Voters to Choose in Congressional, County Primaries Today

While seats on the Township Committee are unopposed for both parties on the ballot in today's primary, residents have competitive races in both parties.

Republicans are being asked to pick a candidate for the seventh district seat in Congress, where an incumbent is facing off against three challengers, including a Westfield resident. 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.

The primary comes after a poll released yesterday by Fairleigh Dickinson University shows that only 14-percent of voters statewide knew there was a primary election today. Most voters polled, 48-percent, thought the next election was in November.

A list of polling places can be found here.

In the race for Township Committee, both parties are fielding two candidates for two seats, leaving the real match-up to November. On the Republican side, Mayor Mark Smith is joined in his bid for a second term as a township commissioner by Zoning Board member Andis Kainins. Democrats are fielding former zoning board member Kevin Cambell and green team member Edward O'Malley in the election. Republican Deputy Mayor Martha Garcia announced earlier this year that she will be retiring after one term on the Township Committee.

Control of township government for 2011 will be up for stake in November, with a sweep by the Democrats giving their party a 3-2 majority on the Township Committee.

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 one 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.