Rumana Not Worried About GOP Challengers

A well-known Republican candidate for State Assembly says two GOP challengers will not distract him from retaining his seat in this year’s election.

Louis D’Angelo and Ernesto Sesso are running against incumbents Scott Rumana and David Russo in the June primary. The winners will run against Democrats William Brennan, a Wayne resident, and Cassandra Lazzara to represent the state's 40th Legislative District.

"I will keep my focus where I need to: Throughout the county," said Rumana. "My responsibility is that the county wins."

Rumana, the Passaic County Republican chairman and former Wayne mayor, said that D’Angelo and Sesso "know they won’t win."

According to Rumana, D’Angelo and Sesso have ties to the Democratic Party and are only running to "knock the Republicans off of our feet."

"They are Democrats masquerading as Republicans," Rumana said.

Rumana and Russo are running as members of the Passaic County Regular Republican Organization. D’Angelo and Sesso are running under the slogan of Republicans for a Better Passaic County.

D’Angelo is a 21-year resident of Totowa. He owns LCD Mortgage. He was first elected to the Totowa Council in 2005. According to the borough of Totowa’s Web site, D’Angelo is a member of the Totowa Republican Club.

"Totowa has given me a great foundation to help people at the state level," D’Angelo said. "I thought this would be a great time to make some changes. I wish all parties involved in the election well."

D’Angelo refused to comment on Rumana’s statements.

Sesso owns Sesso, Tyler, and Stone, a contracting company.

"I believe I can do some good if elected," Sesso said. "It's the same old grind out there and nothing has changed. It is just politics as usual in our district."

Sesso said he "totally disagreed" with Rumana’s statements.

"I’m not paying any attention to that," Sesso said.

In other primary news, Robert Ceberio is running against three candidates for one of two Republican ballot spots for county freeholder. There are two, three-year terms up for grabs. Ceberio is president of the Wayne Board of Education.

Resident Lawrence Tosi is running against Michael McLaughlin for the right to challenge Democrat Bernice Toledo for county surrogate.

Democrat Joan Marchese is the acting surrogate.

The following is a list of candidates who have declared for the Republican and Democratic Party primaries in Wayne. A * denotes an incumbent.:

Council (one, four-year term per ward):

First Ward:

Alan Purcell* (R)

Gary Marchese (D)

Second Ward:

Al Sadowski* (R)

Arlene Marchese (D)

Third Ward:

Franco Mazzei (R)

Matthew Giordano (D)

Fourth Ward:

Joseph Scuralli* (R)

Joseph Scuralli* (R)

Michael Bradley (D)

Fifth Ward:

Chris McIntyre*

No Republican has filed.

Sixth Ward:

Nadine Bello* (R)

Issam Mirza (D)