Peter Murphy

A splinter group of Republicans in Passaic County has asked the county’s GOP committee members to encourage Chairman Scott Rumana to resign by January 1.

GOP Strong, which counts former Passaic County Republican Chairmen Mike Mecca and Peter Murphy among its leaders, issued a letter today to county committee members and “concerned Republicans” arguing that Rumana, who’s also an assemblyman, has failed to revive the beleaguered party.

“Nowhere are the failings of the Republican Party more evident than in Passaic County, where the party chairman Scott Rumana has presided over a string of electoral failures that are disheartening and disappointing,” read the letter, which is signed by Mecca.

Mecca said that after presiding over three straight election losses as a county chairman, he resigned, realizing that it was difficult to balance being an elected official and party chairman at the same time.

“I knew that when I lost three elections in arrow, it was time for a change. And Mr. Rumana has lost every county-wide election as chairman including freeholder, county clerk and sheriff races,” he said. 

For the last couple weeks, Passaic County has buzzed with talk of Republican activist Joe Caruso mounting an Assembly primary bid to take down incumbent Scott Rumana (R-Wayne).

Reached for comment today, Caruso downplayed the prospect but did not rule it out entirely.

"Not to bloat my own ego, but I have too many ideas I want to share with the state, and to go into a position in the Assembly, my first question is what can you do to affect change as an assemblyman?," said Caruso, a Passaic County native who heads up the finance wing of the Republican Party in neighboring Bergen County and runs a finance firm.

If Caruso does decide to run, however, he will limit his campaign to targeting Rumana, and not Assemblyman Dave Russo (R-Ridgewood), who he described as a "gentleman."

An ongoing political feud among Republicans in Passaic County escalated a bit today with former GOP County Chairman Michael Mecca sharply criticizing the current chairman, Scott Rumana, for not attending the wake or funeral of Elaine Murphy, whose son and late husband both served as Passaic County Republican Chairman.

The following is a text of Mecca's e-mail sent to party leaders today:

Passaic County Republicans don’t need an internal war.  But they’ve got one.

The latest flare up between leadership factions in the party occurred last Monday, when freeholder candidates Mike Marotta and Jerry Holt held a joint beefsteak dinner fundraiser with Chairman Scott Rumana, who’s also an Assemblyman, at the Brownstone Restaurant in Paterson.

That led Rumana’s critics to charge that he was competing for resources with the cash-strapped freeholder candidates.  Rumana, in turn, said that his critics were holdovers from the dark days of the party and puppets of the man who used to control it: Peter Murphy.

Meanwhile, Marotta and Holt are stuck uncomfortably in the middle while they try to campaign against Democratic incumbents Bruce James and Greyson Hannigan.

The Passaic County Republican Organization (that's the faction run by County Chairman Michael Mecca and supported by former GOP Chairman Peter Murphy) will run former County Clerk Ronni Nochimson, Passaic City Councilman Jonathan Soto, and Ken Del Vecchio, a North Haledon attorney, for Freeholder. Another wing of the party, aligned with Wayne Mayor Scott Rumana (who is running for County Chairman) and former Paterson Mayor Lawrence "Pat" Kramer, had sought to place three other candidates -- former Assemblyman Ronald Fava, a former Passaic County Prosecutor and Sheriff, Clifton Board of Education member John Traier, and former Wayne Councilman William Van Gieson -- on the ticket. The Rumana slate might run in the primary. There has been some talk last week that Republicans could compete for Freeholder seats this fall as a result of a Democratic split over the nomination of a controversial Arab-American businessman for Freeholder.

Republican leaders in fifteen of sixteen Passaic County towns today endorsed Wayne Mayor Scott Rumana for Republican County Chairman. The incumbent, Michael Mecca, is stepping down, and former GOP Chairman Peter Murphy had been seeking a comeback.

A coalition led by former Assemblyman Paul DiGaetano to replace Passaic County Republican Chairman Michael Mecca with former GOP Chairman Peter Murphy may face opposition from another candidate, Wayne Mayor Scott Rumana. Mecca, dealing with some serious personal issues, wants out. Murphy, who left as County Chairman in 2001 following a criminal conviction that has since been overturned, has forged an alliance with DiGaetano. Rumana is backed by Essex County Republican Chairman Kevin O'Toole, who represents part of Passaic County in the State Assembly.

Former Paterson Mayor (and gubernatorial candidate) Lawrence "Pat" Kramer says he was approaced by Murphy's supporters with the plan for that would include former Assemblyman Frank Catania as a Co-Chairman, but rejected their offer. Kramer and Catania run a reform GOP group that challenged Mecca's line in the June 2005 primary.

Some Republicans suggest that the fight over control of the weakened Passaic GOP organization is tied to a future battle in the 40th district. O'Toole is anxious to move up to the State Senate (where he served for several months in 2001) if Henry McNamara retires in 2007, and Rumana, a former Passaic County Freeholder, wants to take O'Toole's Assembly seat. Complicating this deal is speculation that DiGaetano plans to relocate from Nutley to Wayne and is also interested in replacing McNamara in the GOP-safe Bergen/Essex/Passaic district.

There is considerable speculation among Passaic County Republicans that Michael Mecca is preparing to step down as GOP County Chairman. Mecca, who lost his Freeholder seat in 2004, has been dealing with some serious personal issues lately. Several sources say the leading plan would be to replace Mecca with two Co-Chairs: former Assemblyman Frank Catania and former Republican County Chairman Peter Murphy. Murphy served as County Chairman until his 2002 bribery and mail fraud convictions and served nearly eleven months in a federal prison before the U.S. Court of Appeals overturned the conviction. Federal proscutors passed on another bribery trial after Murphy pleaded guilty to a mail fraud charge. He was sentenced to time served. Catania was part of a reform GOP group led by former Paterson Mayor Pat Kramer that challenged the county GOP organization last June.