Eight Democrats will compete for three Bergen County Freeholder seats when the party holds their county convention on February 25: incumbents James Carroll and Elizabeth Calabrese, former Freeholder Julie O’Brien, Northvale Mayor John Hogan, Westwood Mayor John Birkner, Maywood Mayor Tim Eustace, former Ridgefield Councilman Rob Kovic, Bergen County College Trustee Cid Wilson, Dr. Pargellan McCall, a retired NJCU professor, and Cliffside Park Green Committee Chairman Sebastian Belfon.  Incumbent Tomas Padilla is not seeking re-election.

Control of the Board of Freeholders is at stake this November after Republicans won two of the seven seats in 2009.  Democrats will need to hold two of the three seats to maintain their majority.

The Record’s Charles Stile is reporting that former Freeholder Todd Caliguire is considering a bid for Bergen County Executive, opening the door to a fight for the Republican nomination against County Clerk Kathleen Donovan.  Caliguire narrowly beat Donovan in the 2006 primary and went on to lose the general election to Democrat Dennis C. McNerney by twenty percentage points.   Donovan won a key endorsement last month from Bergen County GOP Chairman Robert Yudin, who ran on a slate with Caliguire four years ago.    Yudin told Stile that Caliguire can’t beat McNerney, who seems to be on the defensive in a race against Donovan, a five-term County Clerk.  Democrats appear so frightened of McNerney that there is constant talk of replacing him as their candidate.

The latest political problem for Bergen County Executive Dennis C. McNerney: a state Department of Education report that found extraordinary waste and mismanagement at the Bergen County Technical and Special Services school district.  McNerney, flying solo these days following the criminal conviction of his mentor, initially sought to blame the GOP by noting that the former Superintendent of the school district, Robert Aloia, had been the County Administrator under his Republican predecessor, who left office seven years ago.  But McNerney was forced to back off after a reporter noted that his former chief of staff, John Susino, had signed several reimbursement checks to school officials as the district’s business administrator.  The conventional wisdom is the Susino, a Democratic State Committeeman and a former Executive Director of the Bergen County Democratic Organization when Joseph Ferriero was chairman, will be out of a job soon.

McNerney also had to retract and resend his original statement to The Record after initially calling for the resignation of all school board members who served during Aloia’s tenure; he wound up only seeking the ouster of Jack Drakeford, who was the board president until just a few months ago.

NEWARK --  Bergen County Executive Dennis McNerney, about to face one of the toughest reelection battles of his career, said that he doesn’t see signs of a Republican resurgence in Bergen County.

“The pendulum isn’t swinging back.  We’ve only been in total control for four years.  The Republicans were in control for 20 years before that.  So that’s a pretty short pendulum,” said McNerney from the Chamber of Commerce’s pre-“Walk to Washington” breakfast this morning.

Republicans picked up two freeholder seats last year – the first time they won county-wide since Lisa Randall picked up a freeholder seat in 2003.  And the notoriously dysfunctional county GOP has unified around County Clerk Kathleen Donovan to challenge McNerney, who is seeking a third term. 

But McNerney noted that, despite their freeholder wins, there remain more Democrats than Republicans in Bergen County (even if one of Donovan’s core strengths, according to observers, is her ability to appeal to Democrats and independents). 

“The numbers are still our way. Corzine won the county. The Demographics are still there,” he said. 

With the support of key Democratic leaders, Bergen County Executive Dennis C. McNerney announced today that he will seek re-election to a third term.

“Over the past eight years, we have accomplished many positives, including cutting the county workforce by 13%, reducing the waiting list for Meals-on-Wheels, creating the Bergen County SAVVERS and Wellness Programs, preserving hundreds of acres open space, maintaining our AAA bond rating, stabilizing county property taxes, and working with dozens of towns to save money through shared services,” McNerney wrote in a letter to Democratic committee members.

McNerney was elected in 2002 with 52% of the vote against State Sen. Henry McNamara (R-Wyckoff), after three-term Republican William “Pat” Schuber retired.  He won 61% in his 2006 re-election campaign against former Freeholder Todd Caliguire. 

On Tuesday, Bergen County Clerk Kathleen Donovan announced her candidacy for the GOP nomination.  She appears to have united different factions of the county Republican organization behind her bid to unseat McNerney.

McNerney says he has the support of Democratic County Chairman Michael Kasparian, U.S. Rep. Steven Rothman (D-Fair Lawn), State Sens. Robert Gordon (D-Fair Lawn) and Paul Sarlo (D-Wood-Ridge), all five Democratic Freeholders, 25 Democratic mayors, and 40 of the 70 Democratic municipal chairs.

HACKENSACK -- Vowing to cut the size of county government, Bergen County Clerk Kathleen Donovan tonight formally kicked off her campaign for county executive.

“Bergen County residents now they are overtaxed, under-served and sadly ignored by the current county executive,” said Donovan in front of a crowd of about 300 at the Bergen County Republican Organization's headquarters.

That current county executive is Democrat Dennis C. McNerney, a two-term incumbent whose first election in 2002 helped usher in an era of Democratic dominance that Republicans have reason to believe is starting to ebb, having just last week sworn in two freeholders, giving the board Republican representation for the first time since 2006.

Donovan, who was first elected county clerk in 1988, said she reduced that office’s operating budget and “cut costs in the face of tight budgets.”  She said she would slash spending as county executive. 

“Government is about to get smaller, and I pledge to propose fiscally responsible budgets that hold the line on county property taxes,” she said.

Former Bergen County Democratic Chairman Joseph Ferriero is so confident that his conviction on federal corruption charges will be overturned that he’s already looking to carve out a role in the 2010 campaign.  Ferriero has been calling key party leaders and operatives to talk politics.  He has not gotten a call back from County Executive Dennis C. McNerney, his onetime protégé who is up for re-election this year, although he has spoken with Deputy Chief of Staff Lynne Hurwitz, the Hackensack Democratic Municipal Chair.  Before his conviction, some party leaders said that Ferriero was planning a comeback if the jury acquitted him; now Democratic insiders suggest that he would have trouble winning a contested race for County Chairman.   Ferriero’s sentencing has been postponed until the U.S. Supreme Court rules on federal honest-services laws.  If they find it unconstitutional, Ferriero could become a free man. 

If the Senate confirms Esther Suarez as a Superior Court Judge, the leading contender to replace her as Bergen County Counsel is her boss, Robert Laux, the County Administrator.  Laux is a former Assistant County Counsel and was a lawyer at the law firm of Dennis Oury, a former Bergen Democratic powerbroker who pleaded guilty to federal corruption charges last year and testified against his former co-defendant, ex-Democratic County Chairman Joseph Ferriero.

Bergen County Counsel Esther Suarez received quite a grilling as the Senate Judiciary Committee considered her nomination for Superior Court Judge, which released her nomination today despite objections that she had never tried a case in court.

State Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck) close questioned her on her numerous public jobs and private legal work.  Suarez is the full-time County Counsel ($125,000/year), the part-time County Adjuster ($25,000/year), the general counsel to the Union City Parking Authority ($55,000/year), as a lawyer for the Union City Board of Education (she says she billed ten hours in 2009, for a total income of $1,600), and as a partner at Catania, Ehrlich & Suarez, a North Jersey firm that specializes in casino law, including licensing and compliance. 

Suarez is a former associate at Scarinci & Hollenbeck, a politically powerful firm where former Bergen County Democratic Chairman Joseph Ferriero was a partner.  Ferriero pushed for her appointment as County Counsel by his own protégé, Bergen County Executive Dennis McNerney.  She is now a political ally of State Sen. Brian Stack (D-Union City), the Union City mayor.

Democratic Bergen County Executive Dennis C. McNerney is girding for a tough race against Republican County Clerk Kathleen Donovan, who so far appears to have a clear path to the GOP nomination to run against him for the county’s top post. 

But McNerney says he’s no stranger to a challenge. 

“In 1998 I ran for freeholder and it was a 7-0 Republican freeholder board.  In 2001, I ran again and won but my running mates lost.  And then the next day, I got up and ran for county executive.  So I’ve had nothing but tough elections and winning,” said McNerney.  “My wife Cathy supports this race, too, so that’s important.”

McNerney won his first term in 2002 against then-state Sen. Henry McNamara (R-Wyckoff) in a relatively close race.  In 2006, he easily won reelection over Republican Todd Caliguire. 

But Donovan, the top county-level vote getter in in 2008, an otherwise favorable year for Democrats, and a 20-year incumbent, is expected to be a formidable opponent. 

And McNerney has lost his staunch political ally: former Bergen County Democratic Chairman Joseph Ferriero, who was convicted on three corruption counts in October.  Ferriero, a prolific fundraiser, helped raise the millions of dollars McNerney spent on his two campaigns. 

Still, McNerney does not think his campaign will be tainted by Ferriero’s conviction.

“Look at the former Republican chairman, Berek Don.  A convicted felon and he was the Bergen County Republican chairman under Kathe.  I guess you have to ask her that question,” said McNerney, referring to Don’s 1999 guilty plea to, among other things, illegally funneling cash into former U.S. Sen. Robert Torricelli’s (D-Englewood) campaign account.