Essex County Democrats are expected to send a caretaker to Trenton to complete Ralph Caputo’s term in the State Assembly.
Bloomfield Mayor Michael Venezia and Carmen T. Morales, the principal of Newark Tech High School, already have organizational backing for the open 34th district Assembly seat, but neither will seek to replace him now. Venezia wants to finish this year as mayor – and avoid a special election for mayor this year – and Morales’s hometown of Belleville isn’t in Caputo’s current district, just the new one.
Possible candidates for a short-term stay in the Assembly include: Glen Ridge Democratic Municipal Chair Jackie Yustein, a former councilwoman and director of Essex County Community Health Services; Jamie V. Serritella of Nutley, a top official of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters Local 1342/253; Newark West Ward Democratic Municipal Chair Jeanette Seabrooks; and Annette Beasley, an Irvington school board member and the wife of the late Essex County Freeholder Bilal Beasley.
Once Caputo resigns to take his seat on the board of directors of Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey – an event that is imminent – Essex County Democratic Chairman LeRoy Jones must call a special election convention within 7 to 35 days to fill the vacancy.
The winner of that race will serve until the expiration of Caputo’s current term on January 9, 2024.
Caputo’s political career began in 1967 when Lyndon B. Johnson was president and Richard J. Hughes was governor of New Jersey. He was 26 when he won his election for State Assembly as a Republican representing a Newark North Ward-based district.
He lost a primary in 1971 – one of the winners of the general election was an independent, Anthony Imperiale – and spent 36 years trying to get back to Trenton. He won an Essex County freeholder set as a Democrat against a Republican incumbent in 2002; in 2007, he unseated a Democratic incumbent in the primary to return to the legislature.
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