Rebecca Bennett has won the endorsement of the Union County Democrats, giving her the backing of the 7th congressional district’s largest and most formidable county party organization.
Under Union County Democratic rules, only the 12 municipal chairs from the 7th district are allowed to participate in the district’s endorsement votes. Bennett received six votes on the first ballot to Tina Shah’s four and Brian Varela’s two; on the second ballot, both Varela voters flipped to Bennett and gave her an 8-4 victory.
Three other candidates running to unseat Rep. Tom Kean (R-Westfield) – Michael Roth, Megan O’Rourke, and Beth Adubato – received zero votes. That’s despite the fact that Roth won a straw poll of local Democrats in the city of Summit prior to the vote; Greg Vartan, the Summit Democratic chair and a former 7th district candidate himself, voted for Bennett instead.