State, county races contested

Democrats are expected to run for two state Assembly seats in Legislative District 24 as well as one seat on the Sussex County Board of County Commissioners in the Nov. 4 election.

The candidates spoke at an open house sponsored by the Sussex County Democratic Committee (SCDC) on Sunday, March 23 in Sparta.

Phil Destefano, a 36-year resident of Branchville, is seeking a seat on the county commissioners board.

Steve Barratt and Eugene Grinberg are candidates for the Assembly. Both live in Long Valley in Morris County.

District 24 includes towns in Morris, Sussex and Warren counties.

Zoe Heath, SCDC chairwoman, said, “We’ve been entrenched in Republican leadership for the past 40 years and it’s gotten us nowhere.”

Two Democrats also ran for the Assembly in 2023 along with one for a commissioner seat.

”It’s a bit harder to get” Democratic candidates on the county level, Heard said. “Phil came in ... he’s ready to get the work done so I’m really excited about him. ... He knows it’s going to be an uphill battle but he’s also ready for it.”

County commissioner

Two seats on the county board are up in the Nov. 4 election. All five of the current commissioners are Republicans.

Jill Space, deputy director of the board, and Frankford Township Mayor Dave Silverthorne earlier said they plan to run as a team for the two seats. Both are Republicans.

Space was selected by the Sussex County Republican Committee to fill a vacancy on the commissioners board in April 2022. She won a three-term in the 2022 general election.

Silverthorne, who is running for a commissioner seat for the first time, became a member of the Frankford Township Committee in February 2021.

Destefano, who has worked for the same company for 44 years, plans to retire this year. He is a co-owner of Branchville Koei-Kan Karate-Do, a martial arts studio. He has never held public office.

On March 22, Destefano noted that no Democrat has been elected to the county governing body in 20 years. “People have gone unchecked and unchallenged for a long time.”

He added, ”I’m a fighter, and I’m not going down easily no matter how long it takes. Because I believe in my community and I believe in positive change, transparency and honesty. That’s what I’m about.

”I’m just a basic guy trying to make a change.”

State Assembly

Incumbents Dawn Fantasia and Mike Inganamort are seeking re-election. Both were elected to their first terms in 2023.

Fantasia is a former Sussex County Commissioner, and Inganamort previously was mayor of Chester Township in Morris County.

Both Barratt and Grinberg are supporters of Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop, who is running for governor in the Democratic primary. Neither has held public office.

Barratt has worked in information technology, sales and marketing, and product development. He has campaigned for government reform in New Jersey, including for ranked-choice voting.

He pointed out that eight of 10 primary races for legislative seats in the past three election cycles have been uncontested. “Uncontested primary races and safe blue and red districts mean nothing’s gonna change.”

He also opposes New Jersey’s “sore loser law,” which prevents a candidate who loses in a party primary from running as an independent in the general election.

Grinberg, a lawyer, was born in Ukraine when it was part of the Soviet Union. He immigrated to the United States with his family when he was a young child.

”The main reason we left was the lack of opportunity by virtue of the fact that we were Jewish. ... New Jersey and the United States have been so good to me and to my family. I want to make sure that my two boys have the same opportunities that we had, that everybody’s kids have the same opportunities that we had.

”What I see right now is a lot of national policies filtering down to the state level to take away that opportunity.”

The primaries are June 10. Early in-person voting will be June 3-8.

Residents must be registered by May 20 to vote in the primaries.

For information, call the county clerk’s election office at 973-579-0900 or go online to sussexcountyclerk.org/elections/

CORRECTION: Sussex County Democratic Committee chairwoman Zoe Heath’s name was misspelled in an earlier version of this article.