Insider NJ had dubbed LD39 Assemblywoman Holly Schepisi as “the fighter.”  But as the Bergen County attorney was gearing up for what she described as an unexpected race against Senator Gerald Cardinale—claiming that he was not going to seek re-election when she made her decision to run for state senate—New Jersey’s second-longest-serving senator (after Richard Codey) passed away on February 20.  With Cardinale’s death at 86 years of age, the light began to immediately show between LD39’s two Republican assembly members.

Robert Auth, a long-time Cardinale loyalist, announced that he would run to succeed his mentor, with the blessing of the late senator’s widow, Carole Cardinale.  Maria McDonald, widow of the late senator’s chief of staff John McDonald, harshly zinged Schepisi as well, scorning the assemblywoman’s 2016 trip to Cuba.  Mrs. Cardinale had said that Auth was “the only person in the field with integrity and leadership abilities.”

“I respect Carole,” Schepisi told Insider NJ.  “I have known the senator since I was a child.  I always was incredibly respectful and had a very nice relationship throughout the years with them.  I was a little bit shocked by the statement, but she is also in grief and was upset that I was going to run against her husband.  So, it’s understandable.”

Some might call it a violation of Ronald Reagan’s “Eleventh Commandment” and certainly Democrats would revel in the intra-party feud if they had had time.

So, what was to be done?  The Bergen-Passaic Republicans had to face facts and quickly, the late senator’s affection for Auth notwithstanding.  Schepisi has secured the Passaic County Republican Organization line.  She has rolled in the endorsements.  The Pascack Press had reported a number of Republican Bergen County mayors signed onto a letter to Cardinale before his death, thanking the senator for his many years of service and leadership, but calling for him to support Schepisi.  When facing down Auth, she said on March 2 that, “District 39 needs a strong leader with the ability to build a winning coalition in a general election. Having led our ticket significantly in total votes and money raised in every election cycle, I have what it takes to lead our party forward and ensure our success this November.”  Her message was clear—Auth would not be the strongest candidate.  She wasn’t going to back down to Senator Cardinale and she wasn’t going to back down to Cardinale’s favorite Assemblyman, either.  More importantly, as far as she was concerned, the numbers were on her side.  Then, what had started suddenly ended just as suddenly, making for a rollercoaster political timeline for the GOP LD39 race.  For the moment, at least, it seems the matter is settled.

“It’s been wild,” Schepisi said.  “It’s something where, in a seat that’s been occupied for 40 years, there was bound to be some kind of challenge for it.”

An accord had been reached and a statement of unity was duly released by Bergen County Republican Chairman Jack Zisa.

“It is with great pleasure that the Bergen County Republican Organization (BCRO) announced today that Holly Schepisi and Bob Auth will be running as a team for the 39th Legislative District. Holly will carry the BCRO banner for the State Senate and Bob Auth will seek to continue his excellent service as a member of the State Assembly,” the statement read.

Auth would stay put for now and make his case to the voters, as he has been able to successfully do so before.

“I’ve been here for nine years, cultivating relationships, friendships, as well as fighting for our residents against bad policy,” Schepisi said.  “I think ultimately people realized that I was the strongest candidate to lead our party forward and to be able to attract some of the voters that the Republican Party has lost over the past decade.  As a working mom, as a bit of an outsider, as someone who has a small business, and in the trenches facing the exact same challenges that our residents face day in and day out, I would be the best person to be the face at the top of the ticket moving forward.”

However disheartening it might have been for Cardinale’s most devoted political acolyte, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.

Nevertheless, political readers should not think that the fissure which appeared so suddenly between Auth and Schepisi has vanished.  Its origins are personal as much as they are professional, from Schepisi’s point of view.  On her own relationship with Auth, she described it as one which “has never been as strong as his relationship with Senator Cardinale was.  There wasn’t a schism, per se, but they had the joint office, I was on my own, so there was this natural leaning between Gerry and Bob.  I was more of the free agent, free spirit, a little bit doing my own thing but also working in conjunction with them on important issues.  But people would see Gerry and Bob together and that wasn’t the same case as with me.”

When asked if the Cardinale allies aligned themselves with Auth against her, she responded with a simple, to the point, “Yes, absolutely.”  But she doesn’t take it personally, writing so much of it off as the nature of campaign season.  “What is funny is that the senator himself was known as a ferocious fighter who, I have no doubt had he been in my position, he would’ve done exactly the same thing, even a harder fighter.  A lot of the tools of politics that I learned came directly from watching him.”

If you take Schepisi at her word, then there is no reason to expect détente will not resume and that so much of the course of events was simply the nature of the political process itself.  But this is nothing unusual, either.  “[Auth running] did surprise me but yet it didn’t,” Schepisi said.  “In all fairness, there was really no reason for him not to take a shot at it.  So, I don’t begrudge him for doing so.  I think he honestly and truly went into it thinking he could win it.  We both went out and did what we needed to do.   We went and started calling through our county committee and people who supported us.  We sat down and had a lengthy conversation about what was best for the party, and who had the better chances, and decided that we were stronger together if we ran as a ticket.”

In the joint statement from the BCRO, Auth said, “My focus is and always has been on doing what is best for the people of Bergen County whom I serve.  By coming together and maintaining what has been a strong legislative team over the past seven years, I believe we are continuing to meet that goal.”

The question, therefore, is to define what the post-Cardinale LD39 landscape will look like.  Ultimately, the field will be determined by the voters in November.  But the party has passed the torch to Schepisi, and not to Cardinale’s favorite.  This may be bitter fruit for some allies of Cardinale to digest, but it is also a reminder to those sitting in positions of power—particularly those there for long periods of time—that the seats they occupy are not “theirs” and that no person is a natural successor.  When it is seen otherwise, or if the system does not seem reflective of popular will, disaffection begins to grow in the ranks.  The party faithful can eventually become unaffiliated or go off to join other parties, as seen in the case of former Republican right-wing gubernatorial candidate David Winkler, or those ancien régime Republicans who found the national-level rhetoric and style that trickled down simply unbearable.

Cardinale served as a senator for some forty years.  But each person operates in a unique way in their own time.  Catching lightning in a bottle is rare, and rarer still can one replicate the success of another using the original model in different times.  This is not to say Auth isn’t his own man—he unquestionably is—but, whether true or not, he may be perceived as an extension of Cardinale as well due to their closeness.  Schepisi—the Generation X working mom—can and will capitalize on the fact that times have changed as she seeks to bring disaffected Republicans back into the allegedly “big tent.”  She may do so if he does, in fact, represent the evolving future New Jersey Republican Party after all.  Only when the voters are heard at the ballot box will we know for sure.