Reported last night on Insider iLine, Dawne Rowe of Franklin has defeated incumbent Katie Rotondi to become chair of the Sussex County Democratic Committee.

While Sussex is hardly a Democratic party hotbed, this contest had some intriguing aspects to it.

Rotondi was just elected last June and her term was to run until next year. But a few months ago, a group of party dissidents voiced displeasure with Rotondi’s leadership and asked her to resign. That
didn’t happen, but Rotondi agreed to stand for reelection this June, a year earlier than planned.

And so an odd pandemic-related party convention ensued Tuesday night.

The setting just about guaranteed a lackluster event and that turned out to be the case. It’s hard, after all, to fire up the crowd by talking into a computer.

Rowe’s speech ignored the recent controversy and said Sussex Dems must concentrate on unity and working to remove the “occupant of the White House.”

By any objective measure, Rotondi’s brief speech – each candidate was limited to five minutes – was probably more compelling.

She said that under her leadership the party has expanded voter outreach through technology and has actively challenged Republicans at freeholder meetings and other public events. Being an irritant is a
logical strategy for Sussex Dems. Rotondi also mentioned recent anti-racist rallies that took place last weekend in Newton.

But in the end, Rowe won easily by a vote of 90 to 48. So did her entire slate.

In a Facebook post, the winners said,  “We are honored to have been elected as the new leadership of the SCDC. Now let’s get to work.”

Some may see this as a dubious prize. The hill remains steep. Registered Republicans outnumber Democrats in the county 2-1,  the largest margin of any county in the state. The good news for the party
is that the two House members representing Sussex in Washington are Democrats – Josh Gottheimer and Mikie Sherrill.

Before we leave this, we must mention Rotondi’s recent allegation that Tom Palmieri, the Warren County Democratic chair, made inappropriate comments to her. Palmieri calls the charges totally false and has gotten support from a number of women who are active in northwest Jersey politics.

Rotondi said last month that she wanted to make the allegation public while she was still party chair, but acknowledged it probably would hurt her campaign.

Looks like she may have been right about that.