This is cross-posted and adapted from Blue Jersey to provide some context on the mass GOP-to-Dem party switching taking place in Lyndhurst, NJ that Markos linked to earlier.
In a rare shift in party affiliation, the entire membership of the all-Republican governing body in Lyndhurst will switch from Republican to Democrat tomorrow. Nearly 60% of Lyndhurst's Republican County Committee will become Democrats too.
The party realignment, first reported in PoliticsNJ.com last summer, is far greater in scope than speculated. It represents, perhaps, the most massive shift in Party affiliation of elected and Party officials in a single community in one day. "It's safe to say something like this certainly doesn't happen in politics everyday," said Lyndhurst Mayor Richard DiLascio.
This story is significant, but not because an entire town is switching sides. That doesn't happen in the real world. As is almost always the case in New Jersey, and especially Bergen County, there's likely more to the story.
In July, 36th district Republican Senate candidate (and former Democrat and Lyndhurst school board member) Michael Guarino suggested that Lyndhurst Mayor DiLascio was just a puppet of Bergen County Democratic chair Joe Ferriero and that he be barred from the GOP convention:
Guarino says that DiLascio's support for the notorious EnCap development project in the meadowlands and his corresponding support for Sen. Paul Sarlo - the chief legislative backer of the EnCap boondoggle - "have put him in bed with the Democrats."
Guarino said part of the rumored deal in the works is that DiLascio will remain a Republican only until after Monday's vote. He has allegedly been told to throw his town's support to [Bergen County Republican chair candidate] Ben Focarino at the insistence of Bergen County Democrat Party Chairman, Joseph Ferriero. Boss Ferriero is allegedly also steering other District 36 Republican votes toward Foccarino as well. [...]
"The fact is that DiLascio is for, all intents and purposes, a Democrat. He shouldn't be allowed to do Joe Ferriero's dirty work and influence the outcome of the chairman's vote," said Guarino, a former Democrat.
Why would the mayor switch allegiances? What's in it for him? Guarino has a theory:
He has been offered a county job and I am sure he will be offered more in the future as a reward for his complicity." [...]
For his acquiescence on the EnCap project, DiLascio was supposed to get a $20,000 Bergen County job. After his employment was approved by the Freeholder board, his job offer was withdrawn by the freeholders last week.
"The Democrats withdrew the job because of the embarrassment caused by having DiLascio switch parties and then get rewarded with a county job," said Guarino. "But you can bet there are bigger rewards waiting for him thanks to Joe Ferriero and Paul Sarlo."
This certainly fits Joe Ferriero's MO. He's grown a very powerful organization by trading jobs for political loyalty and contracts for campaign contributions.
But Ferriero's been beset by a number of high profile losses this year. First was the heat applied by Loretta Weinberg and her breakaway faction, the Real Bergen Democrats, in the primary in the 37th District. Ferriero was warned it was a fool's errand, but he undertook it anyway, only to pull his slate before the voting started with opinion polls indicating a Real Bergen Democrats landslide. More recently, he had to talk Senator Joe Coniglio into political retirement with an ethics investigation targeting the BCDO stalwart. And Ferriero's power also came into question when he was apparently unable to privately talk BCDO counsel Dennis Oury out of bringing a pre-election legal challenge to the constitutionality of the state's pay-to-play restrictions, a move that many Democrats, both statewide and in the county, viewed as an incredibly tone deaf threat to chances to take away Republican seats in the legislature.
Granted, Guarino's claims should be taken with a grain of salt, as he is a Republican with a vested interest in beating up Democrats. However, the fundamental assertions underlying the claims were never refuted, and the party switch prediction certainly came true. So one way of explaining the mass party shift in Lyndhurst would be that Ferriero has decided to rev the patronage mill into overdrive to shore up support and rack up a big "win" for the BCDO right before the November election, right when he needs it most.
So while Markos and a number of other Democrats around the country are very excited about this news, I offer a word of caution. It could be that Republicans in Lyndhurst have seen the light and are converting to progressivism. Or it could be something much less pleasant, and sadly, so much more Jersey.