"...his prime concern is power..."

Those are the words of The Record columnist Mike Kelly, in an article published in the North Jersey daily Thursday, February 7.  It is one of the most scathing criticisms yet of the chairman of the Bergen County Democratic Organization. We urge you to read it in its entirety and feel renewed in your determination to remove from office his stain on the integrity of the Bergen County Democratic Party.

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Was this Bergen County in the 21st century or Bulgaria behind the Iron Curtain?

 Bergen's Democrats need to ask themselves that question after their party boss shut a door in their faces last week in the midst of what was supposed to be a free and open election.

This political story, largely overshadowed by the Super Bowl and the Super Tuesday presidential primary, sadly has its roots in a pathetically familiar place -- the control-freak personality of Bergen Democratic boss Joe Ferriero.

Yes, once again, we see that Boss Ferriero seems incapable of understanding basic principles of democracy -- namely that elections are about choices and voters are supposed to actually vote.

Worse, Ferriero's Democratic county organization blindly goes along with his antics. Like the fairy tale about the emperor with no clothes, no one wants to say Joe Ferriero has no principles.

We have seen Ferriero's handiwork before. He does not campaign on behalf of issues necessarily; local party functionaries are hard put to remember him ever talking at length about health care, the environment or -- heaven forbid -- poverty.

No, Boss Ferriero's prime concern is power.

But power can be fragile. And Boss Ferriero's behavior lately has been so bizarre that he is beginning to rival New Jersey's legendary prince of political paranoia, Bob Torricelli.

Despite Torricelli's dark obsession with control and his habit of blowing his cool when he felt threatened, he is not known to have locked the doors to a polling station when voters showed up to cast ballots. Boss Ferriero did that -- just like some political thug would do in a Soviet-ruled nation behind the Iron Curtain.

Ferriero's personal Kafka moment of grand illusion took place 10 days ago in Hackensack, at a public middle school. He was supposed to be supervising an election by the 1,100-member Bergen County Democratic Committee to choose someone to fill an open seat on the county freeholder board.

Only there was no choice. Boss Ferriero has already tapped his man, Vernon Walton of Englewood. And because the boss had signaled his preference, no one else was running. Not a soul.

Walton, a former Englewood councilman and a Baptist minister, seems clueless to the possibility that he is under the Fidel-like thumb of Ferriero. Or maybe he knows and just doesn't care.

That night in Hackensack, Democrats were told they could cast ballots from 6 to 8 p.m. But as this magnificent example of manipulated democracy neared, word circulated that Democratic progressives might actually show up and protest Ferriero's creepy excuse of an election.

So rather than ask Democrats to cast ballots, Ferriero looked around the auditorium just after 6 p.m. and asked for a voice vote. He conceded later that he did not actually know if a quorum was present. But, hey, the man is the boss. Why bother with small stuff?

The room of Democratic donkeys grunted their approval for poor Walton and, suddenly, Bergen County had a new freeholder to keep an eye on millions of tax dollars. What was supposed to be a two-hour balloting session took all of 15 minutes.

What was also missing was the possibility of anyone objecting to this charade or writing another choice on a ballot.

No, Boss Ferriero wanted a clean show -- just like they used to do in places like Bulgaria.

He got what he wanted.

Does he know what he lost?

Following a procedure created by the Steering Committee prior to the March 1st candidates’ forum in Ridgewood, Bergen Grassroots has determined that the group will endorse no one of the three Democratic candidates for the party’s Congressional nomination in the Fifth Congressional District, according to Lewis Miller, who developed the endorsement process.

As developed and approved by the Steering Committee, the process requires a candidate to receive a super-majority of the membership’s votes to earn an endorsement. For two candidates, that figure is 60%; when three candidates emerged, the leaders agreed to reduce the requirement to 55%.

The turnout in this election would do any organization proud: via email and follow-up phone calling during a prescribed two-week period following the candidates’ forum, 94% of Bergen Grassroots’ members cast ballots. That left 6% who could not be reached in the balloting period.

Camille Abate came within a hair’s breadth of winning the endorsement; she received 54% of the vote. Paul Aronsohn received the support of 24% of the membership and Zach Sheinberg got votes from 6% of the participants.

Key to the outcome was an 11% vote not to endorse anyone, perhaps reflecting the view that the group was not ready to endorse candidates, as voiced by one of the voters in this category.

The members of the Steering Committee express their gratitude to the members who voted, clearly demonstrating a well-developed interest in the political process by virtually every member of the group.

 As you all are well aware, Bergen County Democratic Boss Joe Ferriero is Public Enemy No. 1 with a “Wanted” sign on the bulletin board at Bergen Grassroots. (Some may argue that Dubya belongs in the top spot, but let's face it, our name is "Bergen Grassroots" not "Bergen National." So we concentrate the hardest on the game right under our noses.) 

Boss Joe called for a meeting of Bergen's Municipal County Committee on Jan. 29, for the purpose of filling a vacancy on the Freeholders. If you missed the report in The Record, here it is: http://www.northjersey.com/news/bergenpolitics/Bergen-style_election_Your_vote_not_needed.html/

Our Steering Committee voted to picket the meeting because Joe was up to his old tricks: he called the County Committee together only to vote to fill the vacancy, as he has been doing for at least the past two years. So we picketed. We carried signs reading "'ONE MAN, ONE VOTE' DOESN'T MEAN YOU, JOE." And we chanted “Joe Must Go,” demanding that Boss Joe give 1,100 elected committee members (who represent their closest neighbors) a chance to vote and express their opinions about how the BCDO should operate...democratically.

At the beginning, the picketers included Bob Gulack of Fair Lawn, an elected member of the County Committee and an officer of Bergen Grassroots, who brought his guitar and tambourine and provided fresh lyrics to the tune “Come On, Baby, Do the Locomotion.” It became “Come On, Joey, Let Us Make New Motions,” especially suited to Boss Joe and his dictatorial universe.

Ruth and Stefan Neustadter of Hackensack were on hand (Ruth turned out to be an excellent tambourine wielder). Gunnar and Susan Mengers of River Edge joined us in the wind and drizzle, as did Julie Otto of Fort Lee (who brought a hand-lettered sign of her own with a similar message). Edgewater Councilwoman Beatrice Robbio was part of the picket team too, as was your faithful reporter, Paul Eisenman of Cliffside Park. 

When we arrived, we found and joined what might be called "counter-picketers" already in place. Several men hold two huge, professionally painted placards (4' x 5' at least) proclaiming the need for unity behind the BCDO Chairman. Other people carried hand-drawn signs announcing their support for Rev. Vernon Walton, who had been designated by Boss Joe to fill the vacancy on the Freeholder board.

Job #1 for us was to make it crystal clear to the pro-Walton contingent that we had no opposition to his appointment.  Bob Gulack told the unity-sign holders how eager we were to provide party unity behind a chairman who understands that big-D Democrats must have small-D democracy. After Bob led us in singing his "Come On, Joey, Let Us Make New Motions" lyrics, the ice thawed and the "unity" guys actually requested some Simon & Garfunkel tunes!

Since we were expecting a two-and-one-half-hour picket, we had others spaced out as replacements for the first arrivals. One of them was Sabastian Belfon of Cliffside Park, who arrived sometime after Boss Joe had his "voice vote" around 6:15pm and fled. (Re-read The Record article for his feeble explanations: http://www.northjersey.com/news/bergenpolitics/Bergen-style_election_Your_vote_not_needed.html/

Here's what Sabastian  reported:

"Arrived at the school around 6:40PM...and saw the notice [that] a voice vote [had been taken]. People were still arriving, loitering and complaining. They had expected to vote and were none too pleased to have arrived for naught. One person complained that his  [Boss Joe's] letter clearly indicated a vote was in order."

Sabastian later told your reporter that there were ten or a dozen people present and that they were clearly annoyed. These are County Committee members whose votes are needed to keep the king on his throne. We wish to express our sincere appreciation to Joseph A. Ferriero for continuing to shoot himself in the foot every chance he gets.