many commuter communities because of its proximity to New York City. These new residents were strongly Republican, as contrasted with the Democratic farmers. According to Bergen County historian Kevin Wright, "Having gained sufficient numbers by 1893 to challenge Punkin Dusters at the polls, the Commuters of Bergen County led a political revolution in Home Rule that finally toppled the ancien régime." Legal disputes about control of the New Jersey Senate and the Republican desire to undo many Democratic policies occupied the legislature in the early part of its 1894 session. Nevertheless, interest groups such as local landowners pushed the legislature for permissive policies on municipal incorporation, hoping to gain power in the new governments. As the legislature sat, the townships of Bergen County fractured. The provision of the Borough Act allowing separation had been little used prior to 1893, and in 1893, Bergen County had only three boroughs. A year-long legal battle in Palisades Township, along the Hudson River, led to a referendum that saw Tenafly break away in January 1894. Some communities seceded in early 1894 because of disputes about how to pay for macadamized roads, which were first paved through much of Bergen County in the first half of the 1890s. The Hackensack Republican reported on March 1, "the chief reason why Delford [later Oradell], Westwood, Hillsdale and Park Ridge want to become boroughs is that they may avoid what is feared will be heavy macadam tax". The proposed borough of Delford would take land from multiple townships, uniting communities on both sides of the Hackensack River that shared a school, but incorporation was put on hold because of legal uncertainty as to whether a borough could be formed from parts of more than one township. In April, the Republican majority in Trenton let it be known they were working on a bill to solve Delford's problem by allowing boroughs to be formed from portions of two or more townships, and this became the Act of May 9, 1894. The act also granted such boroughs a seat on the county Board of Chosen Freeholders. According to Wright, "the consequences of casting special legislation under guise of a general law soon became patent". Since 1885, new boroughs had not gotten their own freeholder, with borough voters instead joining with those in the township they were formerly part of to elect one. Partisans saw the political possibilities of the 1894