An administrative law judge held a new hearing today on a challenge to Newark City Council President LaMonica McIver’s nominating petitions for the 10th congressional district special election, saying that she’ll issue her finding on whether McIver should be allowed on the ballot by tomorrow at 10 a.m.
Last week, Administrative Law Judge Kim Belin had ordered that McIver – whose 1,081 petition signatures were challenged by a Democratic primary rival for all sharing one circulator, which would have been a logistically difficult feat – be allowed onto the ballot. Former East Orange Councilwoman Brittany Claybrooks, who challenged McIver’s petitions, had not provided enough evidence that McIver’s petitions were fraudulent, Belin determined.
But that opinion was subject to review by Secretary of State Tahesha Way, who decided yesterday to remand the case back to Belin. The case needed to be reopened, Way said, because Belin had not provided Claybrooks sufficient opportunity to present a key piece of evidence: a text message from McIver aide Hassan Abdus-Sabur saying that he had collected some of the signatures himself.
“I collected over 50 signatures,” Abdus-Sabur said in the message, rebutting McIver’s claim that her mother, Robin McIver, personally gathered all 1,081 signatures. (He also told the New Jersey Globe over the phone that he circulated some petitions.)
Abdus-Sabur’s message was at last allowed into the case as evidence today after previously being rejected by Belin last week. Claybrooks’ attorney Matt Moench was not able to compel Abdus-Sabur himself to testify on the text message, but two people who were part of the same group chat did testify as to the message’s authenticity.
Today, however, it was revealed that Abdus-Sabur recanted his earlier statement, saying “I lied and I misspoke” in a text message to McIver last Friday. That text message was also entered into the record at today’s hearing.
Thus, the battle between McIver’s and Claybrooks’ attorneys became a battle over which text message to emphasize: the one in which Abdus-Sabur originally acknowledged collecting signatures, or the one in which he denied that to be true.
“It doesn’t make any sense. It’s not believable that he lied,” Moench said, casting doubt on why Abdus-Sabur would have made up claims about circulating petitions. “What is believable is that his employer called him up and said, ‘What did you just do? There’s now a press statement out there that basically says our petitions are invalid. You’ve got to fix this.’”
“You have completely conflicting text messages,” McIver attorney Angelo Genova responded. “We don’t know which is true and which is not true. But we know enough that they’re so contrary to each other that, collectively, neither one of them should bear any probative value in your assessment, and they effectively cancel each other out.”
Whatever decision Belin ultimately makes about McIver’s ballot access will be subject to review by Way, who will certify the official list of candidates on Thursday.
McIver is considered the early frontrunner in the Democratic primary for the seat previously held by Rep. Donald Payne Jr. (D-Newark), who died last month. The 10th congressional district is a majority-Black district based in Newark; it’s also deeply Democratic, and the winner of the Democratic primary is very likely to be the district’s next member of Congress.
Claybrooks is one of ten alternate candidates seeking to deny the Democratic nomination to McIver, and she seems to have survived a separate petition challenge brought by the New Jersey Democratic State Committee alleging that her petitions show signs of widespread fraud. An administrative law judge kept Claybrooks on the ballot last week, but that decision was similarly remanded back to her by Way; the judge issued a new opinion today providing more evidence for her decision as to why Claybrooks’ petitions are valid.