Mercer GOP will elect a new county chairman

Mercer County Republicans will meet next week to elect a new county Republican Party chair to replace Lisa Richford, who is ending a controversial 11-year term by not seeking re-election.

In the race to succeed her, former Senate candidate Pat Johnson will face off against Maria Bua, who was briefly provincial chairman 12 years ago, for a position that may be more akin to a club chairmanship than a party boss.

Mercer is one of the least politically competitive counties in the state. Mercer County Republicans have not won a countywide election in 24 years or a legislative race in 18 years. The only local officeholder elected in a partisan election in the county is Hopewell Borough Councilman Sky Morehouse.

Republicans suffered a major setback in 2019 when they lost the mayoralty of Hamilton Township; Democrats now have a 5-0 majority on the council.

Johnson, who worked as a cancer nurse, lost a 2021 Assembly bid in the 15th District and then moved to the adjacent 14th to run for Senate in 2023. She lost to State Senator Linda Greenstein (D-Plainsboro) by a close margin. 20 points.

Bua became co-chair of the Mercer GOP in 2011 after Roy Wesley ended his own controversial four-year term by resigning. She shared the message with Robbinsville Mayor Dave Fried. She is a former chair of the Ewing school board.

In 2012, Bua and Fried stepped aside and a Fried ally, Richard Levesque, became provincial chairman.

Richford has made efforts to oust her, but she has halted voting on these issues. She has run for office twice, receiving 38% in a bid for Mercer County surrogate in 2011 and 33% against Democrat Dan Benson in the county executive race last year.

She was re-elected in 2020 by a vote of 86-42 against Falk Engel, president of the Lawrence Republican Club.

Mercer County Democratic Chairwoman Janice Mironov was unopposed in her re-election bid earlier this month.