Party insiders pass over fixture Freeswick, tap three to fill Fifth Ward seat

The Wayne Democratic municipal committee has bypassed longtime resident and perennial candidate James “Jim” Freeswick, forwarding three alternative nominees to the Township Council to fill the Fifth Ward seat vacated by the resignation of Fran Ritter.

The three nominees placed with the Township Clerk are 77-year-old June Fisher-Markowitz, 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, 47, is affiliated with the Republican Party, according to Passaic County voter registration records supplied by the New Jersey Secretary of State.

The move dashes the expectations of those who had considered the 75-year-old Freeswick, a retired attorney, 66-yearlong Wayne resident, and fixture at town hall podiums for decades, who was rumored to be the front-runner for the appointment.

“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.”

The decision represents a stunning turn for Freeswick, a lifelong Democrat who has served on the municipal committee for 23 years and been a member of the Wayne Democratic Club since 1972.

Fresh off a bruising primary defeat last June in which he was rejected by more than 1,000 votes by voters who preferred Board of Education President Donald Pavlak Jr., Freeswick now finds himself on the outside as party insiders choose three others to fill the seat.

Freeswick, who has run for mayor three times without success, had been considered by many to be the logical interim successor to Ritter.

The active members of the Passaic County Democratic Committee residing in the Fifth Ward — Freeswick himself, Maria DeLuca-Pranzo, Mark I. Kass, and Victor and Marilyn Frierson — were responsible for producing the list of recommendations. That they passed over one of their own speaks to lingering tensions within the party apparatus.

Covello said the committee presented the council with three strong candidates, adding, “Their task now is to select the individual whose experience and readiness best serve the people of Wayne.”

Fisher-Markowitz 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.

A watercolor artist and signature member of the New Jersey Watercolor Society, she moved to Wayne’s Fifth Ward in 2000 and has been active in supporting Ritter’s past campaigns.

Marnick serves as head of real estate at 1-800-FLOWERS.COM Inc., where he manages national real estate strategy, development, and facilities operations.

He and his wife, Cathy, have lived in Wayne for nearly a decade, raising three daughters, and he is a member of Our Lady of Consolation Church. Cathy Marnick is also identified as a registered Republican in the voter database.

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.

Ritter, first elected in 2019 as the first Democrat on the council in years and reelected in 2023, announced her resignation effective March 6, citing personal and professional considerations.

She lost a bid for an at-large council seat last November but 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 of the date the vacancy occurred, the seat must appear on the ballot this year.

Candidates will first compete in the June 2 primary election, with petitions due March 23. The winners of the Democratic and Republican primaries will face off in the Nov. 3 general election, with the victor serving the remaining one year of Ritter’s term through Dec. 31, 2027.

Then, all six ward council seats will return to the ballot in 2027, with candidates competing in another primary and the 2027 general election for full four-year council terms beginning Jan. 1, 2028.

For Freeswick, a man who survived a stroke in November 2024 and credited the Wayne First Aid Squad and Police Department with saving his life, the committee’s decision marks another chapter in a long history of political heartbreak.

He has run for mayor three times — losing a primary in 2001, losing the general election to Republican Scott Rumana in 2005, and losing the primary to Pavlak in 2025, a man he openly questioned as a “lifelong Republican” masquerading as a Democrat.

Yet he remains a persistent presence at township meetings, so much so that Councilman Jon Ettman once dubbed him the “Lou Gehrig” of resident attendees.

His platform in last year’s mayoral contest centered on stable property taxes, transparency and keeping residential density low. He has also been an outspoken critic of public housing projects, warning that large-scale affordable housing developments risk stigmatizing residents.

Whether Freeswick will mount another campaign for the seat in the June primary remains unclear.

The three nominees now before the council each bring their own qualifications, but for a man who has made showing up his trademark for more than five decades, the latest bypass by party insiders may prove the hardest to accept.

What’s not known is whether he will seek the nomination in the primary or whether Wayne Democrats are satisfied with the choice of the Republican council and a Democratic establishment that backed a longtime Republican and still lost, while driving a Democratic woman to run as an independent.