Small Percentage of Voters Headed to Polls for Primary

A primary election which had a hotly contested race for the Ninth Congressional District on the Democrat side, a GOP Presidential race, and no contest on the local level, drew a small percentage of voters to the polls Tuesday.

Although for the Ninth District  Congressional nomination, Heights Democrat voters favored Rothman who had been serving this area of Bergen County for eight terms. Voters gave Rothman 213 votes, and Pascrell 128.

Republican voters went along with the majority choosing Shmuley Boteach, a rabbi, who will now challenge Pascrell in November. Voters gave Boteach 283 votes and his challengers Blase Billack and Hector Castillo received 12 and 9 votes respectively.

Both sides saw contests for county Freeholder. Heights Republican voters went with the majority for Robert Hermansen and Margaret Watkins with 296 and 288 votes respectively over challenger Frank Khoury who got 10 votes. Democrat voters gave Steven Tanelli and Tracy Slina Zur 195 and 179 votes respectively over Denise Zaft, 74 votes, and Stephon Bouldin, who received 81.

Republicans favored Mitt Romney for President giving him 314 votes. Heights voters gave Ron Paul 35 votes, Rick Santorum 18 and Newt Gingrich 11 votes. President Barack Obama received 263 votes from Heights Democrats.

Heights Republican voters also went with Joe Kyrillos for the U.S. Senate nomination with 271 votes. Kryillos won the Republican nomination and will challenge Democrat Senator Robert Menendez in November.

There was no race for nominations on the municipal level.

Of the 2,488 registered Republicans vote amounts show roughly 12 percent came to the polls while slightly less than 20 percent of the 1,616 registered Democrats came out for this election.

Have a question or news tip? Contact editor Alana Quartuccio at alana.quartuccio@patch.com, or follow Hasbrouck Heights Patch on Facebook or Twitter. For news straight to your inbox sign up for the daily newsletter.