CORRADO TEAM CITES FLAWS IN RIGGED BCRO CONVENTION, CONFIDENT THEY WILL PREVAIL IN DISTRICT 40 PRIMARY ELECTION

March 24, 2017

Despite the obvious and numerous flaws in the Bergen County Republican Organization convention last night, the District 40 Legislative Team of Kristin M. Corrado, Kevin J. Rooney and Christopher DePhillips say they are gratified by the results and are moving on to the June 6 Primary Election confident they will win.

“Was the convention rigged by the BCRO Chairman Paul DiGaetano to favor him and his slate? Of course it was, but I felt  we came away from the contest with a lot of positives,” said DePhillips, who had argued for a month that the district’s GOP  candidates should be chosen by a District 40 only convention  covering seven Bergen County towns — similar to the way District 39 chooses its legislative candidates — and not by a convention of entire BCRO covering 70 towns.

Corrado said she was happy with the votes she received and pledges of support for her in the Primary.

“In spite of Chairman DiGaetano’s efforts to  sway the election in his favor I feel gratified by the backing of people who told me they want new, fresh faces representing them in Trenton,” said Corrado.

“I wish Mr. DiGaetano well as he tries to parlay the convention votes he received from Garfield and North Arlington into something meaningful in the June Primary. I’ll be  focusing my efforts on winning votes from the people I hope to represent who actually live in District 40,” concluded Corrado.

Kevin Rooney  said he knew the BCRO convention was rigged from the start and that he was not surprised by the outcome.

“The chairman promised not to use his position or his  influence to rig the BCRO convention, but I guess he could not help himself,” said Rooney.   “I’m not sure what the vote proved other than that the chairman could muscle his way to a  victory that does not represent the interests or wishes of the people who live in District 40.”

” I am very confident that we will prevail in the June Primary just as I prevailed in the November special election for Assembly against a candidate backed by Mr. DiGaetano,” added Rooney

The Corrado Team said they will remain a united slate in the Primary and run on a separate line in Bergen County. The Team already was awarded the party line in Passaic and Essex counties and there  is no party line designation in Morris County.

Among the flaws and irregularities in the convention cited by the Corrado team are the following

1. Bracketing of candidates

Without any consultation or forewarning about how the candidates were to be bracketed with gubernatorial candidates, chairman DiGaetano chose to put his slate under the name of the most popular Republican  gubernatorial candidate in the field: Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno in an effort to obtain votes on Guadagno’s coattails. The Lieutenant Governor garnered almost 400 votes, while there was a significant drop off for DiGaetano who grabbed 314 votes.

The Corrado Team meanwhile was bracketed with little known gubernatorial candidate Steve Rogers, a Nutley committeeman, who got just 30 votes at the convention.

 Cedar Grove resident Edward Buttimore, who is running alone for the District 40 Senate nomination, was awarded a line headed by gubernatorial candidate Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli, from Somerset County.

2. Voting Irregularities

DiGaetano signed in to vote in the convention as if he were a member of the county committee, he is not, and DePhillips said the chairman’s vote taints the election results. DePhillips ended up tied with DiGaetano’s running mate Norm Robertson; assuming that DiGaetano voted for Robertson, DePhillips said the chairman’s vote should not count; thereby making DePhillips the top vote getter among the Assembly candidates.

DiGaetano may have allowed some party officials to vote twice. According to the list of eligible voters posted at last night’s convention, some people were listed twice; once as county committee  member and once as an elected official. An attorney representing the Corrado Team discovered the irregularity and brought it to the attention of the a convention election official who tried to rectify DiGaetano’s oversight, but not before more than  a third of the ballots were cast.

3. Meaningless mandate

Despite the fact that DiGaetano is trying to claim a mandate from the convention, the result does not reflect the will of the District 40 County Committee. There are only 103 county committee members in the seven Bergen County Municipalities in District 40. As the Corrado Team noted when DiGaetano decided to open the District 40 selection process to the entire county committee; votes from party representatives in Fort Lee, Cliffside Park or Carlstadt  are meaningless.

“It’s hard to make a case that the convention is at all relevant to the wishes of District 40 Republicans, and they will be the ones voting in the Primary Election,” said De Phillips