. But he does not feel that the legal opinion issued last night by the party’s counsel, Paul Kaufman, provides a legitimate way to force Ferriero out.

“I’m only practicing law for 30 years, but I think it’s a weak opinion. What he basically says is there’s nothing that authorizes it, but here’s how you do it, and then drops a footnote regarding the Attorney General who reaches the opposite conclusion,” said Ganz. “What he’s doing, in my view, is trying to take a conclusion that a lot of people want – maybe nearly everyone wants – and writing a legal opinion to justify it.”

The gist of Kaufman’s conclusion is that although no clauses in the bylaws of the Bergen County Democratic Organization (BCDO) address the removal of a sitting chairman, the committee could still legally call a vote on his removal.

Ganz felt that the opinion appeared to have been written with a conclusion already in mind.

On Monday, the executive committee of the Bergen County Democratic Organization will meet, ostensibly to talk about finances, review and renew party bylaws.  But there's little doubt that the main topic of conversation will be what to do about their County Chairman, Joseph Ferriero.

Ferriero has taken a background role in the party since being indicted on eight corruption counts in September, after which he took a leave of absence as chairman.  But Ferriero has stayed involved in the party's inner workings, and, according to several sources, is confident that he will be able to beat the charges against him and wants to keep his post.

Several prominent Democrats who have long been allied with Ferriero defended him in the immediate aftermath of the indictment, and many still insist that it appeared politically motivated.  Still, even Ferriero's staunchest backers are said to be coming around to the idea that his leadership of the party is politically untenable in a potentially dangerous electoral climate next year.

In North Arlington (pop. 15,181), a blue collar town in Southern Bergen County that went for John Kerry in 2004 by just six votes, John McCain beat Barack Obama by 46 votes, 49.7%-48.9%.

In the U.S. Senate race, Democrat Frank Lautenberg beat Dick Zimmer 55%-45%, with a margin of 542 votes. U.S. Rep. Steven Rothman had a 945 vote plurality (58%-42%) over Republican Vincent Micco.

Republican County Clerk Kathleen Donovan won 53%-47% (302 votes) over Democrat Diane Testa, but in the race for Freeholdder, North Arlington voters backed the Democratic incumbents, Bernadette McPherson (2,950) and David Ganz (2,785) over GOP challengers Christopher Calabrese (2,675) and Jeffrey Heller (2,567). In the race for a two-year unexpired term, Rev. Vernon Walton, the Democratic incumbent, carried North Arlington by 187 votes over Republican Paul Duggan (52%-48%).

In the race for Borough Council, Democrats held the 4-2 majority on the Borough Council. Councilman Steven Tanelli (3,513) was re-elected, along with fellow Democrat Mark Yampaglia (3,198).  They defeated Republicans James Herrmann (2,801) and James Bocchino (2,746).

In a strongly worded editorial, The (Bergen) Record endorsed blind Rabbi Dennis Shulman in his bid to unseat three-term GOP U.S. Rep. Scott Garrett.

"Scott Garrett is afraid. And he wants voters to be afraid. But the only thing voters should fear is Garrett's reelection to the House of Representatives," the editorial said. "The race in the 5th District is less about who is challenging Garrett and more about what Garrett is challenging. He is challenging the basic tenets of common decency. The high-minded, fiscal conservative has resorted to the lowest form of campaigning. In a post-Sept. 11 world, Garrett is shouting 'terrorist' in a crowded room. The congressman has been running television ads, in addition to sending out a direct-mail campaign piece, that link Shulman to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Garrett wants voters to believe that Shulman, a rabbi, would sell out Israel. It is beyond the pale."

Democrat Frank Lautenberg also won The Record's endorsement in his bid for a fifth term in the U.S. Senate. This is a pickup for Lautenberg: in 2002, The Record endorsed Ted Glick, the Green Party candidate. "Six years ago, we wrote that Frank Lautenberg did not 'have his good stuff' when he reentered politics to run for a fourth term in the U.S. Senate. Six years later, a clearly energized Lautenberg has the right stuff to serve six more years."

Greetings from Bergen Community College in scenic Paramus, where the audience is just starting to roll in for a freeholder debate sponsored by the League of Women Voters at 3:15 this afternoon.

Incumbent Democrats Bernadette McPherson, David Ganz and Vernon Walton will defend their seats – and likely their reputations -- against Republicans Chris Calabrese, Jeff Heller and Paul Duggan.

It could get ugly.

Republicans have been in the political wilderness in Bergen County for some time, though they still had a Republican Freeholder – Lisa Randall – until 2006. But with the Democratic Chairman Joe Ferriero, recently indicted on eight felony corruption counts, Republicans see an opportunity, even if they’re still massively out-funded by the dominant party.