Assembly incumbents face challenges at Essex Dem convention

There are challenges to incumbents in two Essex County legislative districts as Democrats prepare for their first-ever county convention.

Roseland Mayor James Spango will seek party support in the 27th district against  Assemblywomen Rosy Bagolie (D-Livingston) and Alixon Collazos-Gill (D-Montclair), and Newark West Ward Democratic Chairman Chigozie Onyema will take on Assemblywomen Cleopatra Tucker (D-Newark) and Garnet Hall (D-Maplewood) in the 28th.

Tucker, a supporter of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka’s gubernatorial bid,  is a nine-term lawmaker; Bagolie, Collazos-Gill, and Hall are all freshmen.

Spango is the chief of the Essex County Sheriff’s Office, a post he won’t need to give up if he wins an Assembly seat.  His mother, Patty Spango, was a West Orange councilwoman and Democratic municipal chair.  Onyema, an assistant commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs under Lt. Gov. Sheila Oliver. ran for a West Ward council seat in 2022 and lost a runoff.

The new system in Essex, announced last month by Democratic County Chairman LeRoy Jones, Jr., follows the elimination of county organization lines and the establishment of office block voting in primary elections.

Convention winners will be permitted to use the organization’s slogan on the ballot.

Under the newly established rules, if an incumbent gets 50% +1 at the screening committee, they may bypass the convention with an automatic endorsement.  But If a challenge gets 50%+1 in the screening committee, it goes to the full convention with a recommendation.

In contests without an incumbent — like the governor’s race — the screening committee is just a recommendation;  all candidates must compete at the convention.