An administrative law judge spent several hours reviewing nominating petitions for Democratic congressional candidate Brittany Claybrooks on Wednesday, invalidating 29 signatures.
The judge, Susana Espasa Guerrero, will be back in her courtroom tomorrow to decide if Claybrooks, a former East Orange councilwoman and North Jersey regional political director for Andy Kim’s U.S. Senate campaign, can remain on the ballot in the July 16 special primary election to fill the seat of the late Rep. Donald Payne, Jr.
Claybrooks filed with 352 signatures, so Guerrero must strike a total of 153 to toss her from the ballot.
The New Jersey Democratic State Committee is behind the petition challenge. Their attorney, Raj Parikh, told Guerrero that he believes a large number of forgeries exist.
In turn, Claybrooks has filed a petition challenge against the early frontrunner, Newark Council President LaMonica McIver. She’s alleging that McIver’s mother could not possibly have personally witnessed more than 1,000 signatures in three days.
“Ms. McIver purported to submit 1,081 signatures to your office,” said Claybrooks’ attorney, Matthew Moench. “Of these signatures, almost 900 are from voters who cannot be verified as living in the district, who failed to write down their address, who are registered with another party, or who are not registered to vote in the first place.