Politics & Government

Election Guide 2010: The June Primary

Voter interest may be low, but here's the rundown on who you can vote for today.

While there the race for Summit Common Council's two open seats is uncontested, residents have competitive races in both parties throughout the state.

Current Council President Dave Bomgaars is running for re-election to his Ward II seat while felloe Republican Tom Getzendanner is running for re-election to his Ward I seat.

Bomgaars, running for his second 3-year term, is serving as the current president of the Common Council. In 2001 Bomgaars filled the vacated seat of Eric Munoz for a few months until now Mayor Jordan Glatt was officially elected to the position. Bomgaars filled out another term in 2006 when Mike Helmer resigned. Bomgaars is the only council member to have served on the council, board of education, zoning and planning boards and on the board of Summit Downtown Inc. He also said if re-elected, he would not seek another term.

Find out what's happening in Summitwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Getzendanner is running for his third 3-year term. He is a member of the finance and personnel committee and chair of the law committee.

But a recent Fairleigh Dickinson University poll shows voter interest in today's primary is low.

Find out what's happening in Summitwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Most voters (48 percent) thought the next time would be in November.  A few (4 percent) figured they'd have to wait until the 2012 presidential election. Many said they just didn't know (30 percent).

One in five voters (21 percent) over 60 years of age knew they'd have their next chance in June, compared to 13 percent of boomers age 45-59, and to 5 percent of voters under 30.

And one in five Republican voters (20 percent) identified June as the next opportunity, compared to 13 percent of Democrats and 6 percent of independents. 

Republicans are being asked to pick a candidate for the seventh district seat in Congress, where an incumbent is facing off against three challengers. Democrats are being asked to nominate candidates for a slate of county government offices, where a group of insurgents are challenging incumbents and a newcomer backed by the county's Democratic machine.

A list of polling places can be found here. However there is one change. Ward 2, District 11 voters are being asked to vote at city hall.

In the congressional race, U.S. Rep. Leonard Lance (R-Hunterdon County) is facing off against Hunterdon County businessman David Larsen, Westfield businessman Bruce Baker and Hunterdon County businessman Lon Hosford. The race features the moderate Lance being challenged from the right by the three conservative Republicans, who have been promoting platforms in line with the Tea Party movement.

Lance was first elected in 2008, defeating Assemblywoman Linda Stender (D-Fanwood) for the right to succeed former Rep. Mike Ferguson (R-New Providence).  He previously served as minority leader of the State Senate and represented Hunterdon County in the state legislature for 17 years. He has been under fire by conservative Republicans for his vote in favor of the cap and trade climate change bill in 2009. During the race, he has been promoting his conservative credentials by touting his authorship of a state constitutional amendment requiring voter approval of any state government borrowing, which was approved by voters in 2008.

Larsen is the most well funded of Lance's challengers, using his own money in the race. He has been hitting Lance for the cap and trade vote and congressional earmark spending. Baker, a former president of the Westfield Historical Society and minor league baseball executive, has been citing his opposition to congressional spending, cap and trade and health care in his campaign. Hosford's campaign has been following the campaign lines of the Tea Party movement.

The winner will face Democrat Ed Potosnak, a teacher and former congressional aide from Bridgewater, in the general election. Democratic Party sources have told Patch that in the event of a Lance/Potosnak match-up, the party will likely give Potosnak nominal support, noting the incumbent's moderate views. The sources said in the event Larson upsets Lance today, the Democratic Party will revisit the race.

In the race for countywide office, Democratic voters will be selecting party nominees in three races. The mostly incumbent slate backed by the county Democratic Party is being challenged by the insurgent Democrats for Change slate. The Democrats for Change slate, backed by opponents of State Sen. Ray Lesniak (D-Elizabeth) and County Democratic Chairwoman Charlotte DeFilippo, is aligned with machine opposition primary candidates for local office in Elizabeth, Roselle and Rahway. Under state law, a primary slate not backed by a county party organization can receive better ballot placement if they are aligned with a slate of candidates for county office.

In the race for county sheriff, 11-term incumbent Ralph Froehlich is facing off against Roselle resident Charles Mitchell in the Democratic primary. Froehlich, the longest serving sheriff in state history, last faced Mitchell in the 2007 general election when the challenger ran as an independent aligned with a county slate opposed to the county Democratic machine. 

Mitchell, an Essex County sheriff's officer, has been campaigning on a platform saying Froehlich has been in office too long. Froehlich, a former Elizabeth police officer and city councilman, has maintained a low key campaign in the primary.

The winner will face county Board of Taxation President Peter Lijoi of Summit, a Republican attorney who unsuccessfully challenged Froehlich in the 2007 and 2004 elections and unsuccessfully ran for county surrogate in the 1990s.

In the 2007 general election Froehlich polled 54-percent, to 35-percent for Lijoi and nine percent for Mitchell. In 2004, Froehlich defeated Lijoi by a margin of 65-percent to 35-percent.

In the race for county clerk, three term incumbent Democrat Joanne Rajoppi is being challenged in the primary by Rahway resident Lisa McCormick. The winner of the primary will face Republican attorney Arthur Zapolski of Linden. Zapolski unsuccessfully challenged county Surrogate James LaCorte in 2009.

Rajoppi, a former Springfield mayor and county freeholder chairwoman, has been a staple in county politics since the 1970s and has served as as county register or county clerk since the early 1980s. In the 2005 general election, she defeated Plainfield Republican Chairwoman Sandy Spector by a margin of 64-percent to 35-percent.

McCormick is a newspaper publisher and former investment firm owner, according to her website.

In the race for county freeholder, incumbent Democrats Dan Sullivan of Elizabeth and Bette Jane Kowalski of Cranford are joined by Plainfield Councilwoman Linda Carter on the county slate. They are being challenged by Carmen Southward of Linden, Roselle Planning Board Chairwoman Janet Reynolds and Elizabeth Board of Education member Elcy Castillo-Ospina.

Sullivan, an executive with the state Motor Vehicles Commission, has served as a freeholder since a 1995 appointment and is seeking his sixth three year term in office. He presently serves as freeholder chairman. Kowalski, a retired journalist, was appointed to the freeholder board in 2004 and is seeking her third full term in office. She served as freeholder chairwoman in 2007. Carter replaces Freeholder Rayland Van Blake of Plainfield on the Democratic ticket. Van Blake was dumped from the ticket earlier this year by county Democratic leaders, who said the one term incumbent was not making enough public appearances.

Southward is a world languages teacher in the Elizabeth school system. Before entering education, she was a corporate human resources specialist and corporate investigations manager for Brooks Brothers. Reynolds is a longtime staffer with Verizon and is a union steward with a local of the Communications Workers of America. Castillo-Ospina, who is active in youth soccer, is a social worker in the Bayonne school system and a past winner of the state school social worker of the year award. She is the first person of Colombian heritage to be elected to the Elizabeth Board of Education.

The winners of the freeholder primary will face the Republican slate of Summit Councilwoman Ellen Dickson, former Rahway Councilwoman Elise Bochicchio Medved and New Providence Zoning Board member Brian Flanagan in November.

Democrats have won every countywide election since 1995.

Voters countywide will also be asked to elect members of the Republican county committee in each election district. Low key affairs, normally unopposed affairs, each election district will elect one male and one female committee member for two year terms. Republicans normally elect committee members in even number years.

County committee members compose the governing boards for the county and town political party organizations. On the Republican side, committee members compose the delegates to the annual party convention, which awards the county party ballot line to candidates for county, federal, state legislative and statewide office. Committee members elected this year will decide which candidate county Republicans should back against U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez (D-Hoboken) in 2012. The committee members also award party backing to primary candidates in the town elections.

Democrats generally elect county committee members in odd number years.

Committee members also are empowered under state law to elect interim successors for vacant seats in the state legislature and as county freeholder, along with recommending replacements for local offices. In 2009, Republican county committee members in the 21st district, appointed Assemblywoman Nancy Munoz (R-Summit) to office following the death of her husband, Assemblyman Eric Munoz.

The races are normally unopposed with the committee candidates being party loyalists picked by Republican leaders. Committee members in both parties are expected to help candidates in their election districts.

Republican committee members elected today will convene later this month to elect a county Republican chairman for a two year term. Incumbent County Republican Chairman Phil Morin, a former Cranford mayor, is expected to be reelected to a fourth term.


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