MORRISTOWN - Amalia Duarte, the chair of the Morris County Democratic Committee, and Darcy Draeger were both in town hall Saturday morning preparing for that day's "No Kings Rally."

But this was more than a chance meeting. Duarte is stepping down as county chair and Draeger will replace her.

In a message sent out on Monday, Duarte said:

"Darcy and I both got involved in Democratic Party politics after the 2016 election. We helped establish Municipal Committees in our neighboring towns of Mendham Township and Chester Township. We both ran for local office the following year, and she bravely ran for State Assembly in 2019 and 2020."

Duarte served three years as county chair after replacing Chip Robinson.
Morris County Democrats - once an afterthought - are now something to be taken seriously.

Some of this can be attributed to changing demographics, but no one should overlook moderate Republicans and unaffiliated voters turned off by Donald Trump's policies and style.

Whatever the reason, Duarte is leaving when Dems control a string of towns along the old Route 24 corridor from Chatham west to Morris Township. They also hold every seat in Mountain Lakes and two of five seats in Mendham Township. (Duarte has one of them).

She also takes credit for "bringing in more than $600,000 during her time as chair, and cutting costs by consolidating operations into one Morristown office." Duarte also says she rebranded the county Dems with a new logo and greatly boosted its social media presence.

Still, this is not nirvana. Democrats have been unable to win any county or state legislative seats covering a majority of the county, all of which are controlled by Republicans.

They also have fallen short recently of winning council seats in Randolph, a town where national Democratic candidates generally do well.

Draeger, who runs a farm in Chester Township, as mentioned, has experience challenging Republicans, She lost two Assembly races in what was then LD-25. One was a regular election in 2019 and the other was a special election in 2020, necessitated by the death of state Sen. Anthony R. Bucco.

The full county committee's elected Executive Board will consist of Draeger; Mike DeLamater (vice chair);
Paul DeNoon (treasurer); Parsippany Municipal Chair Matt Clarkin (operations officer); and Mountain Lakes Municipal Chair Margaret Capodanno (secretary).

All this will be formalized at a committee convention on June 29, - a peaceful transition.

Duarte will stay on the party's executive board, concentrating on grassroots organizing and social media.

She said that "with Trump back in office, there's a lot of energy at the grassroots level of the Democratic Party ..."

Some of that energy was seen at Saturday's rally, which attracted more than 4,000, Duarte said.

A surprise and very welcome guest was former Republican Governor Christie Whitman.