Paula Sollami-Covello

Mercer County Republican Chairman Roy Wesley today charged that County Clerk Paula Sollami-Covello kept an accused thief on the job at the county clerk’s office because he was a political appointee.

Last month, county clerk employee Ishmael M. Raines was charged pocketing fees that residents paid to get or renew passports. Raines failed to process many of the applications, which included sensitive materials like birth certificates, expired passports and social security numbers.

Sollami-Covello told the Trenton Times that, following complaints about passport application materials missing from Raines, he was taken off that duty and that she contacted the inspector general.

The two-party system in Essex and Mercer county governments came to a close this week, with Democrats taking over the last GOP posts. Democrat Linda Lordi Cavanaugh was sworn in an Essex County Freeholder after defeating incumbent Muriel Shore in the November general election. Cavanaugh won a district Freeholder seat that had been under Republican control since Monroe Jay Lustbader ousted Renee Lane in 1981. The new Mercer County Clerk is Paula Sollami-Covello, who narrowly defeated two-term incumbent Catherine DiCostanzo.

In Essex, Democrats now have a 9-0 majority on the Freeholder Board (there has been two Republican Freeholders as recently as 2002), and control every constitutional office. Democrat Joseph DiVincenzo looks like a strong bet for re-election as County Executive in 2006; the GOP held this post from 1995 to 2003. With the retirement of Assemblyman Paul DiGaetano, Essex Republicans will have just one office above the municipal level: Assemblyman Kevin O'Toole.

In Mercer, Democrats have a 7-0 majority on the Freeholder Board and control every constitutional office. The County Clerk's job had been under GOP control for twenty years.