Contested GOP primary for county commissioner seat

Republicans will have a contested primary for the county commissioner seat now held by Herbert Yardley.

As of the filing deadline at 4 p.m. Monday, March 27, Yardley was facing two Republican opponents: Jack DeGroot and Nicholas D’Agostino.

The primary is Tuesday, June 6.

Democrat Damaris Lira also filed to run for the seat in the Nov. 7 general election.

Sussex Country Surrogate Gary Chiusano, a Republican, was the only candidate to file for that seat.

Yardley, who was elected deputy director of the Board of County Commissioners earlier this year, is running for his third three-year term. He is a former mayor of Stillwater and a former Sussex County health administrator.

DeGroot, 24, grew up on his family’s dairy farm in Wantage. He is working on a master’s degree in statistics from the University of New Hampshire.

D’Agostino is president of the Sussex-Wantage Regional Board of Education. He and his twin brother, Anthony, were diagnosed with a rare disease called Spinal Muscular Atrophy, or SMA, at the age of 18 months. Both have been confined to powered wheelchairs since age 6.