There will be contested races for municipal offices in the June 4 Republican primary in Branchville, Hopatcong and Stanhope.
Branchville
Five Republicans and one Democrat filed to run for the Borough Council in the June 4 primaries.
Two seats will be filled in the Nov. 5 election.
Running in the GOP primary are incumbents Russell Bellis Jr. and Troy Orr and Randolph Morse, Keith Whitehead and Melissa Fischer.
Jeffrey Lewis is the only Democrat running for the council.
Hopatcong
Four Republicans will vie for two seats on the Borough Council in the primary.
Michael Francis and John Young are running on one slate and Esad “Steve” Kucevic and Joseph Falconi are running on another slate.
Incumbents Dawn Roberts and Ryan Smith did not file to run for re-election. Smith, who has been on the council for six years, said he decided not to run for a third term for personal reasons.
Francis is a former mayor and Young is a former councilman.
No Democrats are running for the council.
Stanhope
Three Republicans are running for two seats on the Borough Council.
Council president William Thornton; Tyler Simpson, who is filling an unexpired term on the council; and Najib Iftikhar will compete in the June 4 primary.
Thornton is running for a fifth term on the council.
Iftikhar was elected to the Board of Education in 2022 but decided not to serve. He previously served six years on the school board. He also ran for the Borough Council in 2021 but did not win a seat.
No Democrats filed to run.