Clinton Mayor Janice Kovach is the new Hunterdon County Democratic Chair after Tom Malinowski resigned this morning to seek the Democratic nomination for Congress in New Jersey’s 11th district.
Kovach may be able to remain until June, when Malinowski’s term was due to expire. It appears that she will become the interim chair, and a new election will be held in 30 days to select a new vice chair.
She becomes chair at a time when a large field of Democrats are competing to take on two-term Rep. Thomas Kean, Jr. (R-Westfield) next year.
Malinowski, a former two-term congressman from the 7th district, was elected county chairman in June 2024 after Arlene Quinones Perez did not seek re-election after eleven years in the post. He defeated Karen Becker, a state committeewoman, by a more than 2-1 margin, 112-54.
Running on a slate with Malinowski, Kovach defeated Becker for vice chair in a 93-73 vote.
Kovach has consistently won lopsided victories for mayor in a Republican-leaning town; emptying Main Street garbage cans on weekends herself has made her a sort of Northwest Jersey version of Brian Stack.
A former president of the New Jersey League of Municipalities, Kovach was the Democratic nominee for Congress against Rep. Leonard Lance (R-Clinton Township) in 2014. Murphy nominated her to the New Jersey Motion Picture and Television Commission and came to Clinton to swear her in after her last re-election. She is a former secretary of the New Jersey Democratic State Committee.
