Rob Ortiz

Union County Republican Chairman Phil Morin has become a partner in the politically-connected law firm Florio, Perrucci, Steinhardt & Fader, the firm announced today.

The firm, which was founded by former Gov. Jim Florio, a Democrat, counts many insiders of both political parties as partners.  They include Warren County Republican Chairman Doug Steinhardt; Bergen County Democratic insider Paul Fader, who was chief counsel to Governor McGreevey and Codey and a two-term mayor of Englewood; and former Bergen County Republican Chairman Rob Ortiz, who is currently the Republican State Committee's finance chair. 

Morin most recently worked at Saul Ewing.  Before that he worked with  LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae LLP and as a sole practitioner.

Robert Ortiz, the New Jersey GOP State Finance Chairman and the former Bergen County GOP Chairman, is now a lawyer at Florio, Perrucci, Steinhardt and Fader. The firm is headed by former Democratic Gov. Jim Florio and partners include former Warren County Democratic Chairman Michael Perrucci, Warren County GOP Chairman Douglas Steinhardt, and Paul Fader, who was Chief Counsel to Gov. James E. McGreevey.

Former Bergen County Republican Chairman Rob Ortiz has landed as the Republican State Committee’s new finance chairman.

Ortiz, who was ousted two weeks ago as the Republican chairman in Bergen County, wrote an email to his friends and supporters announcing the news, and said that he would make Bergen County one of his fundraising priorities.

“As the largest county with the largest number of registered Republicans in the state, Bergen is crucial not only to reinvigorating the GOP from the grassroots up and identifying future candidates, but is also a crucial must-win county in any statewide campaign effort,” he wrote. “As such, Bergen will remain a key concern for me — as it should for every Republican around the state.”

After being defeated in his reelection bid for Bergen County Republican Chairman, sources say that Rob Ortiz is likely to be the Republican State Committee’s next finance chairman.

Ortiz, an attorney from Ridgewood, raised about $200,000 for the Bergen County Republican Party, helping it emerge from $40,000 in debt. But his support for the candidacy of his friend and client Andy Unanue, along with several other missteps, cost him that job.

Newly elected Bergen County Republican Chairman Bob Yudin called for peace on the internet today.

In a press release, Yudin implored both his own supporters and those of his opponent, former Chairman Rob Ortiz, to declare a “cease fire” in the “internet war” that’s erupted between them.

“I ask that those with the time and the energy to engage in trading Internet insults, please find a new, more productive  focus for their energies,” said Yudin, who felt that the internet bickering was another manifestation of the infighting that’s plagued the troubled party that he just took over.

State Sen. Kevin O'Toole (R-Essex) on Wednesday stepped out in frontChris Christie of the back-static regarding a pairing of U.S. Attorney Jen BeckChris Christie with state Sen. Jennifer Beck (R-Monmouth) for GOP governor/lt. governor in 2009.

"I think it's a dream ticket," said O'Toole. "If Chris Christie decides to run, I expect Jen Beck to be considered in what would be an ideal combination of law enforcement, ethics and government transparency."

O'Toole recalled as "gutsy" Beck's drubbing out of of office of state Sen. Ellen Karcher last year.

Robert Ortiz’s reign as Bergen County Republican Chairman came to an end tonight, just 11 months after he took the helm of this beleaguered party.

The victory for Bob Yudin, 69, was the conclusion of a particularly nasty and hard fought battle, but Yudin sought to start the process of unifying the party immediately.

“No recriminations. None,” said Yudin in his victory speech. “This is about all of us getting together, and uniting as one Bergen County Republican Organization.”

Yudin won with 412 votes to Ortiz’s 317.

The confusion over who gets to vote at tomorrow night’s election for Bergen County Republican Chairman appears to have ended.

State Sen. Gerald Cardinale will not sue the Bergen County Republican Organization to force it to restrict voting at tomorrow night’s chairmanship runoff to only those who voted last Tuesday.

Cardinale said that Ortiz never had the authority to declare that voting would be open to all county committee members – a responsibility that belongs to the BCRO’s election committee. The committee had previously ruled for restricting tomorrow night’s ballot. Election Commissioner Patricia DiCostanzo even sent a letter informing county committee men and women that only those who voted last Tuesday could vote tomorrow.

Rob Ortiz was widely viewed as a rising star in New Jersey politics in June 2007 when the political newcomer won 57% of the vote in his bid for Bergen County GOP Chairman after Guy Talarico stepped down one year early.  The 35-year-old lawyer was a fundraiser for Rudy Giuliani – at the time the front runner for the Republican presidential nomination – and Bergen Republicans, down on Talarico and anxious to restore their former days of glory, saw Ortiz as a bright light for their future.  But one year later, Ortiz is the underdog as he fights to win his first full two-year term as BCRO Chairman.