Noticias

When the Hudson County Democratic Organization (HCDO) endorsed Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-Montclair) in this year’s Democratic gubernatorial primary, it was something of a risky bet, since Sherrill was going up against the county’s most prominent politician, Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop. The bet paid off; Sherrill defeated Fulop 34%-29% in Hudson County en route to a convincing statewide win.

But because Sherrill’s support was so heavily concentrated in the majority-Hispanic North Hudson fiefdom controlled by Union City Mayor/State Sen. Brian Stack, her win came with an interesting asterisk: she, and by extension the HCDO, only won two out of nine districts on Hudson’s county commissioner map. Fulop won six, and Newark Mayor Ras Baraka won one.

With every seat on the board of commissioners up next year, that could spell trouble for the HCDO’s stranglehold on county government – especially since two of their incumbent commissioners already came close to losing renomination the last time they faced Democratic primary voters in 2023.

The two districts that voted for Sherrill both did so in landslides: Commissioner Fanny Cedeño (D-Union City)’s 6th district supported her by 54 percentage points, and Commissioner Caridad Rodriguez (D-West New York)’s 7th district did so by 37 points. Both districts are essentially controlled by Stack, who runs New Jersey’s most formidable voter turnout operation in tandem with West New York Mayor Albio Sires.

But Fulop, once an ally of the HCDO who split with them during his gubernatorial campaign, won almost everywhere else. He won Commissioner Kenneth Kopacz (D-Bayonne)’s 1st district by seven points, Commissioner Bill O’Dea (D-Jersey City)’s 2nd district by nine points, Commissioner Yraida Aponte-Lipski (D-Jersey City)’s 4th district by 14 points, Commissioner Stick Romano (D-Hoboken)’s 5th district by two points, and Commissioner Robert Baselice (D-North Bergen)’s 8th district and Commissioner Albert Cifelli (D-Kearny)’s 9th district by less than one percentage point each.

Fulop’s wins in the 2nd, 4th, and 5th districts were assisted by the gerrymandered county commissioner map, which splits fast-growing downtown Jersey City (Fulop’s longtime base) into four districts in order to dilute its progressive voting bloc. The map successfully blocked anti-machine candidates from winning any seats in 2023, but the 4th and 5th districts were both close; Aponte-Lipski won by 148 votes, 52% to 48%, and Romano won by 235 votes, 53% to 46%. As this year’s primary results show, it wouldn’t take much for the map to backfire on the HCDO.

Finally, Commissioner Jerry Walker (D-Jersey City)’s 3rd district went for Baraka by 24 points; the district is home to many of Jersey City’s Black voters, who were Baraka’s strongest supporters in Hudson County and around the state.

The HCDO did a bit better in the race for county sheriff between party-backed Bayonne Mayor Jimmy Davis and Fulop-aligned incumbent Frank Schillari, but it still lost a majority of districts. Schillari, who is from Bayonne and is closely allied with North Bergen Mayor Nicholas Sacco, won the 8th and 9th districts, and he also convincingly carried the 2nd, 4th, and 5th districts in Jersey City and Hoboken despite losing countywide 53% to 46%. (Davis won the same Stack-aligned districts as Sherrill, plus the 1st district in his hometown of Bayonne and the 3rd district in Jersey City’s Black neighborhoods.)

For now, both the HCDO and its enemies are focused primarily on this November’s elections for governor and for local office in Jersey City and Hoboken. Both cities will host nonpartisan mayoral races featuring a host of serious candidates, and all nine seats on the Jersey City Council and three at-large council seats in Hoboken will also be on voters’ ballots.

(For what it’s worth, Fulop won Jersey City Wards B, C, D, and E, while Baraka won Wards A and F; Sherrill came in third place in every ward. Sherrill narrowly won the city of Hoboken, with Fulop in second.)

After November, though, the HCDO will have to pivot fairly quickly to defending its county commissioner seats, and local progressives – energized after winning two State Assembly seats this year in downtown Jersey City and Hoboken – will undoubtedly make another attempt at flipping some districts.

Given the gubernatorial primary results, they’ve got a good chance at doing so. That’s especially true now that the county line is gone; the HCDO could previously count on primary ballots to guide voters towards their endorsed candidates (“vote for Column B” was their slogan in 2023), but now every candidate will appear on the ballot as equals, a change that clearly helped Katie Brennan and Ravi Bhalla win the Democratic nomination for the 32nd Assembly district this year.

The 4th and 5th districts, the two districts that nearly flipped in 2023, are the most obvious targets. And in the 5th district, the HCDO may have to deal with an open seat, since Romano is the leading candidate to be the county’s new undersheriff and thus would depart from the commissioner board.

The 3rd district, too, is near-certain to be open, since Walker won a primary for a deep-blue State Assembly seat this year and is set to be elected in November. County committeemembers will meet after Walker resigns to choose a replacement, and that new commissioner will then have to run for a full term just a few months later; Walker, who has ambitions of running for State Senate in two years, will likely try to influence that process.

It’s important to note, though, that Hudson County political factions are far more complicated than simply machine-versus-rebels. Though he ran for governor as a crusading reformer, Fulop spent many years as an ally of the HCDO and supported their county commissioner slates; in 2023, the strongest supporter of the renegade ticket was instead Jersey City Councilman James Solomon, a sometime Fulop foe who’s now running for mayor.

And while Black voters in Jersey City’s Wards A and F may have opted for Baraka, they also supported other HCDO-backed candidates like Walker for Assembly and Davis for sheriff. The HCDO’s failure to win those areas in the governor’s primary may not mean the organization is in any real danger there long-term, and instead had more to do with Baraka’s uniquely compelling candidacy.

What may matter more than anything else won’t be known until November: who will hold the mayor’s offices in Hoboken, Jersey City, and Bayonne, which will have to choose a new mayor after Davis is elected sheriff. If Solomon is elected Jersey City mayor in defiance of the HCDO, for example, that would create a very different environment in 2026 than if HCDO-endorsed former Gov. Jim McGreevey wins.

The post 2025 primaries highlight machine’s vulnerabilities on Hudson County commissioner map appeared first on New Jersey Globe.

A former owner of a Vineland bowling alley serving a prison sentence for setting fire to a competitor’s facility in 2010 has been convicted of conspiring to have three prosecutors and two judges killed.

While in prison, Steven Smink, 62,  sought to hire a hitman to kill Cumberland County Prosecutor Jennifer Webb-McRae, two members of her staff, and two Superior Court judges involved in his original prosecution.  He tried to pay them with guns he owned that were stored at his mother’s home in Philadelphia, and with a sports memorabilia collection that

“This defendant planned to kill public servants for doing their jobs and putting him behind bars for crimes he previously committed,” said Attorney General Matt Platkin.  “State Police and prison officials found out about his plan and interceded before anyone was harmed. He now faces a lengthy prison sentence for his violent scheme.”

He now faces a minimum of 30 years to life in prison.  Superior Court Judge Joseph Levin will sentence him next month.

Smink’s first attempt to arrange a murder from prison was through a member of the Latin Kings gang, but that person died before a plan was put in place.

In late 2017 and early 2018, the New Jersey State Police (NJSP) Central Security Unit (CSU) received information from the Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness (OHSP) indicating that Smink had enlisted a cooperating witness to assist in carrying out a murder-for-hire scheme at Northern State Prison in Newark.

Smink arranged with the cooperating witness to locate a hitman while managing the transfer of sports memorabilia as payment and instructing his late mother, Esther Smink, to send correspondence on his behalf to advance the plot. In a meeting with an undercover officer, Smink said, “If everybody was together, wipe the whole place out and kill everybody — it just looks like somebody making an assault, a gang meeting,” and added, “If somebody shot up the place, it looks like the gang getting retribution.”

Esther Smink died in 2022.

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The Brady PAC, a leading gun control advocacy group, endorsed 19 Democratic Assembly incumbents for re-election on Wednesday.

In its announcement, the PAC said it endorsed candidates dedicated to maintaining New Jersey as “one of the leading gun violence prevention states in the country.” The organization endorsed Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-Montclair) for governor last month.

“New Jerseyans have voted time and time again for strong gun laws to protect our children and communities,” said Karen Kanter, president of Brady New Jersey. “Our state cannot afford to reverse course. We must elect a strong majority in the Assembly that will partner with Mikie Sherrill to build on our state’s progress on gun violence prevention and deliver what every New Jerseyan deserves: a future free from the fear and the absolute devastation of gun violence.”

The Brady PAC is the political arm of the Brady Campaign; both organizations are named for former White House press secretary James Brady, who was shot and severely injured in the 1981 assassination attempt of President Ronald Reagan. The group supports universal background checks, regulation of “ghost guns,” and increased oversight and accountability for gun stores and manufacturers.

New Jersey possesses some of the country’s strictest gun control laws. Brady PAC says Republican gubernatorial nominee Jack Ciattarelli and GOP Assembly nominees would put those reforms at risk.

The list includes Assemblywomen Margie Donlon and Luanne Peterpaul of LD-11, which is expected to be competitive, as well as Lisa Swain and Chris Tully of LD-38. Democratic incumbents from some competitive districts, like the 3rd and 8th legislative districts, were not included.

“Brady’s endorsed candidates for the General Assembly stand with the victims of gun violence in New Jersey and all New Jerseyans who want safe neighborhoods,” said Ashley Lantz, the executive director of Brady PAC. “They stand with the parents who worry about their children’s safety, with the Black and Brown communities disproportionately harmed by gun violence, with the children traumatized by active-shooter drills, and with every family mourning a preventable loss.”

The full list of endorsees:

Bill Spearman (LD-5); William Moen, Jr. (LD-5); Majority Leader Lou Greenwald (LD-6); Carol Murphy (LD-7); Balvir Singh (LD-7); Margie Donlon (LD-11); Luanne Peterpaul (LD-11); Verlina Reynolds-Jackson (LD-15); Mitchelle Drulis (LD-16); Roy Freiman (LD-16); Rob Karabinchak (LD-18); Speaker Craig Coughlin (LD-19); Annette Quijano (LD-20); Rosy Bagolie (LD-27); Michael Venezia (LD-34); Ellen Park (LD-37); Shama Haider (LD-37); Lisa Swain (LD-38); and Chris Tully (LD-38).

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A coalition of Democrats and Republicans in Mount Holly is seeking voter approval to restore runoff elections in non-partisan municipal elections with a referendum on the ballot this November.

When Mount Holly switched from May to November local elections, they – some say inadvertently – eliminated runoffs because the referendum was silent on the matter.

“I can see how people may think that they might have a runoff by virtue of the fact of the long history where they had it from 1954 to 2013,” said Superior Court Judge John Harrington in a rambling decision that followed a December 2024 hearing that lasted parts of four days.  “I could see how they would believe that, but the time to deal with all of that was some time ago.’

In New Jersey, some municipalities – like Newark, Jersey City and Hoboken – require runoffs if a candidate receives less than 50% of the vote in a multi-candidate field, but some require just a simple plurality.

Last year, Sayke Reilley, who finished fourth in a field of nine candidates for three seats, claimed that the old runoff law – unused since 1982 – was never repealed.  But the winners — Lew Brown, Chris Banks, and Rich DiFolco – argued that it was obsolete.

Harrington determined that runoffs were “extinguished” when Mount Holly briefly experimented with partisan elections eleven years ago.

“Even though that was not appropriately worded, it was given the sanctity of correctness by the passage of time,” Harrington said of the referendum’s verbiage.

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