With close to 80 years of legislative experience between the two of them, State Sen./former Gov. Richard Codey (D-Roseland) and State Sen. Nia Gill (D-Montclair) are both stalwarts of the New Jersey State Senate. But thanks to a new legislative map that double-bunked the two senators in the 27th district, only Codey will be returning to Trenton next year.
Codey defeated Gill in tonight’s Democratic primary, though by a somewhat smaller margin than might have been expected; as of 11:33 p.m., he has 58% of the vote to Gill’s 42%.
The result is not a surprising one. Codey had the backing of both the Essex and Passaic Democratic organizations and dramatically outraised Gill, who didn’t run the same sort of aggressive campaign as she did in her successful off-the-line 2003 campaign.
Next year, Codey will reach his 50th year in the legislature, a far longer tenure than any other legislator in New Jersey history.
Codey’s two party-backed running mates, Assemblyman John McKeon (D-West Orange) and Alixon Collazos-Gill, also won against two challengers: former Montclair school board member Eve Robinson, who ran with Gill, and former Assemblyman Craig Stanley.
McKeon is currently the top vote-getter with 39% of the vote, followed by Collazos-Gill’s 37%; Robinson has 18%, and Stanley is in last with 6%.
Collazos-Gill, a public affairs executive and the wife of Essex County Commissioner Brendan Gill (no relation to the state senator), is set to succeed retiring Assemblyman Tom Giblin (D-Montclair) in the solidly Democratic district.
Nia Gill’s ticket also included one at-large county commissioner candidate, Justin Harris. Harris currently has just 5% of the vote in a race for four seats, losing to four incumbents – among them Brendan Gill.
