Elia Pelios

MANVILLE - In a contest for Somerset County Democratic Party chair, Peg Schaffer winsPeg Schaffer of Bedminister prevailed over former county freeholder Michael Ceponis at the VFW Hall tonight.

The pair had matched up against each other after Rebecca Perkins of Warren dropped out and endorsed Ceponis.

Schaffer, who won 185 votes to Ceponis's 132 on first ballot, had received the support of retiring chair Elia Pelios.

SOMERVILLE - Elia Pelios will not pursue a sixth term as chairman of the Democratic Party in Somerset County.

"After ten years of banging my head against the wall, I've come to the realization that there's only so much more time before brain damage sets in," said the 38-year old chairman who operates in a GOP-controlled county.

Still, Pelios said this year's presidential primary generated new registered Democrats, and for all of the organizational advantages that Republicans enjoy in Somerset, they number just 1,000 more than the Democrats.

Somerset County hasn’t elected a Democratic Freeholder since 1979, but Democrats think that this year they just might be able to capitalize on Republican misfortune and pull it off.

This year, two women from the small town of Green Brook are battling it out to see whether the county’s five-member freeholder board will remain all Republican, or whether it will be joined by a lone Democratic voice for the first time since 1982, after Christie Whitman took the seat from Michael Ceponis. The Democrats have fielded Green Brook Committeewoman Melonie Marano, while Republican’s have tapped the town’s mayor, Patricia Walsh.

Democrats in the 7th Congressional District aren’t thinking twice about fielding Assemblywoman Linda Stender to run for the seat again in 2008, despite the fact that she already lost once.

That’s because Linda Stender did better than anyone expected last November, coming within one point – just about 3,200 votes -- of unseating incumbent Republican U.S. Rep Mike Ferguson in a district that hasn’t elected a Democratic congressman or woman since 1954.

Ethics complaints filed against seven GOP legislators by Democratic County Chairmen Richard Perr of Burlington and Elia Pelios of Somerset have been dismissed by the Joint Committee on Ethical Standards.  One Republican, Assemblyman Richard Merkt, says he may file a defamation lawsuit against Perr and Pelios for falsely accusing them of unethical conduct.  

A statement issued by Merkt labeled the complaints a "politically-motivated smear by state Democrats to divert attention from the recent federal criminal indictment of Democrat Senator and kingpin Wayne Bryant, as well as numerous ongoing federal criminal probes into Democrat legislators who steered state grants so they could profit personally."