Newark City Council President LaMonica McIver will be allowed to remain on the special Democratic primary ballot in New Jersey’s 10th congressional district, an administrative law judge ruled today, averting a major shakeup in the race for the late Rep. Donald Payne Jr. (D-Newark)’s seat.
McIver’s petitions had been challenged by one of her primary opponents, former East Orange Councilwoman Brittany Claybrooks, who noted that all 1,081 of McIver’s signatures had supposedly been circulated by one person: her mother, Robin McIver. Claybrooks contended that McIver had in fact likely utilized multiple circulators, and that by naming only her mother, her petitions were fraudulent and should be tossed.
“The idea that one person got [1,081] signatures over the course of Friday evening to Monday afternoon just defies credibility,” Claybrooks’ attorney Matt Moench argued yesterday.
Claybrooks’ argument was boosted further today when the New Jersey Globe reported that Hassan Abdus-Sabur, an aide in McIver’s council office, admitted to gathering some of the signatures himself, undercutting McIver’s claim that her mother collected them all.
“One circulator didn’t circulate 1,000 signatures,” Abdus-Sabur told the Globe. “I helped collect signatures. I’m speaking for myself. I collected signatures.”
In light of the story, Administrative Law Judge Kim Belin reopened the case this afternoon to allow both sides to update their arguments accordingly. But Abdus-Sabur declined to appear at the hearing, and Belin did not allow text messages sent by Abdus-Sabur or the New Jersey Globe story itself to be included as evidence in the case.
“I reopened this case because of the article, and I wanted to give the opportunity for this gentleman to come and if he wants to say something, I would listen to whatever he had to say,” Belin said. “Unless he shows up between now and 5 o’clock, we just have to go with the record as it is.”
Thus, all that remained as evidence was yesterday’s testimony from Claybrooks and another 10th district candidate, Linden Mayor Derek Armstead, about the length of time their own signature-gathering processes took. Evidently, that was not nearly convincing enough for Belin to invalidate McIver’s candidacy.
“[Claybrooks] did not meet her burden of proof to establish fraud or wrongdoing,” Belin wrote. “Petitioner has failed to prove that McIver committed false statements of fact necessary to disqualify her petition. There is no testimony or evidence showing that [Robin McIver] abused the law.”
Belin’s opinion still needs to be affirmed by Secretary of State Tahesha Way, who has the final say over who is allowed to make the ballot, but it seems unlikely Way would choose to disagree with Belin’s finding.
With McIver set to make the ballot, she remains the early frontrunner for the solidly Democratic, majority-Black 10th district, which was represented by Payne until his death last month following a heart attack.
McIver has the support of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and local Democratic organizations in Essex and Union Counties, which together make up around four-fifths of the district. There will be no county lines in the special primary, since only one race will be on voters’ ballots on July 16, but organizational support could still go a long way in what may be a very low-turnout election.
Also running are ten other candidates: Claybrooks, Armstead, Hudson County Commissioner Jerry Walker (D-Jersey City), state economic development official Darryl Godfrey, former Payne staffer Shana Melius, John Flora, Debra Salters, Alberta Gordon, Sheila Montague, and Eugene Mazo.