Politics & Government

Republican Council Candidate Likely to 'Step Aside' if He Wins Primary

There are three names on the Primary election ballot for Fort Lee Borough Council for two nominations on the Republican ticket. But Peter B. Campbell says that if he wins, he will probably bow out, and that if Rosanna Surace wins, he will endorse her.

Tuesday is Primary election day, and Fort Lee voters will go to the polls to choose their party’s nominees for Borough Council.

On the Democratic side, there really is no race in the municipal election. There are two three-year seats being contested in this year’s election, and incumbent Fort Lee Councilmen Joseph Cervieri, Jr. and Harvey Sohmer are the only two names on the primary ballot.

However the local Republican race is a little more complicated.

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The ballot has three names: Thomas Bennett and Peter B. Campbell, who are running together, and Rossana Surace, who is running alone.

Campbell though says that if he wins on Tuesday, he’s likely to drop out of the race, and that if Surace were to win, he would gladly endorse her.

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“My name appears on the ballot as a candidate for the Borough Council,” Campbell told Patch. “Nobody stepped up to run for that seat at the time of the deadline for filing so I put my name in to hold the county line. I would be an active and the true candidate if no one else were to stand up. However if there was a Republican with good credentials, and they had a serious intention of running, and they met all of the qualifications and received the endorsement of our County Committee Chairwoman, Judith Fisher, I would step aside.”

Campbell added, “[Surace] has stepped up, but it was not in enough time to get her on the ballot in lieu of me.”

Fort Lee Borough Clerk Neil Grant confirmed Monday that Surace’s name is indeed on the ballot, but that she’s officially running alone.

“She has my support, and if she should win, I will fully endorse her,” Campbell said.

If Surace doesn’t win, Grant said, the nomination does not automatically go to her, but rather falls to the Republican County Committee to decide.

“The race still has to be done by tomorrow,” Grant said Monday. “Then the withdrawals are a separate procedure. There’s a timeframe to clear a vacancy and then put up another candidate. That’s how [former Council candidate] Al Norton ran last year.”

“Whatever the case, I probably will be stepping aside for another candidate if I’m not eliminated in the primaries,” Campbell said. “And if I am eliminated by Surace, then she would have the full weight of my endorsement.”

The other contested race Tuesday—and it’s likely to be hotly contested—is the Democratic primary for the redistricted 9th Congressional district between U.S. Rep. Steve Rothman (D-9), who was in Fort Lee Sunday, according to PolitickerNJ, and U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-8).

Polls are open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday. Polling locations for Fort Lee’s 19 election districts can be found here on the Elections & Voting section of the Borough of Fort Lee’s website.

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