Robert Yudin

It was literally minutes after Bergen County Republicans won two freeholder seats that they started eyeing another prize.

"Now for the big one: county executive," said one Republican operative who often works in Bergen County from the Chris Christie Election Night victory party in Parsippany.

Two days after winning two freeholder seats in Bergen County - a prayed for shot in the arm for a county party that has spent the last several years on the brink of irrelevance- the talk in Bergen County Republican circles is who the party will run for the top office in 2010.

"A number of people have expressed interest.  I'm hearing a lot of it informally. No one has officially come to me," said Bergen County Republican Chairman Bob Yudin, whose party could stand to receive a cash infusion now that donors see that they can win elections.

So far, three names pop up: County Clerk Kathleen Donovan, who ran in the 2006 Republican primary for the office but was defeated on the right by Todd Caliguire, who went on to lose the general election; Fair Lawn Councilman Edward Trawinski, who yesterday just won a second consecutive (and third overall) term in that heavily Democratic town; and former Hackensack Mayor Jack Zisa. 

Since the Republicans appear to have some momentum, other potential candidates are expected to come forward.  And with a GOP governor, Bergen Republicans will have an easier time raising money.

"It's a different ball game now that we've demonstrated we can win a couple county seats," said state Sen. Gerald Cardinale (R-Demarest), who has taken an active role in behind-the-scenes party politics.

Assemblyman David Russo (R-Ridgewood), long rumored to be interested in the post, told PolitickerNJ.com that he will not run.

Bergen County Republicans are enraged by a Democratic mailer that attacks the 38th District Republican Assembly candidates over "porn and guns."

The mailer hits recipients with an image of the word "porn" spelled out in computer keys above "guns" spelled out in bullets.

"If you make your money on porn or guns, then you have something in common with the Bergen Republican candidates," the front of the mailer reads.  Turn it around, and the flyer says that Republican Assembly candidate Judith Fisher is a "consultant to one of the largest pornographic companies in the world" and that her running mate, Ridgefield Councilman Nick Lonzisero, rents property to a gun shop located next to an elementary school that is promoted by the National Rifle Association - "the same organization that's been lobbying to allow assault weapons in New Jersey." 

"It is so despicable. It shows the two Democratic candidates are wallowing around in the sewers with pig manure," said Bergen County Republican Chairman Bob Yudin.  "You can quote me on that." 

The flyer's style is fairly typical of Bergen County's notoriously down and dirty political scene.  What is unusual is that it was issued in a district that is considered a relatively safe bet for incumbents Joan Voss (D-Fort Lee) and Connie Wagner (D-Paramus) to win.

Bergen County GOP Chairman Robert Yudin says that a lobbyist working for Gov. Jon Corzine’s campaign should not be helping casino clients find political pollsters.

Bill Maer, who works for the state’s second largest lobbying firm, took a leave of absence in August to work full time for Corzine.  He has agreed not to lobby while working for the governor, but then helped Harrah’s hire a pollster to test the mood of the New Jersey electorate.

“Even if it is technically legal, it is a typical Democratic conflict of interest,” said Yudin.  “It goes right to the heart of what is wrong with New Jersey over the last eight years of Democratic rule.  Everything is for sale to the highest bidder.”

Reports that a local superintendent of schools who works for Bergen County spent more than $15,000 on expensive dinners is why county government needs a return to the two-party system, says Robert Yudin, the Republican County Chairman.

A report in The Record today detailed expense reimbursements for Robert Aloia, who heads the Bergen County Technical and Special Services.  Dinners for Aloia at The Stony Hill Inn, Morton's steakhouse, and Sanzari's New Bridge Inn "often cost the superintendent more than $100," the newspaper reported, noting that Aloia also spent $1,000 at Girasole Ristorante & Bar in Atlantic City.

"It seems this is just the tip of the iceberg," said Yudin, who called on the Bergen County Prosecutor to investigate Aloia's expense account.  "Ultimate the responsibility rests with the County Executive and Board of Freeholders.  It is the taxpayer's money and there obviously no oversight."

Bergen County Republican freeholder candidates John Driscoll and Rob Hermansen will appear on the ballot together in November, but you won't find the two paired up in many other places.

The two candidates say that they consciously avoid making joint campaign appearances, focusing instead on spreading out to tackle each of Bergen County's seventy municipalities. 

"Basically, we have split up to attack the county as much as we can," said Driscoll, a tobacco salesman from Paramus.  "I think Rob hit it right when he said ‘if we're seen together, we're doing something wrong.'" 

But privately, Bergen County Republicans admit that the split between Driscoll and Hermansen is more than geographical.  Although they have both separate and joint campaign accounts, they have separate Web sites that look nothing alike.  They have different knickknacks to give out at events, and their campaign literature sometimes mentions their running mates only fleetingly.  They even have different campaign managers -- Deirdre Woodbyrne for Hermansen, and John Gil for Driscoll. 

While the two express admiration for each other, they have divergent campaign strategies. 

The Bergen County Republican and Democratic chairmen both have a lot riding on the November 3rd election.

Not only is Bergen - the most populous of the state's 21 counties - expected to be hotly contested between Democratic Governor Jon Corzine and Republican gubernatorial nominee Christopher Christie, but that race will likely have down-ballot implications that could change the course of the county's politics, put control of its government at stake in 2010 and shape the reputations of its two relatively new party chairs. 

The political fortunes of both men - and both parties -- are pegged to the gubernatorial race. 

For GOP chairman Robert Yudin, having Christie at the top of the ticket opposing an unpopular Democratic governor gives his minority party its best shot at picking up a freeholder seat since Lisa Randall won one in 2003.  It's a county that Christie's campaign has paid a lot of attention to, aware that they are not exempt from the New Jersey political wisdom that Republicans cannot win statewide without it.  The flip side for Yudin is that, if Christie wins Bergen but neither of the freeholder candidates win, he will get the blame for a missed opportunity and potentially suffer the consequences when his first term is up in June, 2010. 

Democratic Chairman Michael Kasparian, a developer, has an entirely different but equally difficult situation.  Last winter he took over control of a party that holds all but one county-wide office.  But it has seen its share of problems since the indictment of its powerful former chairman, Joe Ferriero, on corruption charges that he will have to fight in court in October - the peak of the campaign season.  Fundraising - Ferriero's specialty - is more difficult with the economy in shambles, and the party's debt picture is not yet clear, since Kasparian has not yet released an audit he commissioned.  If Republicans pull off a victory, Kasparian risks being saddled with the blame for the party's decline. 

If Republicans win even one seat on the freeholder board this year, they'll have a shot at control next year, when three Democratic freeholders, Sheriff Leo McGuire and County Executive Dennis McNerney are up for reelection.  If Christie is in office, Yudin said, Bergen Republicans will feel a sense of momentum. 

"New Jersey is considered a blue state. Bergen is considered a blue county.  And this is really considered a meaningful election," said Yudin, who said that a victory for his two freeholder candidates and maybe even some assembly candidates would mean that "the Republican Party in the state and the Republican Party in Bergen County is back." 

Yudin knows the pain of losing.  He ran for freeholder unsuccessfully three times before he wrested the party's chairmanship from Rob Ortiz in June of last year.  His 2008 freeholder candidates - Chris Calabrese, Jeff Heller and Paul Duggan -- all lost, but by narrower margins than recent races and in a year when Democrats benefited immensely from the Obama wave (Republican County Clerk Kathleen Donovan, who ran a campaign separate from the freeholders, still managed to be the county candidates' top vote getter). 

Now, Republicans are running Mahwah Councilman Rob Hermansen and Paramus activist John Driscoll against Democratic incumbents Julie O'Brien and Vernon Walton.

The average property tax bill in Garfield is up from $610 since Jon Corzine became governor, says GOP gubernatorial candidate Christopher Christie, who held a community meeting at the Frank B. Calandriello Senior Center in the Bergen County municipality today as part of a campaign swing concentrating on claims that Corzine is responsible for higher taxes and growing unemployment.

Christie noted that Bergen County's unemployment rate is up from 4.1% to 8.2% over the last three years.

In a statement released by the Democratic State Committee, Bergen County Freeholder Director Chairman James Carroll said that Christie "has never been in a position to create jobs for New Jerseyans. 

"This simple fact makes it even more important for him to have a plan, but he does not," Carroll said.

But Bergen County GOP Chairman Robert Yudin simply dismissed Carroll, the mayor of Demarest, as a dual officeholder who will be "out of one of his jobs" when Christie becomes governor.  He also took a clear shot at Carroll's political alliance with former Democratic Chairman Joseph Ferriero, whose federal corruption trial is set to begin this fall.

Republicans might be showing up at political events in Hudson County, but the real battleground of the race for Governor is in Bergen.  No Republican has ever won a statewide election in New Jersey without carrying Bergen County.  In 2005, Jon Corzine beat Douglas Forrester in Bergen by fourteen percentage points and a margin of 34,302 votes. 

To win, Christopher Christie has to turn that around.  The last GOP statewide candidate to carry Bergen was Robert Franks, who received 3,932 votes more than Corzine in the 2000 U.S. Senate race.  Corzine knew that when he picked State Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck) as his running mate. If Christie carries Bergen by a decent margin, Republicans could oust Democratic Freeholders Julie O'Brien and Vernon Walton with their flotsam and jetsam challengers

This year, Corzine is defending Bergen without the help of Joseph Ferriero, whose fundraising prowess and campaign skills turned the state's largest county from solid Republican to solid Democratic.  Ferriero resigned as County Chairman last year following his indictment on federal corruption charges; his trial begins this fall.  For the last seven years, Ferriero has been in the top ten on the PolitickerNJ.com Power List; he was at #7 last year.  The new Democratic Chairman, Michael Kasparian, starts out at #94.   The problem for Christie is that the relatively new Republican County Chairman, Robert Yudin, isn't on the list at all. While Kasparian still hasn't figured out how to be a County Chairman - Corzine's executive order targeting criminally charged Ridgefield Mayor Anthony Suarez is evidence of that -- Yudin hasn't cast himself in the mold of predecessors like Nelson Gross, Anthony Statile and John Inganamort either.

Bergen County Democratic Chairman Michael Kasparian says he has asked Ridgefield Mayor Anthony Suarez to resign, and wants Bergen County GOP Chairman Robert Yudin to tell a Republican mayor under indictment to do the same.

"I called Anthony Saurez over the weekend to suggest that he resign his office as Mayor of Ridgefield effective  immediately. Although he has not been found guilty of any crime, I believe that these charges are serious enough to warrant the Mayor's undivided attention and as such will greatly diminish his ability to serve his community," Kasparian said. "Regrettably, these charges will also cast doubt upon future actions until they are successfully defended."
 
I make this request with great sorrow for the Mayor and his family,  but recognize  that  maintenance and respect for the publics' trust is greater than any single one of us. To that end,  I ask that my Republican counterpart call for the immediate resignation of indicted Carlstadt Mayor William Roseman which he has yet to do," Kasparian said.

Primary Elections can be contentious and agonizing.  A great deal of  passion goes into these races. I hope that after a few days or rest and reflection, the Bergen Republican Party can come together, put our differences behind us, and begin working on a successful plan to bring victory to our party from the top of  the ticket to the bottom.