The Wayne Democratic Municipal Committee has forwarded three nominees to the Township Council to fill the Fifth Ward seat vacated by the resignation of former Councilwoman Francine Ritter, including one candidate who appears to be registered as a Republican and another who is married to one.
The three nominees placed with the Township Clerk are 77-year-old June Fisher-Markowitz, 47-year-old Dennis J. Marnick, and 37-year-old Marc E. Seemon, all residents of the Fifth Ward.
Fisher-Markowitz and Seemon are registered Democrats, but Marnick is affiliated with the Republican Party, according to Passaic County voter registration records supplied by the New Jersey Secretary of State.
Fisher-Markowitz, who has been an active Democrat for years, lives on Bobolink Court with her husband, Arthur Donald Markowitz, who is a registered Republican.
The couple’s differing party affiliations offer a domestic example of the bipartisan cooperation often called for in government. Or the arrangement might reflect the Democratic establishment’s peculiar fondness for crossing the aisle—it seems what happens under the sheets has a way of surfacing in the selection meetings.
“This isn’t about politics,” said Evan Covello, who co-chairs the Wayne Democratic Municipal Committee and is employed as Assistant Township Manager in Randolph, where Republican congressional nominee Joe Hathaway is a municipal official. “The three individuals we have put forward are all registered democrats. This was confirmed by the Township Clerk’s Office last week.”
“The three nominees put forward to fill the vacancy on the council represent a cross-section of the community’s political landscape, including one Republican and a Democratic woman who shares her home with a Republican,” said a local resident who expressed disappointment with party leaders.
The decision to include a Republican among the Democratic committee’s choices for a council vacancy has raised eyebrows, particularly given the party’s recent struggles at the ballot box.
The move follows a 2025 election cycle in which the committee’s chosen mayoral candidate—Donald Pavlak, a lifelong Republican and 34-year police veteran—was handily defeated by Republican Mayor Christopher Vergano, who cruised to his fifth consecutive term with 12,406 votes to Pavlak’s 8,143.
Pavlak, who had been handpicked by the Democratic committee as its nominee, defeated longtime Democrat Jim Freeswick in the primary 64.5% to 35.5% before heading to a crushing defeat in the November general election, where former Democratic school board member Catherine Kazan ran as an independent and received 1,145 votes.
The Republican ticket swept not only the mayor’s race but also three at-large council seats, with Democratic incumbent Francine Ritter and her running mates trailing by margins exceeding 3,000 votes.
Now, with Ritter’s resignation effective March 6, the Democratic committee has again turned to a candidate whose party registration raises questions about the party’s identity and direction. Marnick, who serves as head of real estate at 1-800-FLOWERS.COM Inc., has lived in Wayne for nearly a decade with his wife and three daughters and is a member of Our Lady of Consolation Church. His professional responsibilities include managing large budgets, negotiating complex agreements, and overseeing long-term capital planning.
“The process is that the Wayne Democratic Municipal Committee produce three names for the Township Council,” said Evan Covello, co-leader of the Wayne Democratic Municipal Committee. “From there, the Township Council makes their selection of those three names to succeed Fran Ritter.”
Ritter, first elected in 2019 as the first Democrat on the council in years and reelected in 2023, announced her resignation Feb. 20, citing personal and professional considerations. Real estate records show her condominium in the Brittany Chase community is subject to a pending $479,000 sale, with sources indicating she is relocating to Montclair.
“Fran has been such an important part of, not only the Democratic Party for the town, but an important member of the council,” Covello said. “She leaves us with a lot of accomplishments on things like safety and accountability and securing resources for the town, which has given us a strong foundation for the future.”
Once the all-Republican Township Council selects one of the three nominees, the appointee will fill the Fifth Ward seat temporarily until Dec. 31, 2026. Because the vacancy occurred before Sept. 1 of the next-to-last year of the term, the seat must appear on the ballot this year, with candidates competing in the June 2 primary election and the Nov. 3 general election for the remaining one year of Ritter’s term.
The other two nominees bring their own qualifications. Fisher-Markowitz, a watercolor artist and signature member of the New Jersey Watercolor Society, brings a background in art therapy and long-term care administration, having worked as an activity director in facilities across northern New Jersey and Connecticut. She moved to Wayne’s Fifth Ward in 2000 and has been active in supporting Ritter’s past campaigns.
Seemon brings extensive municipal government experience, having served as deputy city clerk in Clifton, assistant borough administrator in Waldwick, acting borough clerk in Leonia, borough administrator in Midland Park, deputy county administrator for Passaic County, and business administrator for the city of Paterson. He currently serves as co-leader of the Wayne Democratic Municipal Committee alongside Covello and holds a master’s in public administration from Rutgers University.
For a party that has now spent nearly three decades without holding the mayor’s office—no Democrat has occupied it since David Waks won a second term in 1997, resigning in 2000 to become a Superior Court judge—the decision to include a registered Republican among its council nominees represents the latest chapter in an ongoing identity crisis.
Voters soundly rejected a GOP veteran running on the Democratic ticket, raising new questions about an endorsement pattern that has some lifelong party members seeing red.
Republican Mayor Christopher Vergano cruised to his fifth consecutive term, burying Democratic nominee Don Pavlak and independent candidate Catherine Kazan under a landslide of 12,406 votes.