All three Republican candidates for Passaic County Freeholder have now dropped out of the race. Passaic City Councilman Jonathan Soto announced last week that he was withdrawing as a candidate in order to become Chairman of the Passaic Redevelopment Agency. Soto’s exit came a week after Kenneth Del Vecchio announced he would not run in order to concentrate on the production of a movie based on one of his books. Earlier in July, former County Clerk Ronnie Nochimson exited the race following the death of her father. For a time, it looked like the Passaic GOP had a potential All-Star roster, with Nochimson and Ronald Fava, a former Sheriff, Assemblyman, Prosecutor and Judge in the race. Now, newly-elected Passaic GOP Chairman Scott Rumana is searching for two new candidates to run, along with Derek Lowe, a political newcomer from Paterson who replaced Nochimson on the Republican ticket. Passaic Democrats have had a tough year as well. The pulled their first candidate, controversial Arab American businessman Sami Merhi, after several Democrats — including Governor Jon Corzine and Senator Robert Menendez — said Merhi’s comments on terrorism made it impossible to support him. Their replacement candidate was Joanne Graziano, a Hawthorne school board member who dropped out of the race after reports that she did not have a degree she claimed on her resume. The newest candidate is Taheesha Way, a political newcomer whose husband played football for the New York Giants.
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