Henry Kuhl

Dick Zimmer’s campaign for the United States Senate suffered a setback last night when he lost a bid for the organization line in his home county.  Hunterdon County Republicans voted 34-40 to keep Joe Pennacchio as their endorsed candidate, rather than switch to Zimmer, who represented Hunterdon as an Assemblyman, State Senator and Congressman from 1981 to 1996.  Some insiders suggest that Zimmer’s defeat last night was more of a problem for longtime GOP County Chairman Henry Kuhl, who is expected to face a challenge for re-election in June against Mark Peck, the Mayor of Bloomsbury.

Joseph Pennacchio won the Somerset County Republican convention last month in a race where he was essentially unopposed.  Andy Unanue, in the race a few days and still vacationing in Vail, declined to compete, and Murray Sabrin was ineligible because he refused to sign a pledge required by the party to support the organization slate.  Now Pennacchio is in danger of losing the Somerset endorsement as GOP County Chairman Dale Florio maneuvers behind the scenes to add Dick Zimmer to the line.  Sources close to Florio say that he has discussed either a do-over vote based on the new field of candidates -- Zimmer represented part of Somerset County in Congress from 1991 to 1997 --  or simply creating a limited open primary, where Pennacchio and Zimmer – but not Sabrin – would run on the organization line.

There’s still no shortage of party leaders scrambling to find alternative candidates to Joe Pennacchio and Murray Sabrin in the Republican Senate primary, but Pennacchio’s support has not seemed to waver the counties where he’s already won the party line.

“I don’t see that that will change very many peoples’ minds,” Henry Kuhl, the GOP Chairman in Hunterdon County, said. “I think that the candidate Sabrin, in my opinion, would need to properly campaign and sell his ideas to people to be successful rather than take something up that’s 17 years old.”

Longtime Hunterdon County Republican Chairman Henry Kuhl is expected to opposition in his re-election bid this June, and Bloomsbury Mayor Mark Peck is viewed as Kuhl’s most likely challenger.

One of the closest four-way races in the state was in Hunterdon County, where Deborah Trout, a career law enforcement officer, defeated Freeholder Director George Muller by 91 votes, 30%-29%, in the Republican primary. Tony Critelli, who had the endorsement of Hunterdon County Republican Chairman Henry Kuhl, finished third with 25% -- 274 votes behind Muller. Gary "Buzz" Howell, who finished last, lost the election by just 912 votes.