Hudson County Democrats are staying out of the July 16 special primary for Donald Payne’s 10th district congressional seat, even though only one candidate is from Jersey City: County Commissioner Jerry Walker.
“We are very focused on the June Primary and speaking to other Democratic leaders in the county, we have decided to remain neutral and not endorse any candidate in the 10th district,” the Democratic county chairman, Anthony Vainieri, told the New Jersey Globe.
But one high-ranking Democratic official said that they were unaware that the deadline to file slogans was 4 PM yesterday – the Friday filing deadline knocked everyone off, and Hudson Democrats didn’t realize Saturday and Sunday counted as part of the three days to file a ballot slogan with the state Division of Elections. They thought there was more time.
And Walker never asked the Hudson County Democratic Organization to use their slogan, the New Jersey Globe has confirmed.
There are no organization lines in the special election to fill the remaining months of Payne’s term. Because it’s a free-standing, single-office election, office block ballots would have been used even before U.S. District Court Judge Zahid Quraishi ordered them for the June 4 Democratic primary.
Walker, a former local basketball star turned politician, might still have hoped for assistance from the party apparatus in his home county.
The front-runner, Newark Council President LaMonica McIver, is using party slogans in Essex and Union counties. Linden Mayor Derek Armstead, the lone Union County contender in the 11-candidate field, lost a vote for the party organization endorsement on Monday; he will be on the ballot with the “Democrat for the People” slogan.
Walker is using three slogans: “Jerry’s History is Helping Others” in Hudson; “People Before Politics” in Essex, and “The Peoples Politician” in Union.
In Hudson, McIver is on the ballot as “Hudson County Democratic Party for McIver.”
Other slogans:
Brittany Claybrooks – “Claybrooks for Change!”
Darryl Godfrey – “Democrat for Healthcare, Jobs and Affordability”
Shana Melius – “Fighting for Progress”
Sheila Montague – “Together We Serve”
Debra Salters – “Salters Gets it Done”
John Flora – “Endorsed by Kennedy, Lincoln and Grant”
Flora is able to use the names because those are the names of his children, election officials said.
Alberta Gordon is using three slogans: “Elected Not ‘Selected’ Restoring Choice” In Essex; “Rooted In Tradition: Driven by Innovation” in Hudson; and Traditional Values: Modern Solutions” in Union.
The slogans Eugene Mazo, an election law expert and professor at Seton Hall Law School, will use are still to be determined.
The Division of Elections has not approved the three ballot slogans he submitted:
Essex: “Vladimir Putin Is A Murderous Warmonger”
Hudson: “XI Jinping Will Destroy Taiwan”
Union: “The James Bond of Newark”
State law requires permission of living people to use their name in a ballot slogan.
But in 2018, Secretary of State Tahesha Way allowed NJ-11 GOP congressional candidate Peter DeNeufville to use the slogan, “New Jersey Reagan Republican” because Reagan was deceased.
“Here, the plain meaning of the word ‘person’ is “a living human being,” Way wrote in her 2018 decision, referencing Webster’s II New College Dictionary. “Assuming the name Reagan refers to former President Ronald Reagan, the use of the Reagan name by candidate de Neufville is permitted because former President Reagan is deceased and therefore is not a “person” within the meaning of the statute.”
Despite the Reagan slogan and last-minute endorsements from Henry Kissinger and former California Gov. Pete Wilson, DeNeufville lost the Republican primary by ten points.