Announcing that he will seek re-election to a fifth term in Congress, Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-Wyckoff) today unveiled a list of dozens of elected officials, labor and community leaders, and first responders as his campaign co-chairs, including former Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg, Bergen County Central Trades and Labor Council president Michael Schneider, and Bergen County Education Association President Sue McBride.
Gottheimer’s anticipated re-election campaign comes as he mulls a bid for the Democratic nomination for governor in 2025. The Human Fundraising Machine has amassed a mammoth $17 million warchest in a district that Joe Biden carried by twelve percentage points.
“My commitment to the district and to Jersey remains steadfast – to champion our common bonds and bring people together to defeat extremism and the politics of division, and to always fight to make life more affordable for our communities, expand opportunities for everyone, and claw federal dollars back to Jersey for our hardworking families,” said Gottheimer. “From choice to child care to clean air to supporting our first responders and veterans, I will always have the backs of Jersey families.”
State Sens. Joseph Lagana (D-Paramus) and Gordon Johnson (D-Englewood), Bergen County Executive James Tedesco, Assemblywomen Lisa Swain (D-Fair Lawn), Shama Haider (D-Tenafly) and Ellen Park (D-Englewood Cliffs), Assemblyman Christopher Tully (D-Bergenfield), Bergen County Clerk John Hogan, Passaic County Clerk Danielle Ireland Imhof, and Bergen County Sheriff Anthony Cureton are serving as Gottheimer co-chairs, along with all seven Democratic county commissioners in Bergen and Passaic County.
From law enforcement, Gottheimer co-chairs include State Troopers Fraternal Association President Wayne Blanchard, State PBA President Pat Colligan, Port Authority PBA President Frank Conti, State Fraternal Order of Police President Robert Fox, and State Troopers Non-Commissioned Officers Association President Dan Oliveira. New Jersey Firefighters Mutual Benevolent Association President Eddie Donnelly and Professional Firefighters Association President Matthew Caliente join them.
Fifteen mayors are also serving as Gottheimer campaign co-chairs: Paul Tomasko (Alpine), John D’Amato (Bloomingdale), Brian Bernstein (Demarest), Michael Wildes (Englewood), Kurt Peluso (Fair Lawn), Mark Sokolich (Fort Lee), Christie Morieko (Glen Rock), Michael Scheinfeld (Hillsdale), William Ziegler (Leonia), Richard Bolan (Maywood), Michael Putrino (New Milford), Paul Kim (Palisades Park), Keith Misciagna (Park Ridge), Paul Vagianos (Ridgewood), Thomas Papaleo (River Edge), and Mark Zinna (Tenafly). Gottheimer also included former Sussex County Freeholder and Vernon Mayor Howard Burrell, Fair Lawn Deputy Mayor Christina Cutrone, and Teaneck Deputy Mayors Elie Katz and Danielle Gee.
Two Democratic mayors supporting Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop for governor next year, Michael Pagan (Teaneck) and John Labrosse (Hackensack), are not on Gottheimer’s 2024 list.
Additional co-chairs include David Pearson, the assistant director of veterans services for Catholic Charities, Larissa Downes, a community advocate for gun violence prevention and reproductive health, and EJ Hong of the Youth Council of Fort Lee.
“I am honored that so many outstanding leaders will be spearheading my re-election campaign this year. I know their insights and experience will be invaluable to me and our campaign,” Gottheimer stated. “Above all, they are problem solvers who believe in commonsense solutions and serving our communities.”
A former Clinton White House speechwriter, Gottheimer has become an influential figure on Capitol Hill as the House Problem Solvers Caucus Co-Chairman and a seat on the Financial Services Committee. He’s also part of Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ inner circle.
He first went to Congress in 2016, ousting seven-term Rep. Scott Garrett (R-Wantage) by 14,897 votes, 51%-47%, in a district that Donald Trump won by one point. Gottheimer became the first Democrat to win New Jersey’s 5th district in 36 years.
The district remained competitive enough that Trump still won 47% in 2020; Gottheimer ran one point in front of Joe Biden against Frank Pallotta, an ex-Wall Streeter who put $1.5 million of his own money into the race; Gottheimer won by 31,842 votes. He’s faced just one primary, in 2020, when he defeated Glen Rock Councilwoman Arati Kreibich by a 3-1 margin.
Redistricting made the 5th more Democratic in 2022 when staunchly Republican towns in Warren County were replaced by new Democratic areas of Bergen County. The new lines would have meant a 12-point win for Biden. That gave Gottheimer a solid 10-point victory in a rematch with Pallotta, who did not spend much of his own money in 2022.
Over the last 100 years, just three other Bergen County Democrats have served in Congress: Andrew Maguire (D-Ridgewood), who won in the 1974 Watergate wave election and lost his seat in the 1980 Reagan Revolution; Henry Helstoski (D-East Rutherford), who was swept into office in the 1964 Lyndon Johnson landslide and lost in 1976 after his indictment on extortion charges; and Edward Kenney (D-Cliffside Park), who won a new House seat in 1932 and served until his death after falling out of a window of a Washington, D.C. hotel following an evening at a New Jersey Chamber of Congress dinner in January 1938.
Gottheimer has raised over $33.3 million since becoming a candidate for Congress in 2015, not including funds he raised for other Democratic candidates.