JOHN HIPP

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.

Speculation persists in Republican circles that Rutherford Mayor John Hipp would make a good assembly candidate, but Hipp has not been privy to it.

In September, Hipp told PolitickerNJ that he would only consider running if party leaders asked him to. That hasn’t changed.

“I haven’t said no because obviously if I’m asked to help out the party I want to do everything I can,” he said.

One important battleground in the election of 2008 is in South Bergen, an assortment of blue collar, politically competitive municipalities with a long history of ticket splitting.  The towns south of Route 4 are critical for John McCain (Republicans have never won statewide in New Jersey without carrying Bergen County) and for the Republicans seeking to break the 7-0 Democratic majority on the Board of Freeholders.  South Bergen is also the political base of the lone Republican remaining in county government, County Clerk Kathleen Donovan. 

In a section of Bergen County where EnCap and the Meadowlands have dominated local politics in recent years, there are also key municipal races -- with control at stake -- in Rutherford, North Arlington, East Rutherford, Hasbrouck Heights, and Elmwood Park; and important contests in Bogota and South Hackensack.

Rutherford (pop. 18,110) has a Republican mayor and a Borough Council that has three Republicans and three Democrats.  Last year, John Hipp ousted incumbent Bernadette McPherson by a massive 69%-31% margin, and the GOP ousted two incumbent councilmembers.  In 2008, Democratic Councilmen Joseph Sommer and George Fencanin are not seeking re-election.  Democrats Jack Boyle and Kimberly Birdsall will try to stop the Republicans from taking control of the Council.  A split among local Republicans caused a contested primary; Hipp's candidates, Joseph DeSalvo and Frank Wilson, handily defeated two candidates backed by GOP Municpal Chairman John Daub in the primary.  McPherson is also on the ballot, as a candidate for re-election to the Bergen County Board of Freeholders. In 2007, Democratic State Sen. Paul Sarlo won 43% in Rutherford.  In 2004, John Kerry carried the borough by 509 votes (53%-47%).

Some Republican leaders believe Nutley Mayor Joanne Cocchiola and Rutherford Mayor John Hipp would make a strong ticket for the State Assembly against incumbents Frederick Scalera and Gary Schaer in the 36th district next year.  Last won by Republican Paul DiGaetano in 2003, the 36th was the closest race in the state last year in a district where the EnCap development at the Meadowlands has led to the defeat of more than a dozen local officials.

NORTH ARLINGTON - Council President Steve Tanelli is calling upon local Republicans to "take a stand when it comes to protecting taxpayers from the EnCap disaster."

"The local Republican Party needs to join the rest of North Arlington in our universal opposition to EnCap,” Tanelli said. “It's very disturbing that this year’s Republican council candidates do not support the borough's intent to void the EnCap deal and move forward with a proposal that homeowners want and support," said Tanelli, who was elected to the council in 2004 and re-elected in 2005 in landslide victories.

John Hipp, a lawyer who rode the anti-tax, anti-EnCap wave to crush two term mayor and Bergen County Freeholder Bernadette McPherson, was sworn in as mayor of Rutherford today at Town Hall. 

Also sworn in were two new Republican council members: Rose Inguanti and John Sasso, boosting the Republican presence on the council to three and tying it 3-3 with Democrats. 

In southern Bergen County, Republicans are focusing much of their energy on one town: Rutherford.

Democratic Mayor Bernadette P. McPherson, who is also a Bergen County Freeholder, is up for re-election along on a slate with Democratic Councilmen Ray Frazier and Richard Reyes.  Currently, the balance of power on the council is 5-1 Democratic.  The Republicans have fielded attorney John Hipp for mayor, along with Rose Inguanti and John Sasso in an attempt to tie council. 

But more is at stake that just the leadership of this town of 18,000.  The election is one of the first offensive moves by new Bergen County Republican Chairman Robert Ortiz, who’s trying to slowly claw the Republicans back to power town by town.  And it just so happens that this was one of the first towns that Bergen County Chairman Joseph Ferriero turned over to Democrats, with McPherson’s election in 1999 and winning a council majority the year before that.

“Our mayor has been running around telling everyone that even if she did squander millions in EnCap hush money,  at least the borough was getting an environmental clean up. Well, apparently that’s not true. What we have is a conspiracy to create another Love Canal on the banks of the Hackensack River.” 

Mayor McPherson gave huge tax breaks to EnCap and gave us a 33 percent tax increase.