Newark’s Central Ward could be without representation on the city council for nearly fourteen months if LaMonica McIver wins election to the U.S. House of Representatives in September, potentially gridlocking the state’s largest city while Mayor Ras Baraka is running for governor.
McIver, the 38-year-old city council president, is a shoo-in to win the September 18 special election in a district that Joe Biden carried with 81% four years ago. She could be seated by the end of the month, but must first resign her Central Ward council seat.
But her departure will leave the city council split 4-4 between two factions, one of which is allied with Baraka.
Since Newark’s municipal elections are non-partisan, the remaining eight members of the city council would have 30 days to agree on a replacement, and several sources in Newark strongly suggest that won’t happen. One of the factions is highly unlikely to give the Baraka side a council majority.
That means the Central Ward seat would remain vacant until the next regularly scheduled election, which is November 2025.
But if McIver were to resign her council seat by August 31, that would trigger a November 2024 special election to fill her seat; the move would allow her constituents to be represented by a successor of their own choosing in a presidential election that typically produces the highest turnout.
McIver says that’s not happening.
“It’s absolutely no,” she told the New Jersey Globe. “It’s unfortunate with the calendar.”
McIver said she’s not taking the general election for granted and isn’t ready to declare victory over Republican Carmen Bucco prematurely. Her early resignation could be interpreted as over-confidence.
To be clear, McIver is not obligated to leave her current office early. Unlike other states, New Jersey has no “Resign to Run” law; another candidate for Congress, Herb Conaway, Jr. (D-Delran) in the 3rd district, gets to keep his State Assembly seat until he knows the outcome of his next election.
Newark officials said the statute doesn’t permit a free-standing special election in May 2026 – the law says “next regularly scheduled election” – and the April school board election is run by the Board of Education and not the city or county.
If Newark is at a standstill with no clear majority on the council, Baraka could have trouble moving forward on his local agenda while he’s seeking the governorship.
There is speculation that Baraka’s preferred candidate is Amina Bey, executive director of the Newark Emergency Services for Families non-profit and former executive director of the Newark Workforce Development Board.
Bishop Andre Speight, the Central Ward Democratic chairman, announced his candidacy minutes after the July 18 special Democratic primary was called for McIver. Other possible candidates include: Shawn McCray, the Central High School basketball coach who ran competitive races against McIver in 2018 and 2022; former Newark school board member Reginald Bledsoe; Gary Vickers, a retired Newark police captain and union leader; and Gayle Cheneyfield-Jenkins, a former Central Ward councilwoman who gave up her seat in 2018 to challenge Baraka.
A November 2025 special would give an incumbent an advantage when the seat is up for grabs again in May 2026.
There’s also a succession issue regarding McIver’s replacement as council president; the council vice president post has been eliminated.
Baraka has a working 5-4 majority on the city council, including McIver as his ally, along with Louise Scott-Rountree, Larry Crump, Pat Council, and Dupre Kelly. The other faction, at least right now, includes Anibal Ramos, Jr., Luis Quintana, Carlos Gonzalez, and Michael Silva.
The council rules state that the city council “shall elect a temporary presiding officer” if the council presidency remains empty. If they don’t, the matter could wind up in court.
And no council president leaves the mayoral line of succession murky.
Newark has had difficulty filling council vacancies in the past.
Veteran Councilwoman Mildred Crump resigned on August 23 for health reasons after missing several months of meetings, but the city clerk chose to ignore a state law that would have required a November special election to fill her seat. Instead, the city council quietly voted to give the seat to her son, Larry, and bypass an election.
The city clerk, Kenneth Louis, acknowledged that a special election should have been held.
“Technically, yes,” Louis told the New Jersey Globe. “But in reality, it’s impossible to do. There really isn’t time for us to pull this off.”
After Donald Payne, Jr. was elected to Congress in 2012 — his father, Rep. Donald Payne, Sr. had died in office – a riot nearly broke out in city hall after a split council couldn’t agree on someone to fill his at-large council seat or a successor for council president.
Shanique Speight, now an assemblywoman (and the husband of Andre), had been the initial choice of a city council faction allied with then-Mayor Cory Booker to replace Payne. Booker’s rivals, led by Baraka, wanted to appoint John Sharpe James, the son of former Mayor Sharpe James.
The Booker faction included Ramos, Quintana, Gonzalez, and Augusto Amador. Standing with Baraka were Mildred Crump and Darrin Sharif; another councilman, Ronald C. Rice, who had challenged Payne in the congressional primary, abstained. This counted as a no vote, making the motion to appoint Speight tied at 4-4. Booker broke the tie, and Speight was sworn in, but she was removed after Superior Court Judge Dennis Carey ruled that Booker had no legal authority to do that.
Baraka was among the group of council members who went to court to challenge Booker’s authority.
It took ten months for the council to agree on Quintana as the new council president. Because Booker was running for U.S. Senate, it became clear that the council president would become acting mayor; with Baraka and Ramos both running for mayor, Quintana became a compromise pick.
After Donald Payne Sr. resigned his South Ward council seat in January 1989 to become a congressman, Donald Brady won a November 1989 special election to succeed him.