Mark Duffy

For Dick Zimmer to get on the ballot in the Republican U.S. Senate primary, he’ll need two votes from the three members of Andy Unanue’s Committee on Vacancies: Bergen County Republican Chairman Rob Ortiz; Mark Duffy, a GOP operative who became Unanue’s campaign manager after Anne Estabrook dropped out of the race; and Rafael Cueller, a supermarket owner from Clifton and a friend of Unanue.  Cueller “is currently awaiting Senate confirmation for a Presidential appointment to the National Cooperative Bank, according to his company’s website. 

Millionaire businessman Andy Unanue, who entered the race for New Jersey's U.S. Senate seat on Sunday, lives in New YorkAndy Unanue, who entered the race for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination on Sunday, lives in New York, according to a housekeeper who answered the phone at his parents’ home in Bergen County.

Voting records show Unanue listed at an Alpine residence. A search of tax records for that home, however, shows that it is owned by his parents, Joseph and Carmine Unanue. The housekeeper confirmed that the home does not belong to Andy Unanue and he does not live there.

Unanue does own a residence at 25 Central Park West in New York City.

Unanue's campaign said that, for all intents and purposes, Unanue lives with his parents.

"Andy Unanue lives in New Jersey, he votes in New Jersey, his car is regsitered in New Jersey, he pays New Jersey auto insurance, and his business is in New Jersey," said Unanue Campaign Manager Mark Duffy. "Andy Unanue is New Jersey.”

Over the course of the next week, brand new U.S. Senate candidate Andy Unanue will have a chance to cement his status as the Republican favorite to take on incumbent Democrat Frank Lautenberg in a marathon series of eight conventions.

Between tomorrow and next Wednesday, there are Republican county conventions coming up in Monmouth, Mercer, Ocean, Atlantic, Cumberland, Salem, Middlesex and Somerset. County committees will decide between Unanue, a businessman who's an heir to the Goya Foods fortune and the heir apparent to the campaign of former candidate Anne Estabrook, and his two Republican competitors: state Sen. Joe Pennacchio and Ramapo College finance professor Murray Sabrin.

The person who each committee picks will be awarded a coveted spot on the party line, which typically provides a boost to the candidate whose name occupies it.

But Pennacchio, not to be counted out, is focusing on winning the line in traditionally Democratic counties where he believes he can appeal to a working-class "Reagan Democrat base" in the general election - specifically Mercer and Middlesex. He already has the line in Bergen County, although that may change if Republican Chairman Rob Ortiz meets with his executive committee and opts to give the line to Unanue, a personal friend who he recruited. He's also got the line in Hunterdon, Passaic and Union counties.

Prof. Murray Sabrin, a Ron Paul Republican, has stirred up the GOP primary with attacks on Anne EstabrookWhen Murray Sabrin entered the Republican U.S. Senate primary in January, the conventional wisdom was that, as a member of the Ron Paul wing of the Republican Party, he would draw votes from State Sen. Joe Pennacchio’s conservative base to help the moderate Anne Evans Estabrook shore up her own support for the June primary.

Although it’s still early on in the process, the outcome so far has been the opposite.

Sabrin has turned out to be an attack dog, challenging Estabrook’s Republican credentials and leaving Pennacchio unscathed. That has helped Pennacchio rack up county committee endorsements after winning the hearts of the party’s rank and file at conventions, while some of Estabrook’s exploratory committee members have started wavering in their support.

“I know that in some circles they were probably doing cartwheels and high fives when Murray got into the race, but my focus wasn’t Murray. It’s just doing what I’m doing,” said Pennacchio.

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