Gloria Noto

Cumberland County Clerk Gloria Noto

*Updated

For the moment, Cumberland County Clerk Gloria Noto is joined by three other county-wide Republican elected officials. In January, she will be alone.

Democrats won complete control of the freeholder board this month, 7-0, and knocked out two Republican constitutional officers: Sheriff Michael Barruzza and Surrogate Arthur Marchand. That has left Noto, who’s up for reelection next year after 14 years in office, as the last Republican county-wide election official.

“I don’t have to tell you I’m broken hearted. It’s like losing part of your family,” said Noto.

Noto knows there’s a target on her back – that Cumberland Democratic Chairman Lou Magazzu, who’s also the freeholder director, has his sights set on her. But she said she will definitely run again.

Cumberland County Freeholder Douglas Rainear will give up his seat to become Surrogate in January. He defeated GOP incumbent Arthur Marchand

Democratic sources say that the front runner to win a special election convention for Cumberland County Freeholder is Nelson Thompson, a leader of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (District Council 711) who has run unsuccessfully for the post in recent years. The Cumberland County Democratic Committee is expected to meet in January to replace Freeholder Douglas Rainear, who was elected Surrogate last week.

Over the course of the next week, brand new U.S. Senate candidate Andy Unanue will have a chance to cement his status as the Republican favorite to take on incumbent Democrat Frank Lautenberg in a marathon series of eight conventions.

Between tomorrow and next Wednesday, there are Republican county conventions coming up in Monmouth, Mercer, Ocean, Atlantic, Cumberland, Salem, Middlesex and Somerset. County committees will decide between Unanue, a businessman who's an heir to the Goya Foods fortune and the heir apparent to the campaign of former candidate Anne Estabrook, and his two Republican competitors: state Sen. Joe Pennacchio and Ramapo College finance professor Murray Sabrin.

The person who each committee picks will be awarded a coveted spot on the party line, which typically provides a boost to the candidate whose name occupies it.

But Pennacchio, not to be counted out, is focusing on winning the line in traditionally Democratic counties where he believes he can appeal to a working-class "Reagan Democrat base" in the general election - specifically Mercer and Middlesex. He already has the line in Bergen County, although that may change if Republican Chairman Rob Ortiz meets with his executive committee and opts to give the line to Unanue, a personal friend who he recruited. He's also got the line in Hunterdon, Passaic and Union counties.