A peculiar political campaign of sorts is being waged among Superior Court Judges in Essex County for a position that will open up next year: presiding judge of the Civil Division.
The incumbent, Thomas M. Moore, plans to retire in 2024, and two civil court judges, Mayra Tarantino and Grace Spencer, want the job, the New Jersey Globe has learned.
The architect of the competition, several Essex judges who spoke on the condition of anonymity confirmed, is Robert Gardner, a judge since 2008 and a former executive director of the Essex County Republican Committee. Gardner is Tarantino’s de facto campaign manager. Another judge, Annette Scoca, appears to be for Tarantino.
In a bizarre and unusual twist, Gardner is circulating a petition in an attempt to show support for Tarantino. The move, some say, might be backfiring; Tarantino has been at odds with Moore, and she has some influential detractors within the Essex judiciary.
(To be clear, the New Jersey Globe has been unable to obtain a copy of the petition.)
What makes the Tarantino for Presiding Judge campaign even more unusual is that the electorate is extraordinarily tiny: Assignment Judge Sheila Venable will offer a recommendation to Chief Justice Stuart Rabner, who has the final say. Rabner has shown no inclination that mini-campaigns influence him; indeed, those who know him say he’s probably offended by them. That may put Gardner in a precarious spot, if his campaign strategy turns out to be wrong.
There is even speculation of a dark horse candidate in this race: Stephen Petrillo, a highly-regarded civil court judge who has been on the bench since 2016.
David Katz, a former Livingston mayor who has been a judge since 2008, became the presiding judge of the Family Division in Essex in 2015. Since then, he’s been actively campaigning for the assignment judge post – willing, it seems, to commute just anywhere in the state to get that gig. While it’s unclear if the tactic has negatively influenced Rabner, he has not received any promotions he’s sought.
Spencer is a former five-term assemblywoman from Newark who left the legislature in 2016 to become a judge. A former assistant Newark Corporation Counsel and later a special prosecutor in the city, Cory Booker had backed her for the assembly seat in 2007, less than a year after he was elected mayor, ousting six-term incumbent Wilfredo Carballo in a landslide; Spencer was boosted by North Ward Democratic leader Stephen Adubato, Sr., who dropped his support of Caraballo.
Tarantino has been a judge since 2016. Before that, she worked at a North Jersey law firm, Lite De Palma Greenberg and Rivas. Tarantino clerked for U.S. Magistrate Judge John Hughes and Superior Court Judge Hunt Dumont.