The Record (Bergen County, NJ)
November 4, 2004
Plenty of pieces for GOP to pick up; Bergen Republicans reflect on a thrashing
A few dozen Republicans gathered around a large-screen TV at Bergen GOP headquarters in Hackensack on Tuesday night. As early presidential returns scrolled at the bottom of the screen, the party faithful cheered each state that was called for their candidate.
It turned out there was little else for them to cheer. Not only did two GOP incumbents lose, but county Republican candidates were swept in what some say was the party's biggest walloping in recent memory.
Republicans lost in voting on at least one countywide race in 49 of Bergen's 70 towns, while squeaking by in towns such as Ridgewood, where they should have won handily, based on past results.
"I frankly haven't seen us lose this badly in local and county races in 20 years," said Elizabeth Randall, who come January will be the only Republican on Bergen's seven-member Freeholder Board.
As the local Republicans tried on Wednesday to figure out what went so wrong for them, county Democrats were relishing the sweep and looking forward to taking control of the sheriff's office and six freeholder seats in January.
"I think it's a clear message that the voters sent," said Tomas Padilla, who will return to the Freeholder Board after losing to Randall last year. "They're happy with the direction the county's going."
With the exception of Randall's seat and the county clerk's office, Democrats will control all countywide offices when Padilla, Wallington Councilwoman Elizabeth Calabrese, Freeholder James Carroll and Sheriff-elect Leo McGuire are sworn in in January.
The GOP also loses a 22-year fixture on the Freeholder Board in Richard Mola, who was defeated by about 33,000 votes - even finishing third on the ballot in his hometown of Elmwood Park, where voters have elected him mayor for the past three decades. Defeated with Mola were Washington Township Councilwoman Janet Sobkowicz and former Wyckoff school trustee Robert Yudin.
For the Democrats, the 6-1 majority on the Freeholder Board, which the party currently controls 4-3, will mean they no longer will need a Republican vote to borrow money or pass salary ordinances.
And with McGuire unseating GOP Sheriff Joel Trella by a double-digit margin, Democrats also will control the county's largest law enforcement agency.
McGuire said Wednesday that he soon will put together a transition team. And, as he promised during the campaign, he said he will review each position in the department in an attempt to trim the millions of dollars in overtime that he made an issue.
Republicans, meanwhile, were looking for answers. Although they had lost control of both the county executive's office and the Freeholder Board in 2002, few could remember losing so soundly and having so few resources to counter a multimillion-dollar campaign waged by the Democrats.
In the campaign's final days, campaign operatives complained that while Bergen Democrats were running a non-stop flurry of ads on network TV and radio, the county GOP could hardly scrape together enough money for a last-minute radio ad of their own and some mailers.
"I think people in our party put too much emphasis on George Bush and not enough on the local," said Thom Ammirato, a GOP campaign consultant. "You had a lot of young people out there not really in tune with what's going on locally - cheering for Bush but not recognizing the fact that locally the party is getting smashed. You don't build parties from the top down, but from the bottom up."
Randall, who many within the party are looking to as a future candidate for county executive, said the party needs to look at new ways to raise money so that it can compete.
"I think we need to market ourselves - as an organized party - as an alternative," she said. "If we're good at presenting ourselves to the public, I think we will be successful and get some grass-roots contributors."