Under a new law signed by Gov. Phil Murphy last month, Democrats in Essex and Passaic counties have a narrow deadline to replace Richard J. Codey as their candidate for State Senate in the 27th district.
Democratic county committee members in the 27th district must designate their new candidate by 4 PM on August 31, but the calendar is more complicated than that, especially since some of the potential candidates are already on the ballot for another office.
The deadline for winners of the June primary to drop out of the race is August 29 – two weeks earlier than it would have been under previous sthe new law moved that deadline up about two weeks.
If Assemblyman John McKeon (D-West Orange), awaiting Codey’s retirement for years, wins a county committee vote for the Senate nomination, the party must replace him on the Assembly ticket.
That could mean a second meeting – or some finagling of the rules to have a second vote after the outcome of the Senate race is determined. Essex County Democratic bylaws require members to be notified seven days before a meeting; in Passaic, it’s five days. (In New Jersey, deadlines are fungible.)
Essex County Commissioner Brendan Gill (D-Montclair) is also a potential candidate. He’s up for re-election this year, and his wife, Alixon Collazos-Gill, is the Democratic nominee for an open State Assembly seat.
If Brendan Gill were to win the Senate nomination, there would be serious discussions by Democrats – likely before the vote – about replacing Collazos-Gill on the Assembly ticket. Additionally, Democrats must fill Gill’s slot on the at-large county commissioner slate. That could happen simultaneously with an Assembly vote.
Expect Essex Democrats to limit each municipality in the 27th district to one legislative seat, which means the post-Codey ticket will be one candidate each from Montclair and West Orange. Livingston or Millburn will likely get the second Assembly seat.
And if Brendan Gill were to win the Senate nod, it would be difficult for Democrats to support a white male for the Assembly seat.
Roseland, where Codey lives, has no geographic claim to a seat. Codey was residing in Orange when he first won an Assembly seat in 1973.
Significant logistical issues surround Codey’s announcement, including the unpredictability of August vacations on voter head counts.
While Montclair wouldn’t get two legislative seats, that doesn’t necessarily mean Gill’s replacement on the Board of County Commissioners wouldn’t come from Montclair.
The tight deadlines could impact anyone on the ballot this year for another office.
For example, if Millburn Mayor Maggee Miggins wants to run for the Assembly – or even county commissioner – she would need to withdraw her candidacy by August 29, and her local Democratic County Committee must select a replacement candidate for her township committee seat by August 31.
Miggins could run for both offices – there is no legal barrier to that, especially since the 27th is considered safe for Democrats; she just can’t hold both – but Millburn is also potentially competitive in local elections, and her seat could be at risk.
Potential candidates for an open Assembly seat include: former Livingston Mayors Shawn Klein and Al Anthony; Millburn Township Committeewoman and Democratic Municipal Chair Annette Romano; and Carrie Parikh, the chief privacy officer at Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey and the state’s former chief data officer.
Three potential candidacies from Montclair remain unlikely: a bid to return to the Senate by Nia Gill – the state’s sore loser law would only apply to her seeking the seat as an independent, and there’s no indication that she has enough support among the county committee to win a vote anyway; a change in retirement plans for Assemblyman Thomas Giblin (D-Montclair), whose reemergence would not solve the diversity challenges for the Democrats; and Mayor Sean Spiller, the president of the New Jersey Education Association, who appears more focused on running for governor in 2025.
The 27th District by the numbers
Gill’s hometown of Montclair and McKeon’s hometown of West Orange each command a similar slice of the county committee electorate. Montclair has 82 county committee seats (23% of the overall district), and West Orange has 74 (21%); if Gill and McKeon compete against one another, those towns would likely form the backbone of each politician’s support.
The district’s three other Essex County towns – Livingston (52), Millburn (32), and Roseland (12) – collectively have 96 seats (27%). McKeon has represented all three in the legislature for at least a decade and would likely get support from their county committee members.
Finally, there’s Clifton, the huge Passaic County city that commands the most votes of any municipality in the district: 104, or 29%. Gill, a former aide to Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson) and a longtime friend of Passaic County Democratic Chairman John Currie, has deeper connections in Passaic County than McKeon, possibly giving him the edge there.
All in all that spells out an evenly-matched fight, at least on paper. Gill’s home turf of Montclair and Clifton together have 186 seats, or 52% of the district total; the other four McKeon-friendly towns have 170, or 48%. A small number of defections – or vacation-related absences – from either side could be enough to swing the race in one direction or the other.