PASCACK VALLEY—While most municipal Republican and Democratic party races were uncontested in the June 7 Primary Election, Republican voters selected candidates for Congress’s Fifth District, along with Bergen County executive and county commissioner races in the Nov. 8 General Election.
Less than 8% of Bergen County’s 657,359 registered voters, or approximately 50,394 registered voters in the Democratic and Republican parties, cast votes in the June 7 Primary Election, according to unofficial data from the county clerk’s office.
Historically, turnout is low for primary elections, generally underwhelming the even off-year November General Elections that do not feature a presidential or gubernatorial contest to draw voter interest.
Woodcliff Lake’s Democratic primary is competitive with three candidates vying for two open council seats. Benjamin Pollack (240 votes) and Nicole Marsh (258 votes) won the Democratic nod, registering about 44% and 47% to former councilman Craig Marson’s 10% (53) vote total. Running uncontested for the two Republican Party nominations were Brian DiStefano (189 votes) and Joshua Stern (179 votes).
Readers interested in updated voting totals, including vote-by-mail totals, should access the Bergen County Clerk’s Office website at: livevoterturnout.com/ENR/bergennjenr/10/en/Index_10.html.
While incumbent Bergen County Executive James Tedesco III, a Democrat, and three incumbent Democratic county commissioners ran unchallenged, two Republicans challenged for the party’s County Executive nod and six Republican candidates faced off for the three open county commissioner seats.
Republican Todd Caliguire bested Republican Linda T. Barba, grabbing (14,092 votes) 59 percent to 41% (9,785 votes) to grab the County Executive nod.
Republican candidates Ronald Joseph Lin (14,205 votes), Douglas Holden (14,197 votes) and Dierdre G. Paul (13,697 votes) secured the Republican ticket by besting Paul A. Duggan (9,777 votes), Mary J. Guinchard (8,971 votes) and Angelique R. Hakim (8,533 votes).
Running uncontested for Bergen County commissioners were incumbents Thomas J. Sullivan, Mary Amoroso, and Germaine M. Ortiz. They pulled down 19,469, 19,121, and 18,529 votes, respectively. Tedesco, also unopposed, pulled down 20,288 votes.
Fifth District
Congressional Race
Fifth District Republican Congressional candidate Frank T. Pallotta beat back a challenge from Nick De Gregorio to win the party’s nomination June 7 to take on incumbent Democratic Congressman Josh Gottheimer in the Nov. 8 General Election.
According to unofficial results with 95% of votes counted, Pallotta had 15,670 votes compared to De Gregorio’s 14,201 votes, winning by about 50% to 45%. The other two Republican candidates, Fred Schneiderman and Sab Skenderi, each drew about 2% of votes.
While De Gregorio beat Pallotta in Bergen County, 50% to 47%, he lost significantly to Pallotta in Passaic County, 61% to 31%, and also Sussex County, 58% to 37%.
Gottheimer, repeatedly voted most bipartisan Democrat in the House, ran uncontested for his party’s nod. Gottheimer and Pallotta last faced off in November 2020, when Pallotta was endorsed by then-president Donald Trump.
Leading up to the primary election, two campaign fliers tying Pallotta to Trump have turned up in Fifth Congressional District voter mailboxes, noting the “Pallotta–Trump agenda is too conservative for New Jersey.”
The fliers were paid for by the Opportunity For All Action Fund, which is described on the fliers as “not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.”
In 2020’s election, Pallotta grabbed 46% of the vote compared to Gottheimer’s 53%, a difference of about 32,000 votes.
After De Gregorio conceded early Wednesday morning, Pallottaa issued a statement saying in part, “I would like to thank all those who supported our campaign and recognized that the steep economic challenges our country faces require a businessman like me, not a politician. We now move to November, and we will make ourselves heard loud and clear: we are done with politicians defunding the police and endangering American citizens. We are done with politicians who sold out our economy and supply chain to China. And we are done with those who have no solution to the inflation or gas price crises.”
County Clerk John Hogan: Vote by mail requests at historic high
Bergen County has the largest number of registered voters of any county in New Jersey. Posted on June 8, the “unofficial” Election Day and early voting, and partially reported vote-by-mail ballot results showed that 7.7% (50,394 voters) cast ballots by 8 p.m. on June 7.
Late-arriving mail-in ballots postmarked by June 7 at 8 p.m. may slightly change the overall voter participation rate but are unlikely to affect Bergen County results, said officials.
County Clerk John Hogan said on June 7 that the county had “historically high” vote-by-mail requests from voters for this year’s primary election. He said vote-by-mail ballot requests “increased by a whopping 38%, from 56,500 (2021) to 78,006 (2022).”
Hogan noted only 5,000 vote-by-mail ballots were requested in 2018. “As more voters realize the convenience of vote by mail, our office is preparing for more record-breaking numbers in the future.”
For more coverage on municipal races, see “Election 2022: Primary, June 7, to shape Nov. 8 contests,” Pascack Press, June 6, 2022.