Peter Cavicchia

Sussex County GOP Chairman Richard Zeoli says that he would not consider supporting Sparta resident Peter Cavicchia II for Congress next year.

"Contributing money to John Kerry makes him a non-starter in a Republican primary, and we could not support anyone who was for Kerry before he was against him," Zeoli told PoliticsNJ.com.

Mulling a possible GOP primary challenge to Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen in district 11 Peter Cavicchia II acknowledged today that he gave $1,000 to John Kerry’s campaign in 2004, but says he’s contributed more heavily to the Republican National Committee.

The retired U.S. Secret Service agent says he also ended up voting a second time for George W. Bush in 2004, not Kerry.

Chatter about a conservative primary challenge to Congressman Rodney Frelinghuysen is nothing new. In late 2001, attorney Paul Castronovo, who had been Morris County Coordinator for Bret Schundler's gubernatorial campaign, publicly explored a race, but eventually backed down. So far, the only Frelinghuysen opponent to get any real attention was in 2000, when Michael Moore held a news conference in Morris County to announce that he was running a Ficus plant as a write-candidate in the GOP primary.

Almost 78 years ago, Peter Angelo Cavicchia, an immigrant from the Campobasso Province of Italy, ran in a Republican primary on a slate with Joseph Frelinghuysen, a former U.S. Senator and scion of one of New Jersey's oldest and most powerful political families. Now, Peter Cavicchia's grandson is thinking about challenging Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen in the 2008 Republican primary.

Once lampooned in a Michael Moore movie for serving in a district so safe that he never had to face significant opposition, Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen might face a challenge in the GOP primary from a retired U.S. Secret Service Agent.

Peter A. Cavicchia II of Sparta, the former Special Agent In-Charge of the New Jersey office of the U.S. Secret Service, said today that he is mulling a challenge to Frelinghuysen in the 2008 GOP primary.