Rose Heck

Left to right: Joseph Coniglio (D-Paramus), Louis Kosco (R-Paramus), and Rose Heck (R-Hasbrouck Heights)

Joseph Coniglio, described during his federal corruption trial as a man with unspectatular intellectual aptitude, was elected to the New Jersey State Senate in 2001, defeating three-term Republican State Sen. Louis Kosco (R-Paramus) by 3,543 votes, a 53%-47% margin. 

Redistricting altered the 38th district, which had been a competitive legislative district through the 1980’s, in favor of the Democrats 2001.  Two large Democratic towns, Fair Lawn and Fort Lee, were added to the district.  Joseph Ferriero, who was in his fourth year as the Bergen County Democratic Chairman, picked Coniglio, a 58-year-old plumber and union official, to run for the Senate with the hope that the former two-term Paramus Councilman would hold down Kosco’s hometown Paramus plurality and build margins in other parts of the district.  The strategy worked: Coniglio won Fair Lawn by 1,145 votes, Fort Lee by 2,141 and Cliffside Park by 1,989.  He lost Paramus by just 877 votes.  In 1997, Kosco won Paramus by 2,781 in his 57%-43% victory over Democrat Valerie Vainieri Huttle.

Besides redistricting, Coniglio benefitted from some coat tails at the top of the ticket.  In the race for Governor, Democrat James E. McGreevey carried District 38 by a 61%-39% margin over Republican Bret Schundler. In the race for two State Assembly seats, Republican Rose Heck won re-election by a narrow 468 vote margin, but Democrat Matt Ahearn ousted GOP incumbent Nicholas Felice in a race where just 803 votes separated the top vote getter from the candidate in fourth place.

After the ’01 election, Republicans and Democrats each had twenty Senate seats and Republicans viewed Coniglio as one of their top targets in 2003 as they sought to regain control of the Senate.  Heck gave up her Assembly seat to run for the Senate, but the GOP could not compete with Democrats financially and Coniglio won his Democratic-leaning district 56%-44%, by a margin of 4,756 votes.  Republicans also lost Heck’s Assembly seat.

One important battleground in the election of 2008 is in South Bergen, an assortment of blue collar, politically competitive municipalities with a long history of ticket splitting.  The towns south of Route 4 are critical for John McCain (Republicans have never won statewide in New Jersey without carrying Bergen County) and for the Republicans seeking to break the 7-0 Democratic majority on the Board of Freeholders.  South Bergen is also the political base of the lone Republican remaining in county government, County Clerk Kathleen Donovan. 

In a section of Bergen County where EnCap and the Meadowlands have dominated local politics in recent years, there are also key municipal races -- with control at stake -- in Rutherford, North Arlington, East Rutherford, Hasbrouck Heights, and Elmwood Park; and important contests in Bogota and South Hackensack.

Rutherford (pop. 18,110) has a Republican mayor and a Borough Council that has three Republicans and three Democrats.  Last year, John Hipp ousted incumbent Bernadette McPherson by a massive 69%-31% margin, and the GOP ousted two incumbent councilmembers.  In 2008, Democratic Councilmen Joseph Sommer and George Fencanin are not seeking re-election.  Democrats Jack Boyle and Kimberly Birdsall will try to stop the Republicans from taking control of the Council.  A split among local Republicans caused a contested primary; Hipp's candidates, Joseph DeSalvo and Frank Wilson, handily defeated two candidates backed by GOP Municpal Chairman John Daub in the primary.  McPherson is also on the ballot, as a candidate for re-election to the Bergen County Board of Freeholders. In 2007, Democratic State Sen. Paul Sarlo won 43% in Rutherford.  In 2004, John Kerry carried the borough by 509 votes (53%-47%).