Assemblyman Wayne DeAngelo (D-Hamilton) halted speculation today that he will seek the Democratic nomination for Congress in New Jersey’s 3rd district, where Rep. Andy Kim’s bid for the U.S. Senate has opened up a House seat that will likely remain in Democratic hands.
“As of now, I am not putting my name in,” DeAngelo told the New Jersey Globe. “I just don’t see the pathway for me.’
But DeAngelo refused to close the door completely, saying he would preserve the option of entering the race if circumstances change before the March 25 filing deadline.
Assembly Majority Whip Carol Murphy (D-Mount Laurel) and Assembly Health Committee Chairman Herb Conaway, Jr. (D-Delanco) are already in the race to succeed Kim, along with civil rights lawyer Joe Cohn and businesswoman Sarah Schoengood.
DeAngelo’s decision means a wide-open convention in his home county, Mercer, where five municipalities — East Windsor, Hamilton, Hightstown, Lawrence, and Robbinsville – represented 31.5% of the Democratic primary vote two years ago. Murphy has some ties to that part of the county as a former chief of staff to State Sen. Linda Greenstein (D-Plainsboro).
The Mercer convention is scheduled for March 11 with a filing deadline of February 10.
Another potential Mercer candidate, County Clerk Paula Sollami Covello, announced last week that she would not run.
The first vote to fill the open seat comes on February 10, when Monmouth County Democrats will award the organization line in a part of the district that made up 12.4% of the primary electorate two years ago. Only Murphy and Conaway are on the convention ballot; Cohn and Schoengood entered the race after the filling deadline.
More than half of the Democratic primary voters – about 56% — live in Burlington, which Murphy and Conaway represent in the legislature.
DeAngelo, a union leader and a moderate, would have been a strong contender. He is the president of the Mercer County Building and Construction Trades Council and business manager of IBEW Local 269. He also chairs the influential Assembly Telecommunications and Utilities Committee; while large segments of those regulated industries are barred from contributing to state legislative candidates, DeAngelo could have raised money from them for a congressional race.