The three counties that make up the 10th congressional district held their ballot draw today to determine where candidates will appear on the ballot in the district’s special Democratic primary – a potentially important factor in an 11-way race where most candidates start out with minimal name recognition.
In Essex County, which makes up a majority of the district, Shana Melius, a former staffer to the late Rep. Donald Payne Jr. (D-Newark) will be listed in the first column. The other two counties, Hudson and Union, both drew Newark City Council President LaMonica McIver for the top spot; McIver, who has most early establishment support across the district, is in the fifth slot on Essex ballots.
Besides McIver, the other current or former elected officials running are Hudson County Commissioner Jerry Walker (D-Jersey City), Linden Mayor Derek Armstead, and former East Orange Councilwoman Brittany Claybrooks, who are all scattered in various different places on each county’s ballot.
Both McIver and Claybrooks had to get through strenuous petition challenges in order to make the ballot in the first place, with Secretary of State Tahesha Way ruling last night (in McIver’s case) or this morning (in Claybrooks’) that each can appear on the ballot despite some questions over the accuracy of their nominating petitions.
Also gunning for the Newark-based seat, which was held by Payne until his death in April, are Melius, state economic development official Darryl Godfrey, teacher John Flora, former mayoral candidate Sheila Montague, community activist Debra Salters, local district leader Alberta Gordon, and law professor Gene Mazo.
Notably, all three counties are sticking with a “county line” style of ballots, even though with only one election taking place on July 16 there will be no line to speak of. The county line was struck down by a federal judge for this year’s June 4 Democratic primary, but since this is a special election, that narrowly tailored decision doesn’t apply.
What that means is that the candidates will be listed horizontally, with each occupying their own column on the ballot, rather than being organized as a vertical list, as would be the case on an office-block ballot.