Cardinale works the room with Yudin

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HACKENSACK – Two men in suits stood in the early evening sunshine just within the entranceway of BCRO headquarters.

BCRO Chairman Bob Yudin and his biggest backer, state Sen. Gerry Cardinale (R-39), who thinks his candidate will win tonight on first ballot.

Cardinale told PolitickerNJ.com around 700 committee members will vote tonight. Yudin will get re-elected with 379 votes.

“He’s done a great job,” said the veteran Republican senator, who’s battling state Sen. Kevin O’Toole (R-40) and Bergen County Executive Kathe Donovan to remain close to the sitting chairman.

“We have a tough election coming up and we need someone strong, not people who will be learning on the job,” added Cardinale, sporting a Yudin button amid red, white and blue hoopla that belied a brutal contest.

One of Yudin’s two challengers, businessman Anthony Rottino of Franklin Lakes, in rolled-up shirt sleeves in the room, became a walking target in recent days as Cardinale and Yudin called into question his Bergen County bonifides, producing 2009 affadavits showing Rottino was a resident of Paterson.

Asked about the influence on Bergen County of his fellow senator, O’Toole, Yudin said, “Five towns.

“What we have in this election,” he added, “is an Essex-Passaic style campaign, which is very foreign to how things usually  work in Bergen.”

Cardinale works the room with Yudin