The Morris County Republican Committee, once the premier GOP county in the state, is broke, according to reports filed with the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission. The party has $9,011 in the bank, but with debts they are carrying, the lineless organization has a net worth of -$10,989.
The party’s financial woes come just as Morris is competing to keep a congressional seat following the sudden retirement of Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-Harding), is broke. Morris, which for years billed itself as New Jersey’s #1 Republican County, has less cash than nineteen other GOP county organizations. That ranking could get worse: Hudson County Republicans are late in filing their report.
Democrats in Morris are in a substantially better financial position going into the 2017 election. Democrats have a warchest of $167,392, although these numbers are from the third quarter ELEC report and does not reflect late spending in the 2017 election.
Republicans have a 7-0 majority on the Morris County Board of Freeholders; Democrats have not won since 1973. In addition to Frelinghuysen, Republicans hold all legislative and county constitutional officer posts.
(Correction: An earlier version of this story listed the wrong year of the last Democratic win in a Morris freeholder race. It was 1973, not 1979.)
Doug Romaine won a Freeholder seat in 1973 which was the first and only time a Democrat won a seat on that board.