When a politician dies, the jockeying for their seat usually needs to wait at least a few days to begin; it’s the bare minimum of respect for the deceased. But in the case of Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson), who died this morning at the age of 87, candidates hoping to succeed him have essentially no choice but to begin their campaigns right away.
That’s because under state law, Democrats have only eight days to fill the vacancy Pascrell leaves behind and choose a new Democratic nominee for November. The deadline for parties to submit replacement nominees is 68 days before the general election – which this year is next Thursday, August 29.
Within the next week, Democratic county committeemembers from across Pascrell’s 9th congressional district, which includes large swaths of Passaic and Bergen Counties and a smaller piece of Hudson County, will have to come together for a hastily scheduled convention to choose who they want to next represent them in Congress.
The convention could be a peaceful coronation of whichever candidate amasses the most early support, as was seen earlier this summer at the convention to replace the late Rep. Donald Payne Jr. (D-Newark), or it could turn into an all-out brawl, one where the county parties do battle with one another and longstanding allegiances are put to the test.
Nowhere in the process will voters themselves have a say – at least until the November general election, when the new Democratic nominee will go up against Republican Billy Prempeh, who lost to Pascrell in both 2020 and 2022. There’s not enough time to schedule a special election between now and then, so the seat will remain vacant until the new congressional term begins on January 3, 2025.
At the top of the early shortlist for the Democratic nomination are three longtime Passaic County politicians: Assemblywoman Shavonda Sumter (D-North Haledon), Assemblyman Benjie Wimberly (D-Paterson), and Paterson Mayor André Sayegh. Both Sumter and Sayegh considered primary challenges against Pascrell this year, but opted not to run.
Also high on the list is Bergen County Commissioner Tracy Silna Zur (D-Franklin Lakes), who lives in the northern reaches of Bergen County.
Three other state legislators – Assemblyman Clinton Calabrese (D-Cliffside Park), Assemblyman Gary Schaer (D-Passaic), and State Sen. Nellie Pou (D-North Haledon) – might look at campaigns as well. Pou is the highest-ranking Hispanic elected official in the district, which is plurality-Hispanic.
None of the potential contenders are likely to say much of anything today, as the state processes Pascrell’s death. But because the convention is happening on such a short timeframe, they’ll have to make their intentions known very soon.
While Passaic County makes up a slight majority of the 9th district in population, Passaic Democrats may not have an advantage at the convention, because many of their county committee seats have long been vacant. Democrats in Clifton and Paterson recently met to fill some of those vacant seats, but it probably won’t be clear until the convention arrives how successful they’ve been at bringing themselves back to parity with Bergen Democrats.
The county committee discrepancy could encourage Bergen to make a play for the seat with one of its own candidates, like Zur. Or, if the race turns into a battle between multiple Passaic candidates, Bergen Democrats could play kingmaker; Hudson Democrats aren’t likely to put forward any of their own candidates, but they make up a big enough bloc that they, too, could play a key role at the convention.
And since the convention is happening at the end of August, when lots of New Jerseyans go on vacation, turnout is difficult to project. There are 806 county committee seats in the 9th district, but if lots of committeemembers decide not to cancel their travel plans, the actual number of convention voters could be dramatically smaller.
Pascrell, for his part, had plenty of experience negotiating the Passaic and Bergen halves of his district during his time in Congress.
In 2012, with New Jersey losing a House seat after reapportionment, Republicans drew a new congressional map that combined Pascrell’s Passaic-based district and neighboring Rep. Steve Rothman’s Bergen-based district, forcing the two friends to run against one another. Pascrell was initially seen as the underdog, since he represented a smaller percentage of the new district than Rothman – but after a magnificent campaign that earned him overwhelming support in Passaic County, Pascrell won the Democratic primary in a landslide.
That fight, however, was very different from the one that will play out this year, since it was resolved by primary voters themselves. The race for Pascrell’s seat (or at least the Democratic nomination for it) will be decided by the 9th district’s few hundred county committeemembers, who should brace themselves for an intense week ahead.