The New Jersey Firefighters Mutual Benevolent Association, New Jersey’s largest firefighters union and a potent force in state politics, is supporting Plainfield Mayor Adrian Mapp in the crowded Democratic primary for the 12th congressional district.
The primary to succeed Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing) is full of prominent Democratic candidates, including several longtime officeholders with deep ties to the state’s unions. But Eddie Donnelly, NJFMBA’s president, said that the firefighters of Plainfield have developed a close relationship with Mapp, and “it is those members whose voices came first, and loudest,” in the decision to endorse him.
“Over the years, Mayor Mapp has consistently shown that when it comes to the men and women of the Plainfield Fire Department, safety is always first,” Hassan Sanders, the president of Plainfield FMBA Local 7, said in a statement. “In politics, just like in negotiating, relationships matter at every level, and Mayor Mapp has always proven that he values the importance of labor/management relationships.”
The NJFMBA, which represents more than 6,000 New Jersey firefighters, EMTs, and dispatchers, is one of the only unions to have weighed in so far on the race for the Central Jersey district, a race in which there’s no clear frontrunner and lots of complex dynamics.
Earlier this month, Assemblywoman Verlina Reynolds-Jackson (D-Trenton) was endorsed by the Communications Workers of America District 1.