JOHN HIPP

John Hipp, a lawyer who rode the anti-tax, anti-EnCap wave to crush two term mayor and Bergen County Freeholder Bernadette McPherson, was sworn in as mayor of Rutherford today at Town Hall. 

Also sworn in were two new Republican council members: Rose Inguanti and John Sasso, boosting the Republican presence on the council to three and tying it 3-3 with Democrats. 

In southern Bergen County, Republicans are focusing much of their energy on one town: Rutherford.

Democratic Mayor Bernadette P. McPherson, who is also a Bergen County Freeholder, is up for re-election along on a slate with Democratic Councilmen Ray Frazier and Richard Reyes.  Currently, the balance of power on the council is 5-1 Democratic.  The Republicans have fielded attorney John Hipp for mayor, along with Rose Inguanti and John Sasso in an attempt to tie council. 

But more is at stake that just the leadership of this town of 18,000.  The election is one of the first offensive moves by new Bergen County Republican Chairman Robert Ortiz, who’s trying to slowly claw the Republicans back to power town by town.  And it just so happens that this was one of the first towns that Bergen County Chairman Joseph Ferriero turned over to Democrats, with McPherson’s election in 1999 and winning a council majority the year before that.