New Jersey’s March 25 filing deadline for Democrats and Republicans seeking any partisan office in the state, from president to town council, is just six days away.
So far, one candidate – former President Donald Trump – has filed petitions for president, one candidate has filed for Senate, and eight candidates have filed for one of the state’s 12 congressional districts. (This is all according to the state Division of Elections, which only tracks federal and state offices; county and local offices are administered at the county level.)
That lone Senate filer is someone whose name hadn’t previously come up as a potential candidate: Peter Vallorosi, a Republican who was last seen running for the 5th congressional district in 2016. (He got 8% of the GOP primary vote against incumbent Rep. Scott Garrett). Vallorosi, a resident of Sussex County, has an active online campaign presence, but he stands little chance in a Republican Senate primary against several much better-known candidates.
Another new name is John Sauers, an accountant from Rockaway who filed to run as a Republican against Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-Montclair). Sauers and physician Raafat Barsoom both look like they’ll wage off-the-line bids against Belleville building inspector Joseph Belnome, who is set to have the party line across the 11th congressional district.
One other interesting thing to note is that while Reps. Sherrill and Frank Pallone (D-Long Branch) have filed petitions to run for re-election, neither have filed what ballot slogans they intend to use.
That’s important this year because both Pallone and Sherrill have endorsed First Lady Tammy Murphy for U.S. Senate, but one county in each of their districts (Monmouth and Morris, respectively) opted to support Rep. Andy Kim (D-Moorestown) instead. Pallone and Sherrill thus have to make a decision about whether to bracket off-the-line with Murphy or on-the-line with Kim; so far, their nominating petitions don’t indicate which they’ll do.