TRENTON — Jeff Bell tonight won the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate for the second time.

The first time that happened, disco was king.

The conservative policy wonk and former Ronald Reagan speechwriter squeaked out a victory in the four-way Republican primary, edging Freehold IT professional Richard Pezzullo, West Orange businessman Brian Goldberg and Ramapo College finance professor Murray Sabrin.

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"I feel good," Bell said.

Bell's victory came 36 years after he shocked New Jersey Republicans by unseating longtime U.S. Sen. Clifford Case in the primary. He lost the general election to Democrat Bill Bradley and another attempt at the Republican Senate nomination in 1982.

With 99 percent of the vote counted, Bell had 41,274 votes to Pezzullo’s 36,909. The race was called by The Associated Press just after 11 p.m.

However, Pezzullo tonight said he would not concede.

"There are provisional, mail-in, and military ballots still to count in many counties," he said in a statement. "As a veteran myself, I want those ballots counted, and based on the results in the few counties that have released those numbers, the election is still yet to be decided."

In a telephone interview before the race was called, Bell said the tight battle "reminds me of the first primary I was in."

Both Bell and Pezzullo said they looked forward to taking on Booker in November.

"The Republican Party is a major party in New Jersey," Bell said. "It won the last gubernatorial race by 22 percentage points. So anything can happen."

"Last year, (Booker) had all the advantages. He was a celebrity and he had tremendous fund-raising capabilities and he only (won by) 12 percent of the vote," said Pezzullo. "This year he has to deal with the fact he has supported every failed program of the Obama administration and every failed Democratic program. The Republicans are coming off a massive win with their governor and they’d like to take their country back."

But calling the Republican nominee an underdog would be an understatement.

Booker has nearly $3 million in campaign cash on hand, while the latest reports available show Bell raising about $90,335 for his primary campaign, including a $30,000 loan from himself. Pezzullo took in barely more than $6,210.

“If you had told me in advance that I would spend $90,000 on voter contact, I would have said for someone who’s been absent for 30 years, that’s not going to be enough,” Bell said.

New Jerseyans haven’t elected a Republican to the U.S. Senate since Case in 1972 — the man Bell beat six years later.

And Booker polls well.

"Unless Cory Booker has plans to strangle a man with his bare hands or something like that, (the Republcian candidate) doesn’t have a chance," said Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute.

There had been some talk among Republicans of fielding a tough challenge to Booker in November.

In last year’s special election for the seat following the death of Democrat Frank Lautenberg, Booker beat Republican Steve Lonegan by a healthy margin, but not as wide as many thought it should have been given the state’s Democratic tilt.

But over the winter, top tier potential Republican candidates like state Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean Jr. (R-Union), Assembly Minority Leader Jon Bramnick (R-Union) and state Sen. Michael Doherty (R-Warren) announced they wouldn’t run. The party then turned to a not-well-known assemblyman who at least held elected office: Jack Ciattarelli (R-Somerset). He also declined.

So instead, Republicans were left with four candidates who normally would be at the fringes of a GOP primary.

Murray said while New Jerseyans sometimes elect Republican governors, the state’s voters are far more hesitant to pick send a Republican for the U.S. Senate.

"There are a lot of moderate and independent voters that may be fiscally conservative but don’t like the message that’s come out of the Republican Party over the past couple of decades, the focus on social issues like abortion," Murray said. "And New Jersey, just by the fact that we’re so densely populated and diverse, kind of has a knee jerk reaction against social conservatism."

Bell, 70, moved to Virginia in 1983 and stayed there until this year, when he rented an apartment in Leonia. He most recently worked as director of policy at the conservative American Principles Project.

Bell said he ran to make sure the public hears about two issues: returning the dollar to the gold standard and do away with the Federal Reserve’s policy of charging no interest on federal government debt.

That message, Bell said, resonated with everyday voters more than political insiders.

"I think a lot of people who predicted I wouldn’t win, which was virtually everybody, underestimated the difference between party activists — the type of people who are on the county committees – and the typical voters," Bell said. "The typical voters were very open to the message I had in this race. I got a lot of resonance on it."

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