Kristin Corrado

Ask leaders of the two Republican factions in Passaic County how they swept the county office elections last night and you get two different interpretations.

Passaic County Republican Chairman Scott Rumana (R-Wayne), who's also an assemblyman, attributed the win to the dominant Democratic Party losing touch with the county's residents. 

"You have citizens in Passaic County who have been disenfranchised by the Democratic Party," he said.  "We've been pulling in people who were not part of the party for many years, and that's really been a big, big help in this process."

In a stunning upset, Republicans beat three Democrats - including the incumbent freeholder director, Tahesha Way - and won the county clerk seat

Rumana said that his party's "team building" approach to leadership also played a role.

But Mike Mecca, who is chairman of the splinter group GOP Strong - which challenged Rumana for his chairmanship and supported assembly primary candidates against him - said that Kristin Corrado, county clerk candidate that GOP Strong recruited to defeat the PCRRO's candidate in the June primary -- led the Republican ticket to victory.

“The municipal leaders, the rank and file party faithful and the candidates throughout the county  worked very hard with limited resources to score many impressive wins.  Mr. Rumana should take this opportunity to pull the party together and put in place the leadership sharing plan he promised us in June,” said Mecca.   

Republicans won all three hotly contested races for County Clerk.  The biggest upset came in Passaic County, where Kristin Corrado, a former assistant counsel to the governor, defeated Woodland Park Councilman Keith Kazmark by a 52%-48% margin.  Cumberland County Clerk Gloria Noto and Salem County Clerk Gilda Gill were also re-elected despite facing aggressive Democratic challenges.

The Passaic County Clerk's office returns to Republican hands after five years of Democratic control.  In 2004, Karen Brown ousted popular GOP Clerk Ronni Nochimson.  Brown quickly fell out of favor with county Democratic leaders and she did not seek re-election.  Democrats picked Kazmark over Nochimson, who switched parties two years ago.  Corrado is allied with a faction of the Passaic County GOP headed by former GOP County Chairmen Peter Murphy and Michael Mecca; she had won a contested primary over the candidate backed by the Passaic County GOP organization.  Her victory, to some extent, marks a political comeback for Murphy, who served time in a federal prison earlier in the decade and was prosecuted by the newly-elected Governor, Christopher Christie.

“Anthony and his running mate Joe Caruso ran a very positive, issue-oriented campaign that impressed me and lot of other people. I will run a campaign based on facts and issues that are important to the public and I know Anthony will help me reach that goal,” said Corrado. 

The hard fought battle for control of the Passaic County Regular Republican Organization (PCRRO) might come to a head tonight, when a splinter group allied with a former party leader will attempt to oust Chairman Scott Rumana.

Rumana, who is also an assemblyman and a former mayor of Wayne, wants to hold on to his chairmanship.  The rival organization, GOP Strong, is all but officially backing Totowa attorney Carl Mazzie, a former Rumana ally.

But, as the Herald News reported this morning, Mazzie went to court yesterday to delay the reorganization meeting until all sixteen of the county's municipal clerks have certified results for over 500 county committee races. Superior Court Judge Margaret Mary McVeigh said she would decide whether the meeting would go forward unless the opposing sides came up with a compromise.

Rumana was confident that the court would rule in his favor, and said no compromise was necessary.  By tonight, he said, most municipal clerks will have certified the results.  Committee candidates whose statuses are still unresolved will be able to cast provisional ballots

"About 95 percent or more of these people are unchallenged, guaranteed winners - they go into the voting machine. The balance of that 5%, if there's any question about whether they've won, they go to provisional ballots," he said.  "Every vote will be counted, and if those provisionals have any impact on this race, then we'll worry about it."

A Republican splinter group from Passaic County last night unveiled a slate of three freeholder candidates and one county clerk candidate to take on whomever the local Republican organization fields in the June primary.

Members of the group, called GOP Strong, said that about 300 people turned out to a Little Falls union hall to see the three freeholder candidates -- Bruno Varano, a retired federal law enforcement agent from Wayne; Debra Andriani, a legal assistant from Totowa; and Robert Cruz, a Web developer from Pompton Lakes.  The group also fielded county clerk candidate Kristin Corrado, who has a law practice and is the Totowa Municipal Attorney.

GOP strong, which counts former Republican chairman Peter Murphy as a co-founder and is headed up by activists Michael Ramaglia and Michael Mecca, has been feuding with current Passaic County Republican Chairman and Assemblyman Scott Rumana (R-Wayne) over control of the mainstream organization.