Veteran State Sen. Bob Smith (D-Piscataway) hasn’t decided if he’ll seek re-election to his 17th district Senate seat next year, but he promised a final decision by Thanksgiving.
There has been speculation in recent months that Smith, the 79-year-old chairman of the influential Senate Environment and Energy Committee, might retire next year. Those rumors were fueled by progressive gains in Democratic council primaries in his hometown of Piscataway over the last two cycles and the near-defeat of his running mate in the 2025 Assembly primary. The loss of the county line, replaced by office block ballots, is also a factor.
The rival progressive slate, which opposes Smith and the longtime mayor, Brian Wahler, picked up two at-large council seats in 2024 and a ward seat on June 2. That reduces the organization majority from 7-0 to what will be 4-3 in January.
Smith, a former Piscataway mayor, doesn’t view the recent losses as a rebuke of the organization itself.
“At the end of the day, the people who fight about whatever their ideas are, they’re all Democrats, not the other team,” Smith said. “So you now have a situation where their ideas will clash at the local level. You’ll have different ideas discussed at council. And it’s the process. It’s the system.”
He said he was pleased with the organization’s showing in this year’s primary.
“They won three out of four. And the fourth, 110 votes, very close,” said Smith.
As for two years ago, Smith maintains that a post-filing day decision by U.S. District Court Judge Zahid Quraishi led to some confusion in Piscataway, where the two slates were not bracketed together.
“We had a ballot in ‘24 that was all mixed,” he explained. “Nobody and nobody knew how the ballot structure worked.”
Locally, Smith is optimistic for the future of the local Democratic organization,
“Put your eyes on 2028. The mayor is very popular. He’s never had an election where he didn’t win by over two to one,” Smith said. “No matter who’s on the council, they’re all Democrats and we generally have the same values. It’s a work in progress.”
Smith’s bigger problem may be the changing demographics of the 17th district, where three white men represent a constituency where a majority of residents are people of color; just 30% of the residents are white.
Last year, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka won Piscataway, 36%-28%, against now-Gov. Mikie Sherrill. Another progressive contender, Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop, received 14%.
Loretta Rivers, a Piscataway school board member who ran with Fulop, came within 463 votes of unseating Assemblyman Joe Danielson (D-Franklin) in 2025. She says she’s considering a rematch next year.
If Smith doesn’t run, one possible candidate is Middlesex County Commissioner Chanelle Scott McCollum, a former two-term Piscataway councilwoman and the daughter of Mildred Scott, the county’s popular sheriff.
Piscataway is a strongly Democratic municipality in general elections; Sherrill won it with 75% in 2025, and Kamala Harris with 61% in 2024.
The progressive-backed “Putting Piscataway Working Families First” slate knocked off incumbents Linwood Rouse and Kapil Shah in 2024, and earlier this month, Shantell Cherry, the school board president, unseated three-term Ward 1 Councilman Frank Uhrin, 814-700, a 54%-46% margin.
Smith has served as the state senator representing the 17th legislative district since 2002. Prior to that, he served the district in the Assembly from 1986 to 2001. He was mayor of Piscataway from 1981 to 1986, and a Piscataway councilman from 1977 to 1980. He challenged Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-Long Branch) in the 1992 congressional primary.