Two Northern Republican county chairs – one of them a candidate for office – went at it this afternoon over the use of a slogan.

Bergen County Chairman Paul DiGaetano called an emergency meeting for tomorrow to resolve what he cited as a critical issue with the use of his party’s county slogan “Republicans for Responsible Government.’

First, Digaetano took a swipe at former Chairman Bob Yudin, who he displaced last year.

“In preparation for filing the appropriate documents for our countywide candidates and local candidates who wish to run on the County Organization line in the June primary, we have discovered that our former Chairman had not filed that slogan with the State of NJ  since 2010,’ DiGaetano complained in an email.”

Then he trained his sights on Essex County GOP Chairman Al Barlas, who’s backing Passaic Clerk Kristin Corrado in the LD40 primary against DiGaetano, who’s the candidate for senate in addition to serving as party chairman.

“In the midst of that research, we have also discovered that forces outside Bergen County have officially filed, with The State of NJ, virtually the same slogan on March 10, 2017, a copy of which is herein attached,” DiGaetano said. “A preliminary review by legal counsel for BCRO indicates that the filing of those documents will serve to compromise BCRO’s use of the slogan.”

Barlas hit back.

“Owning the slogan is party chairmanship 101,” said the Essex County Republican. “I went looking for a slogan as a direct result of Paul’s rigged convention process. As a Republican I was concerned that the slogan was available, and I bought the slogan.

“If Paul was actually focused on being a chairman, Paul would have known this,” Barlas added. “He can blame other people, but at one point you have to look in the mirror and say you’re the leader. Now I want everyone in Bergen County to take a deep breath. If you are a Republican in Bergen,  from top to bottom, you can use the slogan.

“As the Republican chairman of Essex I took this on because the chairman of Bergen was too busy to do it himself,” the chairman added.  “As for the dig about ‘outside force,’ we’ve all represented district 40 longer than he’s lived there.”