TEANECK, N.J. — Teaneck voters dealt Mayor Mark Schwartz, Councilwoman Karen Orgen and their political allies at the Bergen County Jewish Action Committee (BCJAC) a major setback Tuesday, electing all three Teaneck First candidates while handing the Schwartz-Orgen-backed One Team One Teaneck slate just one seat.
George Fernandez Jr. led the nine-candidate field with 7,194 votes, followed by incumbent Denise Belcher with 7,163 and Duane Harley with 6,775, according to unofficial Bergen County election results.
Avi Berliner was the only One Team One Teaneck candidate to win, finishing fourth with 6,550 votes. His running mates, Sharon Kolb and Amrit Ramjattan, finished fifth and sixth with 6,418 and 6,236 votes.
The results were a major setback for Schwartz and Orgen, who ran the One Team One Teaneck campaign, raised funds and put their political muscle and communal influence behind the slate.
And they had money to spend.
The campaign drew financial support from interests doing business with the township, including a $2,500 contribution from Wilentz, Teaneck’s bond counsel. The donation drew criticism from local watchdog group Teaneck Voices and raised questions about the relationship between township vendors and council-backed political campaigns.
BCJAC also endorsed all three One Team One Teaneck candidates. Although the organization made some endorsements elsewhere in Bergen County, Teaneck was the only municipality where it posted a dedicated candidate questionnaire on its website.
BCJAC required candidates seeking its endorsement to sign a clean-campaign pledge barring personal attacks by candidates and their campaign affiliates against other candidates.
Schwartz and Orgen also came under scrutiny over an October surprise targeting Fernandez. The same attack raised questions about BCJAC’s enforcement of its clean-campaign pledge and whether the organization was willing to hold its political allies accountable.
The controversy did not stop Fernandez. He finished first, while all three council candidates endorsed by the Teaneck Democratic Committee won.
But the biggest winner in Tuesday’s political shakeup may be someone who wasn’t even on the ballot.
Councilman and former Mayor Michael Pagan is now positioned to once again become Teaneck’s kingmaker.
Schwartz, Orgen and Berliner will make up one three-member bloc on the seven-member council. Belcher, Fernandez and Harley will make up another.
That leaves Pagan holding the seventh vote, potentially deciding who controls the council, who gets the mayor’s chair, and serving as the tie-breaker when the blocs clash.
And Pagan has been here before.
After Belcher’s previous election, the then-united RISE slate pulled an eleventh-hour switch, handing Pagan the mayorship and blocking Schwartz from taking the job.
That alliance eventually fell apart. Hillary Goldberg split from RISE after Hamas's Attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023; Pagan sided with Goldberg and Schwartz eventually became mayor following another election and a reshuffling of the council.
Now the tables have turned again.
Goldberg finished seventh Tuesday with 3,743 votes, followed by Crystal Pressley with 1,962 and Howard Rose with 1,937.
The Schwartz-BCJAC camp also lost ground in the Board of Education race, where all three Teaneck Democratic Committee-endorsed candidates won. Liza Fernandez, wife of council winner George Fernandez Jr., led with 7,796 votes, followed by Marcelo Venegas-Pizarro with 7,454 and Eric Rhea with 7,322. BCJAC-endorsed incumbents David Gruber and Gerald Kirshenbaum lost with 6,317 and 6,284 votes, respectively.
Across the two races, BCJAC’s five endorsed candidates managed just one victory.
For Schwartz and Orgen, the council election leaves their preferred slate with one seat instead of three. For BCJAC, it raises questions about the political influence of its endorsements.
And for Pagan, it puts him right back in the middle of the fight over who runs Teaneck.
The results are based on Bergen County’s unofficial November 3, 2026 election report, refreshed at 10:21 p.m., and include early voting, Election Day ballots and partial mail-in results.
