Former Sheriff Jerry Speziale is making Thomas Adamo’s recent party switch an issue even though the candidate mounting a comeback campaign voted in the 1999 Republican primary, two years before he became the Democratic nominee for sheriff.
Speziale, who hopes to reclaim the job he held from 2002 to 2010, sent a mailing targeting his opponent over a party affiliation change that mirrors his own. The mailing’s impact underscores the broader tensions and realignments within the Democratic Party at the local level, as endorsements, past affiliations, and campaign strategies shape the narrative of electoral campaigns.
Republican-turned-Democrat Speziale claims his opponent was a Republican until February 14 with a mailing that highlights a report saying, “Less than one month before becoming a candidate for the Democratic nomination for Passaic County sheriff, Thomas Adamo was a registered Republican.”
The mailing targeting his opponent over a party affiliation change mirrors Speziale’s own history.
Voters are selecting a replacement for Richard Berdnik, who committed suicide at a local restaurant in January. The closely contested primary race for Passaic County Sheriff has sparked controversy with Speziale seeking to reclaim the position he held from 2002 to 2010.
Each sheriff candidate has a full slate of commissioner contenders. With court-ordered office block ballots, organization candidates backed by Passaic County Democratic Chairman John Currie lost their advantage in the June 4 primary election.
Speziale has his own political base and a huge war chest plus his team – Sean Duffy, Pedro Liranzo, and Derya Taskin – will appear on the ballot above incumbents Sandi Lazzara and John Bartlett and their running mate, Rodney De Vore.
The race has attracted interest from like rivals in next year’s Democratic gubernatorial primary, with Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop backing the Speziale team and Rep. Josh Gottheimer endorsing Adamo and the incumbents.
Adamo, a career law enforcement official, switched his party registration to Democrat just before entering the race for Passaic County sheriff.
Speziale has seized on this change, questioning Adamo’s prior Republican leanings during the Trump era and implying possible support for the disgraced former president.
Speziale’s political loyalty is not uncontested but that requires voters to recall history.
In November 2001, Speziale was elected Sheriff of Passaic County, New Jersey. Although he had campaigned for Republican candidates in 1999, Speziale ran as a Democrat, and replaced Republican Edwin Englehardt, who had served as sheriff for 27 years. He was re-elected sheriff twice, in 2004 and 2007.
Critics say that when the challenger took his job at the Port Authority, Speziale left Passaic Democrats in a bind as his departure left the campaign underfunded amidst an ascending GOP incursion.
Speziale cited family reasons as his reason for resigning and abandoning his re-election campaign. According to The Record columnist Alfred Doblin, Speziale’s decision to resign so suddenly during the campaign, was “a slap in the face to political allies and donors,” and his decision to distribute the $1 million in campaign funds that Speziale had already raised to charity – rather than to other Democratic candidates – added “insult to injury.”
GOP Assemblyman Scott Rumana told reporters that he and Governor Chris Christie helped to arrange Speziale’s job, an assertion confirmed by Republican dirty trickster David Wildstein, the former Port Authority official who orchstrated the George Washington Bridge closure.
Wildstein, now the editor of a political gossip blog, alleged in a sworn statement in June 2015, that Christie arranged for the Port Authority to hire Speziale to remove him and his money from what Republicans hoped would be a competitive campaign.
As voters prepare to choose a replacement for Berdnik, the controversy surrounding the mailing reflects the heightened stakes and competing narratives in the Passaic County Sheriff race.