Paul Aronsohn

A robocall in Ridgewood caused a stir in the village’s municipal elections this week, with all of the candidates it supported disowning it.

The call, made by the Bergen County Republican Organization (BCRO) on Sunday, voiced support for council incumbents Betty Wiest, Jacques Harlow and new council candidate Keith Killion.

According to Killion’s campaign manager, Ron Verdicchio, the call sounded “as if Keith Killion was running with and endorsing Jacque Harlow and Betty Wiest.” Killion, the town’s second-in-command policeman, is actually endorsing two other non-incumbent candidates: Paul Aronsohn and Anne Zusy.

Ridgewood Mayor David Pfund isn’t up for reelection tomorrow, but he may not keep the mayoral seat much longer.

The town’s five member council, governed under the Faulkner Act, chooses one of its own every two years to become mayor.  Pfund has been mayor for four years, and his council seat is not up for reelection until 2010.  But with five candidates vying for three seats on the body in tomorrow’s election, Pfund may either step down and allow someone else to take the helm.  Or he could try to hold on for reelection at the council’s July 1st reorganization meeting. 

As of right now, Pfund isn’t letting on what he’s going to do, though some local insiders have suggested that he's getting ready to step down. 

“The focus right now is on the municipal election, and afterwards we’ll have a closed-session meeting and we’ll discuss all these issues to move forward in the next term,” said Pfund. 

In the small, densely packed Bergen County village of Ridgewood, five candidates are competing for three council seats in the May 13th municipal elections.

Up for reelection are Deputy Mayor Betty Wiest and Councilman Jacques Harlow. Councilwoman Kim Ringler Shagin is stepping down, and three new challengers are vying for a spot on the board: political veteran Paul Aronsohn, police captain Keith Killion and community activist Anne Zusy.

While the town has long been considered Republican leaning, its elections are non-partisan, and its council race seems almost completely void of party politics.

PolitickerNJ.com readers have spoken through an online vote, and by a narrow 52%-48% margin, have asked that The Inside Edge move on and stop referring to Paul Stuart Aronsohn as a Rotarian American. The former congressional, Assembly, Freeholder and Fort Lee Council candidate -- now seeking a Ridgewood Village Council seat in the May 13 municipal election -- now sheds that label, at least on this website.

Former Rotarian American congressional candidate Paul Stuart Aronsohn has entered the race for a seat on the Ridgewood Village Council. He will run for one of three open seats in a May 13 non-partisan election. The former spokesman for Governor James E. McGreevey ran for Congress in 2006, but lost to Republican incumbent Scott Garrett by a wide margin.

ONLINE POLL: Update: 51%-49% at 2:30 PM
Should PolitickerNJ.com stop referring to Paul Stuart Aronsohn as a Rotarian American? 

Running off the line, attorney Camille Abate won 40% in the 2006 Democratic congressional primary

At a breakfast hosted by the Democratic State Committee today, congressional candidate Camille Abate mentioned to Democratic National Chairman Howard Dean that she is running for Congress against Scott Garrett.

“He’s the worst,” said Dean.

But despite Dean’s personal opinion, national Democrats apparently don’t think enough of it to pump many resources into a fight against him. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee announced that they have three targets in 2008, and Garrett isn’t one of them.

Last year, PoliticsNJ.com gave congressional candidate Paul Stuart Aronsohn a little bit of a hard time over a Memorial Day press release that addressed his beliefs as both an American and as a Rotarian. The fear of a similar hazing doesn't seem to scare Richard Dennison, the Democratic candidate for State Senator in the 7th district against George W. Bush and Diane Allen.

In accepting the endorsement of the Sierra Club today, a Dennison campaign press release said: "As a licensed funeral director, Dennison has taken the lead through educating members of his profession as to how the funeral and cremation industry might be able to better play its part in helping to protect the environment"

If Democrats really wanted to get serious about ousting Congressman Scott Garrett next year, they would recruit Bergen County Executive Dennis McNerney to run.  In the fifth district towns, McNerney won 54% of the vote in his 2006 re-election campaign against Republican Todd Caliguire (and 60% countywide), and carried 23 of the 36 municipalitie in Garrett's district. A recent Democratic poll in Bergen County shows him with job approval ratings countywide at over 60%.