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2 candidates are tracked for Bergen County Surrogate on the November 3, 2026 ballot: Linda H. Schwager and Joseph S. Conte. Candidate information follows official Bergen County election filings; verify with the official election office linked below.
Open seat following the December 2025 death of longtime Democratic incumbent Michael Dressler, per New Jersey Globe. Republican Joseph S. Conte won the June 2, 2026 primary over Daniel Ng, 10,870 votes to 3,431, per New Jersey Globe; Democrat Linda H. Schwager was unopposed in her primary after being backed by the county party convention, per the same source.
Democratic
Schwager served three terms as mayor of Oakland, New Jersey before losing re-election by 21 votes in 2023, per New Jersey Globe. She is a former president of the Bergen County Bar Association, per the same source. No campaign website or questionnaire response was found for Schwager as of September 8, 2026; New Jersey Globe's coverage is the only verifiable source for her candidacy.
Republican
Conte is a retired New Jersey Superior Court judge who served 20 years on the bench in the Criminal and Civil divisions and sat as a municipal court judge in five Bergen County towns, per his campaign site. He was elected to the Franklin Lakes Borough Council in 2025 and teaches Criminal Law as an adjunct professor at Bergen Community College, per the same source.
Source: candidate campaign site.
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