After an administrative law judge ruled – for a second time – that Newark City Council President LaMonica McIver should be placed on the special Democratic primary ballot in New Jersey’s 10th congressional district, one of McIver’s rivals is asking Secretary of State Tahesha Way to use her own power as the state’s top elections official to keep McIver off the ballot.
In an exception submitted earlier today, Matt Moench, the attorney representing former East Orange Councilwoman and current CD-10 candidate Brittany Claybrooks, argues that Administrative Law Judge Kim Belin’s opinion from earlier this morning is fatally flawed and should be overruled.
At issue are texts sent by Hassan Abdus-Sabur, a McIver aide who said that he collected some of McIver’s petition signatures, which would run contrary to McIver’s claim that her mother circulated each and every petition she submitted. Abdus-Sabur’s texts were ruled to be inadmissible as evidence by Belin because they were apparently not able to be authenticated, reasoning which Moench said is flawed for a number of reasons.
“The Court improperly denied competent, probative evidence that would have additionally supported [Claybrooks’] claims,” Moench wrote.
“It is clear that the Court simply does not understand how cell phone records work, or how they can be authenticated,” he added.
Moench also noted that while he served Abdus-Sabur with a subpoena, Abdus-Sabur declined to come to any of the multiple hearings that were held on the matter, and no move was made by the court to enforce the subpoena. If Way doesn’t reject McIver from the ballot wholesale, Moench wrote, she should at least force Abdus-Sabur to testify at a new hearing.
“While Ms. McIver should be removed from the ballot, the Secretary of State can alternatively remand the matter again and require that Mr. Abdus-Subur, and only Mr. Abdus-Subur, testify as to the authenticity of the text messages, his conversation with the New Jersey Globe, and whether he or others were circulators to the petition,” Moench wrote.
Way, who previously rejected Belin’s opinion in the matter once before, set herself a new deadline of tomorrow to decide whether McIver will be certified as a candidate in the 10th district, which was held by Rep. Donald Payne Jr. (D-Newark) until his death last month.