Fulop will pick South Orange mayor as his Lt. Governor candidate

Steve Fulop will announce his pick of Sheena Collum, the popular mayor of South Orange with a statewide reputation as a brainy policy wonk who once described herself as “an unapologetic, pussyhat-wearing progressive,” to run with him for lieutenant governor if he wins the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, the New Jersey Globe has confirmed.

An announcement has been scheduled for tomorrow in South Orange.

Like Fulop, Collum is unapologetic in her willingness to take on the political establishment.  She is a staunch advocate for shared government services and smart development built around public transportation.   She has impressed voters in her small town of about 18,000 people with insistence that local government be more transparent.  The ticket marks the combination of big city and small suburb mayors.

Fulop indicated last year that he would pick his running mate before the Democratic primary.  He becomes the first gubernatorial candidate to announce a pre-primary choice since the office was created for the 2009 election.

Collum, whose name will not appear on the June 10 primary ballot, is expected to hit the campaign trail immediately — something that offers Fulop what could be a high-profile surrogate in the final two months of the campaign.   The Fulop campaign already has events planned this week, including Montclair and Englewood.

She also potentially takes votes from Sherrill, essentially becoming the second woman seeking statewide office this year.  South Orange is in Sherrill’s congressional district.

If Fulop and Collum win, she would become the state’s first Asian American lieutenant governor.  Her mother is Korean American.

In an interview with Village Green last year, Fulop said Collum “is like a force of nature” and said she was one of the best mayors in the state.

“Her knowledge of development and policy is really second to none. She’s practical, she’s pragmatic, she’s thoughtful, and she’s solution-oriented,” Fulop said.  “She’s not really a just pie in the sky type of person. She’s about results and getting things done.”

As a candidate for governor, Fulop has shown his penchant for other mayors with some level of executive experience.  Most of his earliest endorsements came from fellow mayors, some of whom have been involved in helping him advance detailed position papers on key issues.

In addition to serving as mayor, Collum’s day job is as executive director of the American Planning Association’s New Jersey chapter.  The non-profit organization advocates for community planning, citizen empowerment, and creating communities “that offer better and more equitable choices for how people live, work, and play.”

She was one of Fulop’s earliest supporters and the author of his plan to double affordable housing in New Jersey.

Born in Flemington, the 41-year-old Collum grew up in Mississippi and, as a teenager, showed a penchant for taking on the local political machine.  As the student body president at Starkville High School, labeling herself as an “aspiring politician,” she sent a letter to her local newspaper expressing “anger and devastation” over education budget cuts.

“Every single politician who wanted to get into office screamed, ‘Education!’ wrote Collum, then 18. “And we were stupid enough to listen …  I always thought people in politics were there because they had a passion for others.  I was wrong.”

Even at a young age, Collum had grasped that art of the sound bite: “How can we trust elected officials who take away from our schools and then propose pay raises for officials?  Lawmakers are very lucky to be where they are, because, at this rate, they won’t be there for long.”

Just a couple of years later, as president of the Seton Hall University Student Government Association, Collum smacked a slate of candidates in a May non-partisan election for local office in South Orange, who accused college students of trying to hijack a local election.  On campus, Collum played a major role in registering nearly 500 students who lived on campus and led a successful effort to get a polling location placed at the university.

“We’re not trying to set up a voting bloc,” Collum, then a junior, told the Star-Ledger at the time.  “We’re just trying to get Seton Hall students the representation they haven’t had in 150 years.”

While still in college, her criticism of Seton Hall naming buildings and other honorifics for millionaire businessmen who had been convicted of crimes made international news.  She tangled with administrators and church officials after they wouldn’t allow Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry to speak on campus after Collum secured him because of his views on abortion.

In 2013, after three incumbent South Orange Village Trustees declined to seek re-election, Collum, then 29, ran for local office and was the top vote-getter in a race for three seats in a seven-candidate field and won comfortably.

Two years later, when the incumbent stepped down during his first term, Collum ran for Village President, a title later changed to mayor.  She defeated Emily Hynes with 70% of the vote to become South Orange’s first woman village president.

In 2019, Collum faced a re-election fight against Village Trustee Deborah Davis Ford, an Essex Democratic insider who served as the Essex County Board of Freeholders clerk.  She had money and endorsements from Essex Democratic leaders.

Davis Ford also had the backing of two local firefighter unions that opposed Collum’s proposal to enter into a full consolidation of fire services agreement with next-door Maplewood.  The union pumped a bunch of money into the race.

Collum scored a landslide 76% victory over Davis Ford, sweeping her village trustee slate in with her.  Seeking a third term in 2024, Collum and her ticket were unopposed; still, they ran an aggressive campaign.

As mayor of a train station town, Collum has been a staunch critic of New Jersey Transit.  Last year, she sent a letter to employers telling them that some of their staff “who rely on NJ Transit trains, may be late through absolutely no fault of their own.”

She has focused on smart growth, economic development, and infrastructure during her nearly twelve years in local office, including advocating for shared services and capital planning.

Faced with expensive repairs of an old village hall that didn’t meet certain code requirements and was not handicapped accessible, Collum instead sold the building – it’s now a beer garden that has helped spike economic development in South Orange – and moved local government offices to a nearby commercial office building.