Deirdre Woodbyrne

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.  

Bergen County Republican freeholder candidates John Driscoll and Rob Hermansen will appear on the ballot together in November, but you won't find the two paired up in many other places.

The two candidates say that they consciously avoid making joint campaign appearances, focusing instead on spreading out to tackle each of Bergen County's seventy municipalities. 

"Basically, we have split up to attack the county as much as we can," said Driscoll, a tobacco salesman from Paramus.  "I think Rob hit it right when he said ‘if we're seen together, we're doing something wrong.'" 

But privately, Bergen County Republicans admit that the split between Driscoll and Hermansen is more than geographical.  Although they have both separate and joint campaign accounts, they have separate Web sites that look nothing alike.  They have different knickknacks to give out at events, and their campaign literature sometimes mentions their running mates only fleetingly.  They even have different campaign managers -- Deirdre Woodbyrne for Hermansen, and John Gil for Driscoll. 

While the two express admiration for each other, they have divergent campaign strategies. 

Republican gubernatorial nominee Chris Christie has publicly sworn off political considerations in making his eventual Lieutenant Governor pick, arguing that the public will vote largely based on who occupies the top of the ticket.

But the two women said to be at the top of Christie’s shortlist – state Sen. Diane Allen (R-Edgewater Park) and Bergen County Clerk Kathleen Donovan -- each has a history of running strong in regions that are crucial to Christie’s electoral prospects, and both could help Republicans down-ballot in their respective counties.  

Christie alone will have the say on his choice for the number two spot, so he could surprise observers with his pick.  But media speculation about who he will choose has come down to Allen, who repeatedly wins reelection in a South Jersey legislative district that has a two-to-one Democrat registration advantage, and Donovan, who over the last decade has been the one Republican bulwark against the Bergen County Democratic Organization’s complete dominance and last year won reelection the most votes of any county-wide candidate, Democrat or Republican.  

“These are counties that have gone Democratic in many cases over the last few years in statewide races after having been solidly Republican for a while,” said Monmouth University pollster and political science professor Patrick Murray.  “These are counties that Christie must win.”

For the first time, the full field of three Republican Senate candidates met tonight to debate.

The forum, held at Fairleigh Dickinson University’s Madison campus, was moderated by Star-Ledger conservative columnist Paul Mulshine. Candidates Joe Pennacchio, Murray Sabrin and Dick Zimmer spent their time addressing the issues and laying out some stark differences in policy– for the most part, anyway.

A question from former Bergen County Freeholder candidate Deirdre Woodbyrne did spark a heated argument between the two longer standing candidates, Joe Pennacchio and Murray Sabrin.

Woodbyrne asked whether the candidates would pledge to stop making personal attacks on fellow Republicans. Sabrin responded that he would continue to campaign against what he saw as failed party leadership in Trenton.

Pennacchio said that he had issued his own similar clean campaign pledge months ago and kept to it.

“We made it public and we encouraged all candidates to sign that pledge,” he said. “Today none have. And it’s funny, because I was the proud recipient of some of Murray’s promises: distortions, name-calling, because he believes in practicing politics instead of delivering a principled message.”