Garden State Patriot

According to Charles Stile’s of the Bergen Record, Bergen County Democrats met recently to discuss plan plot the party’s future in the wake of BCDO Chairman Joe Ferriero’s federal indictment on corruption charges. With Ferriero’s situation hanging like a black cloud over them, Bergen Dems didn’t fare as well as in past elections and BCDO brass are now quite spooked about what this may mean for next year when the Governorship and state legislature are on the slate.

Despite Ferriero’s organizational skill and fund-raising prowess, many, including some of those who owe him their political careers, fear he will become a political albatross in next year’s crucial gubernatorial and legislative races. Ferriero’s trial date is set for September, which could mean the airing of dirty BCDO laundry during the height of the fall campaign.

And some also suspect that Ferriero was a drag on the party this fall. The party’s victory margins in Bergen were unimpressive, despite the historic headwind from Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

The Democratic freeholder slate captured 20 percent fewer voters than Obama, an ominous turnaround from 2004 presidential contest, when freeholders captured only 6 percent fewer votes than presidential candidate John Kerry. Even more alarming is this analysis: Take away the strong and predictable Obama vote margins in the Democratic strongholds of Hackensack, Englewood, Cliffside Park, Fort Lee and Teaneck, and Obama carried the rest of Bergen’s 59 municipalities by only 10,000 votes.

All I can say to my fellow Bergenites is: when is enough enough? It’s time to vote these people out.