Yudin's 41-year journey in N.J. politics

It's like it's 1945. There is only one plane left. And two kamikaze pilots are fighting over who gets to fly it.

Chairman Ortiz often says he wants to emulate Joe Ferrerio - Bergen County Republican Chairman Rob Ortiz, who’s held the position since July, credits an unlikely source for his strategy: Democratic Chairman Joe Ferriero. In this context, Rutherford takes on added significance as one of the first towns that Ferriero turned blue in 1999. “I can’t speak to how the party used to operate. I can only speak to how I envision us taking back the county, it’s the same way as the Ferriero model,” said Ortiz. “I plan on taking back town after town.” (11/7/07 - Bergen Post-Mortem Article By Matt Friedman)

He emulates Joe Ferrerio by trying to dictate candidates to the BCRO and the CC won't have any of it. The Yudin Victory Express will be rolling into Hackensack tomorrow night.

Ortiz V. Yudin & the Bergen County republican chairman's race June 16th, 2008 Much to our amazement here at the Consortium, there are actually two men competing to head the train wreck commonly referred to as the Bergen County Republican Organization. The vote is tomorrow night. It is important to note before we go any further that the organization is barely Republican and is hardly organized. The two candidates are current chairman Rob Ortiz from Ridgewood and challenger Bob Yudin from Wyckoff. Rob Ortiz came out of nowhere about ten months ago. To our knowledge, Rob Ortiz was largely an un-known entity to those who were active on County Committee . He was some big money man for George W. Bush. He was the flavor of the month for the establishment folks. Party Crashers as we call them. The same ones who supported Estabrook, then Unanue and currently Zimmer for Senate. Since his election Mr. Ortiz has essentially written the book on what not to do if you are elected BCRO chairman. His first lesson was that raising money for a sitting President of the United States and for a bunch of local out of power Republican candidates are two starkly different tasks. Ortiz proceeded to unilaterally put the organizations support behind the now failed presidential bid of Rudy Giuliani. Then there was his personal recruitment and advocacy of the disastrous Andy Unanue for the United States Senate.This recruitment occured after his county committee had voted and put their support behind N.J. State Senator Joe Pennachio. Ortiz even traveled the state and campaigned on Unanue's behalf. These actions screamed of contempt and arrogance for his county committee members. He never appeared to reach out to the rank and file , never attended many functions or club meetings. He showed a lack of interest and desire to forge the personal relationships necessary to be a successful chairman. He remains largely unknown through every fault of his own. We don't know if he was getting bad advice from inexperienced people or he was just too inexperienced himself to know any better. Mr. Ortiz alienated himself from the organization and failed to build a solid base of support at the grassroots level. Bob Yudin has worked the County Committee organization for years and is very well known throughout the Bergen County Republican Organization. As a candidate for Bergen County Freeholder he has earned the trust and respect of the rank and file members the old fashioned way- through hard work. One main difference between Yudin and Ortiz is motivational. Yudin wants the chairmanship to improve and strengthen the Republican Party in Bergen County. Mr. Ortiz wants to improve and strengthen his own lot. He put his ego ahead of the organization and in the words of Vice President Dick Cheney, he got burned "Big Time".

Blah, blah, blah. The Ortiz crew has officially run out of diatribes. Are you going to wear your Sunday best tomorrow for Bob Yudin's big win? You saw the Poll results Millie, didn't you (57%Yudin - 43% Ortiz)?  Something sassy with a nice floral print, maybe?

Two long years Millie, what are you going to do?  There must be some other dupe out there who needs your considerable consulting skills.

Nobody knows what the future holds for Bergen, the upside is the Bergen GOP is back in the hands of the County Committee.  The "Attorney/Lobbyist" hordes will be beaten back at least in the short term.  This should give us some time to recruit some real activists whose belief system doesn't change like the wind blows.