Sherrill, Ciattarelli narrowing list of LG candidates as three senators bow out

As Mikie Sherrill and Jack Ciattarelli come closer to picking a running mate, three prominent state senators who had been mentioned as potential candidates have asked not to be considered, the New Jersey Globe has confirmed.

Democrats Troy Singleton (D-Delran), Benjie Wimberly (D-Paterson), and Republican Kristin Corrado (R-Totowa) are not interested in serving as lieutenant governor.

Sherrill does not appear to be considering sitting elected officials or members of Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration.

Less traditional, outside-the-box candidates are on Sherrill’s short list, including former Assistant Attorney General and former Newark mayoral candidate Shavar Jeffries, Statewide Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of New Jersey President Carlos Medina, Centenary College President Dale Caldwell, and Samuel A. Delgado, the vice chair of the New Jersey State Cannabis Regulatory Commission.

Ciattarelli’s short list includes Morris County Sheriff James Gannon, State Sen. Holly Schepisi (R-River Vale), Assemblyman Mike Inganamort (R-Chester), Assemblyman Don Guardian R-Atlantic City), Middletown Mayor Tony Perry, and ex-congressional candidate Nick De Gregorio, a Marine combat veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

There had been speculation that former Deputy U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Jim Johnson, who ran for governor in 2017, could emerge as a candidate, but he has not expressed interest and is not being vetted.  Kean University President Lamont Repollet, a former state education commissioner, was sent a questionnaire for vetting but did not respond.

Retired New York Giants running back Tiki Barber was discussed as a possible candidate, but he is not under serious consideration — either an indication that the Democratic nominee didn’t ask, or that Barber wasn’t really interested.

Neither candidate is close to a final decision. The deadline to designate a lieutenant governor nominee is July 28.

Jeffries, a civil rights lawyer and charter school advocate, served as Assistant Attorney General under Gov. Jon Corzine and as president of the Newark Public Schools Advisory Board during a period surrounding the state takeover of the local public schools.  He ran for mayor in 2014 and lost to Ras Baraka by 3,765 votes.  In 2020, about six weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic hit New Jersey, Jeffries openly considered challenging Gov. Phil Murphy in the 2021 Democratic primary.

Medina is a businessman from Morris County who has run the SHCCNJ for thirteen years.  He serves on the board of New Jersey Transit and was on Murphy’s ReStart the Economy Task Force.   He has hosted a show on public television in New Jersey.

Caldwell, the pastor of the Covenant United Methodist Church in Plainfield, is a former New Brunswick school board member and the assistant commissioner of community affairs under two Democratic governors.  He served as president of the U.S. Tennis Association, the executive director of the Newark Alliance, and a longtime president of the Educational Services Commission of New Jersey.  He became the president of Centenary University in 2023, following a stint as the director of the Rothman Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Fairleigh Dickinson University.

Delgado, a former vice president of Verizon, served on active duty in the U.S. Marine Corps for four years and eighteen years on reserve duty.  He is the husband of Assemblywoman Yvonne Lopez (D-Perth Amboy).

Gannon, the Morris County Sheriff since 2017, is a former Boonton police officer and deputy chief of investigations for the Morris County Prosecutor’s office.  He is unopposed in his bid for a fourth term this year.

Schepisi is serving her second term as a state senator from Bergen County and served for nine years in the New Jersey State Assembly.  She has served as a municipal attorney and prosecutor. Schepisu has been a practicing corporate attorney for 28 years, president of the Fordham Law Alumni Association of NJ for almost eight years, an executive  committee board member at Bergen Community College.  She is the Senate Minority Conference Leader.

Inganamort is seeking his second term as an assemblyman representing parts of Morris, Sussex, and Warren counties.  He’s a former mayor of Chester and a congressional aide who won his first election as an 18-year-old county committee candidate.

Guardian served one term as mayor of Atlantic City and is seeking his third term as an assemblyman.  He spent over twenty years running the Atlantic City Special Improvement District before ousting incumbent Lorenzo Langford in the 2017 mayoral election by a margin of three percentage points.

Perry was elected to the Middletown Township Committee in 2017 and has been mayor for seven years.  He is an executive at Hackensack Meridian Health and a former chief of staff to State Sen. Joseph Kyrillos.

De Gregorio spent eight years as an infantry officer in the U.S. Marine Corps and was discharged with the rank of Major.  After narrowly losing a Republican primary for Congress in 2022, De Gregorio joined Coign, a financial services company that markets a credit card built for conservatives.