Republican Party Has Only Contested Primary Race

Three candidates are running for two Republican nominations in Tuesday’s primaries, and all other races are uncontested this year.

Incumbents and are running for two nominations against resident . The two winners in the election will run for two open spots on the township council in November’s general election.

Running for the two for township council are John Rooney and Mary Pranzatelli.

Councilman is running for the Republican nomination for mayor, and is running for the Democratic nomination for mayor.

Aside from the local elections, there are only uncontested races for nominations for Assembly and Senate in the 23rd district, which Bridgewater was moved to after the recent redistricting.

Incumbents Erik Peterson, of Franklin, and John DiMaio, of Hackettstown, are running for the Republican nominations for Assembly, and Scott McDonald, of Washington Borough, and Karen Carroll, of Bound Brook, are running for the Democratic nominations.

Incumbent Michael Doherty, of Oxford, is running for the Republican nomination for Senate, and John Graf, Jr., of Bedminster, is running for the Democratic nomination.

Jerry Midgette, administrator of the Somerset County Board of Elections, said there are currently 7,620 residents registered as Republicans in Bridgewater, and 6,476 residents registered as Democrats.

Because these are the primaries, residents registered as Republicans and Democrats are the only ones able to vote in the elections, but, Midgette said, residents who are unaffiliated also have the opportunity to vote if they choose.

All it takes, Midgette said, is declaring with one specific party at the polling place.

“If you show up at the polls and are in the category of unaffiliated, you can declare you want to affiliate with one of the parties,” he said. “Poll workers will take you through the appropriate process and you will be allowed to go vote in that party.”

The act of voting then affiliates a person with a specific party, Midgette said.

“If you want to vote in the primary election, you can affiliate with one or the other party on that day and vote in that party’s primary,” he said.

Midgette said many people registered with a certain party years ago, and may no longer identify with that specific party. But, he said, they may have forgotten to change their affiliation.

They can do so through that particular process at the polling locations, Midgette said.

Residents can only officially change their party affiliations 50 or more days prior to the election.

Districts 1 and 2 will vote at ; districts 3, 14 and 27 will vote at ; districts 4 and 11 will vote at the ; districts 5, 30 and 36 will vote at the ; districts 6 and 17 will vote at ; districts 7, 18 and 32 will vote at the ; district 8 will vote at the ; districts 9 and 15 will vote at the ; districts 10, 12, 20 and 24 will vote at the Blessed Sacrament Parish Center; districts 13, 22, 28 and 29 will vote at ; districts 16 and 31 will vote at ; district 21 will vote at the ; district 19 will vote at ; district 23 will vote at ; districts 25 and 26 will vote at and districts 33, 34 and 35 will vote at the .

The polls will be open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.