Back in June of 2018, a four-vote margin ended a bitter fight for chair of the Morris County Republican Committee between Ron DeFilippis, the winner, and Rob Zwigard.

DeFilippis assumed control of the party, but gave up the chairmanship late last year for health reasons and was replaced by Laura Ali, who became acting chair.

Now, Ali wants the job for real. She said this week that she will run for a term of her own at the party’s June convention.

Will Zwigard run against her?

He said Thursday afternoon that he was “contemplating” another run.

Ali’s letter to county Republicans highlighted such internal achievements as an expanded, new headquarters in Parsippany to external accomplishments like holding Assembly seats in last fall’s election.

Her goals are pretty bold.

She said she wants to “keep Morris County red so strongly that we will turn New Jersey red as well.”

In a rather provocative comment, Ali said, “Our future is bright and we will be unstoppable as long as we are aligned, united and working together.”

That sounds like throwaway line, but it isn’t.

Notwithstanding general success over the years, splits in the party remain.

Last year’s primaries for example, prompted court action by one of the freeholder winners and scurrilous accusations in the race for surrogate.

With the filing deadline for this year’s primary only about six weeks away, it will be interesting to see how many internal battles surface. On the positive side, party leaders can take credit for congressional candidate Rosemary Becchi’s jump from District 7 to District 11, thereby avoiding possible primaries in both districts.