Signorello mulling switch from Senate race to NJ-7 congressional bid

Roselle Park Mayor Joseph Signorello may drop his bid for U.S. Senate and instead get in the race to take on Rep. Thomas Kean, Jr. (R-Westfield) in New Jersey’s 7th district.

Signorello announced in February that he would challenge Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez in the Democratic primary, but is now taking a closer look at a congressional run.

“We will make a decision this week,” Signorello told the New Jersey Globe.

That would move him into a contest with Sue Altman, the Working Families state director who entered the race against Kean last month.

Signorello said he began thinking seriously about a House run after attending a rally slamming Kean for his support of the comprise to raise the debt limit ceiling.

“People want to see me fight against Republicans, not other Democrats,” he said.

The 35-year-old two-term mayor said he’d discussed his potential candidacy with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee with some party leaders.

Signorello lives slightly outside the 7th district; he lives instead in the 10th district, represented by Rep. Donald Payne, Jr. (D-Newark).  He had enough political skills to push Eddie Donnelly, the head of the state firefighters union, out of the Democratic race for State Senate in 2021; Signorello became the organization candidate to take on Jon Bramnick (R-Westfield) for Kean’s open State Senate seat but lost the general election by eight points.

Signorello was elected mayor in 2018, defeating Republican Willian Fahoury by a 54%-27% margin.  Incumbent Carl Hokanson, a Democrat running for re-election as an independent, finished third with 18%.

Not living in the 7th doesn’t worry Signorello.

“I’m five minutes away from the district,” Signorello explained.

National Democrats have targeted NJ-7 as a must-win to regain control of the House next year.  Kean won a rematch against Rep.  Tom Malinowski (D-Ringoes) by three percentage points in 2022 after redistricting made the seat more friendly to Republicans.

Republicans held the 7th district House seat from 1956 until 2018 when Malinowski unseated five-term Rep. Leonard Lance (R-Clinton Township) in Trump’s 2018 midterm election with 52% of the vote.   Two years later, Kean came within one percentage point of winning the seat back.

Malinowski’s defeat came partly at the hands of his own party after Democrats on the congressional redistricting commission successfully advocated for a map that shored up three other New Jersey House seats at his expense.

The new 7th went from a district Joe Biden won in 2020 by ten points to one he carried in by four points.

Altman is off to a fast start as a candidate for Congress, raising over $100,000 in her first week in the race and securing personal endorsements from state CWA and 32BJ SEIU heads.

Michael Soliman, Menendez’s top political advisor, declined to comment.