Races for district committee slots emerge from Monday’s filings
By Gene Robbins, Managing Editor
Township Democrats will face a primary election decision in June to determine more than their candidates for two seats on the local governing body.
Party organization ballot contests could decide more — like the direction of the Democratic Party in the township. A total of 63 people — roughly equally split between the two camps of candidates — filed to run for party spots called district committee members. There are 13 districts in which there is a contest.
Six days after the primary, the winners will meet to reorganize the party apparatus for the year, including electing a chair of the township party.
”It’ll be a dogfight,” said one activist.
Filing for Township Committee by Monday’s deadline were municipal party chairman Arthur Skaar and attorney Jason Storipan, who will run as “regular organization Democrats” against former school board member Thuy Anh Le and John Beggiato, who filed as “Hillsborough Democrats.”
Incumbents Douglas Tomson and Gloria McCauley are running uncontested for the Republican Party. Two three-year terms will be decided.
Shortly after the 4 p.m. filing deadline Monday, the Le and Beggiato campaign released a statement that said they had organized about 30 individuals to file petitions to run for election as county committee persons in their respective election districts.
The township Democratic Committee runs the local party apparatus and members are part of the Somerset County Democratic Committee.
The statement said that most have filed under the heading of “Hillsborough Democrats” and will appear in columns under Ms. Le and Mr. Beggiato on the primary election ballot.
Mr. Skaar said last week he had offered to reopen the screening process with all candidates, and have a new vote for preference. He suggested the party chairman — himself — might have withdrawn in the interest of unity.
He said Ms. Le told him that she and Mr. Beggiato wanted to run as a team.
James Bergstrom, speaking for the Le/Beggiato campaign, said he and others have been dissatisfied with the party leadership for years. Last year’s screening process was “unfair and not open,” he said, and Mr. Beggiato and Ms. Le “did not want to take part in the way it had been done.”
”This is something new for the Democratic Party,” said Mr. Bergstrom, who is president of the Democratic Alliance, a club-like group of party activists. “Without John and Thuy Anh running, it wouldn’t be happening.”
Mr. Skaar said that finding people to run for county committee spots was part of his job as chairman.
He said he wanted to try to get both sides to agree on unopposed district committee candidates, “but it didn’t happen,” he said.
He agreed the contests would spur activity.
”If nothing else, we’re interesting,” he said.
The statement by Ms. Le and Mr. Beggiato said new committee members “will help to invigorate the Democratic Party in Hillsborough.”
”The official Democratic Party in town should be run by a committee of 66 elected DCs (district committee members) but the committee has been largely empty for years and little effort has been made to fill the vacant seats,” the statement said. “This has allowed the party to be controlled by a very small group. This group has used unfair and closed procedures for the selection of Democratic candidates for Township Committee.”
They said that’s the reason neither Ms. Le nor Mr. Beggiato chose to take part in the selection process of the official party organization and instead “will let the 5,891 registered Democrats decide who should be their candidates for Township Committee.”
As examples of “unfair and closed procedures” Ms. Le and Mr. Beggiato said that last year the mother of the selected candidate, Will Kole, was one of three people on the screening committee that selected him. In the three years prior to 2013, the chair alone decided who should become the candidates, they said.
13 districts will feature contested races
Here are the candidates filing for Democratic Party County Committee positions from Hillsborough. “Reg” indicates filing as regular Democratinc Organization. “HB” indicates filing as Hillsborough Democrat.”
One man and one woman will be elected from each election district. People could also be written in.
District 1 Female: Joyce Tricario (Reg).
District 1 Male: Joseph Tricario (Reg) and Brian Parlato (HB).
District 2 Female: Ida Ochoteco (Reg).
District 2 Male: Al Ojeda (Reg).
District 3 Female: Nicole Risher (HB) and Liesje Fenimore (Reg).
District 3 Male: James Farley (Reg) and John Beggiato (HB).
District 4 Female: Sonya Martin (Reg).
District 4 Male: Agbar Ifan (Reg).
District 5 Female: Eileen Lawton (Reg).
District 5 Male: Sean Chen (HB) and Michael Goldberg (Reg).
District 6 Male: Carl Cucchiara (HB).
District 7 Female: Joyce Eldridge-Howard (HB) and Elizabeth Poplawski.
District 7 Male: Robert Schultz (Reg).
District 8 Female: Jennifer Bryson (HB).
District 8 Male: James Bergstrom (HB).
District 9 Male: Terry Graber (HB).
District 10 Female: Elizabeth Baker (Reg) and Helen Watts (HB).
District 10 Male: Robert Watts (HB) and Robert Baker (Reg).
District 13 Female: Paulette Adams (Reg).
District 13 Male: Alan Adams (Reg).
District 14 Female: Ann D’Adamo (Reg).
District 14 Male: Howard Greenberg (Reg).
District 15 Female: Nadine Sapirman (HB).
District 15 Male: Louis Sapirman (HB) and Robert Lawton (Reg).
District 16 Female: Anne Iannone (Reg).
District 17 Female: Valeria Chaucer-Levine (Reg).
District 17 Male: Robert Mack (Reg).
District 18 Female: Taruna Tehsildar (Reg) and Meryl Bisberg (HB).
District 18 Male: Thomas Prusa (HB) and Mark Tomczak (Reg).
District 19 Female: Amanda Mastondrea (Reg).
District 19 Male: Christian Mastondrea (Reg).
District 20 Female: Michele Griffin (Reg) and M. Jane Madonna (HB).
District 21 Male: David Singer (Reg).
District 22 Female: Claudia Shaughnessy (HB).
District 22 Male: John Reddan Jr. (Reg).
District 23 Female: Grace Pirraglia (Reg).
District 24 Male: William Dondiego (HB).
District 25 Female: Suzanne Ochse (HB).
District 25 Male: Dale Gordon (HB).
District 26 Female: Susan Martinez (Reg).
District 26 Male: Aldo Martinez (Reg).
District 27 Female: Judy Haas (Reg).
District 27 Male: Lloyd Haas (Reg) and Dev Singh (Reg).
District 28 Female: Katherine Weidener (HB).
District 28 Male: Peter Szego (HB).
District 29 Male: Jay Ghoshal (HB).
District 30 Female: Christine Jensen (Reg).
District 30 Male: Christian Jensen (Reg).
District 31 Male: Thomas Biro (HB).
District 33 Male: Paul Drake (Reg) and Steven Pick (HB).

