Rob Ortiz

Robert Yudin, a 67-year-old appliance store owner from Wyckoff, could be one day away from becoming the Bergen County Republican Chairman – a post that up until about six years ago was one of the most powerful positions in New Jersey politics.  Yudin will face incumbent Rob Ortiz in a runoff election tomorrow night.  Over the last few years, the former Wyckoff Board of Education member has made three unsuccessful bids for Freeholder.

Yudin's first campaign for public office came 41 years ago, when the 26-year-old Navy lieutenant who had just left active duty was recruited by Essex County Republicans as their candidate for Assemblyman.

Bergen County GOP Chairman Rob Ortiz, facing a runoff election with Bob Yudin, says that State Sen. Gerald Cardinale was "misinformed" when he criticized the incumbent for changing the election rules.

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Leadership for the Bergen County Republican Organization is in flux tonight, as Chairman Rob Ortiz will have to fight on another week to keep his post.

Ortiz was the narrow top vote-getter in tonight’s election, with 277 votes to former freeholder candidate Bob Yudin’s 262 and Ben Focarino’s 115.

That means there will be a runoff election next Tuesday between Ortiz and Yudin.

“We won, just not by enough,” said Ortiz.

Fresh from his U.S. Senate candidacy, newly minted Bergen County Committeeman Murray Sabrin walked into Republican Headquarters tonight to cast his vote for county chairman. 

Sabrin was accompanied by his wife, Florence, who started a freeholder bid here on Sabrin’s rebel slate before Chairman Rob Ortiz’s allies successfully challenged her petition signatures.  She is now also a county committeewoman. 

Sabrin, a Fort Lee resident, wouldn’t say who he planned to vote for, but he eliminated one of the three choices.

“Let’s put it this way: it’s not Rob Ortiz,” said Sabrin.

Immediately after Rob Ortiz was elected to preside over the beleaguered Bergen County Republican Organization ten months ago, he told the party rank and file not to expect any miracles.

While Bob Yudin and Ben Focarino did not expect divine intervention, the two believe that Ortiz has failed to deliver on last summer's campaign promises, and both are competing with him for the party's top post tomorrow night.

Ortiz campaigned last year on his ability to raise money and has pulled the Republican Party out of debt - even if the party coffers are far from flush. And Ortiz touts local pickups in several Bergen County municipalities last November, even after just three months in office. But that's not enough for Yudin and Focarino, who feel that Ortiz has turned inward to a small circle of advisors and hold that, while Republicans made progress in some local towns, it was in spite of - not because of - Ortiz.

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