Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop has accelerated his 21-county strategy to recruit State Assembly candidates who support his bid for the Democratic nomination for governor next year, adding six new candidates today and bringing his total so far to twenty.
With the near-certainty of office block ballots with no county lines, Fulop has promised to spend $10 million to recruit like-minded candidates in a bid to flip control of Assembly seats away from county party leaders.
“The Democratic Party in New Jersey has been running the same playbook for years, driven by county chairmen who, as lobbyists, are more interested in putting people they can control in office than they are in governing,” Fulop said. “Next year’s campaign will change how the Democratic Party in New Jersey does business permanently.”
Among the candidates is former Atlantic City Councilman Bruce Weekes, who will join Lisa Bonanno as Fulop’s slate in the 2nd district, where Republican incumbents Don Guardian (R-Atlantic City) and Claire Swift (R-Margate) are expected to seek re-election to a second term. Weekes left the council in September to become the city’s assistant director of economic development. The Atlantic County Democratic organization has not yet picked its candidates.
Atlantic County Commissioner Ernest Coursey, the lone Democratic county officeholder, has pledged to seek re-election in 2025 on Fulop’s slogan.
Vonetta Hawkins, a fair housing activist and diversity consultant, will team up with Brian Everett to run in the 4th district. They’ll challenge freshmen Assemblymen Cody Miller (D-Monroe) and Daniel Hutchison (D-Gloucester Township.
Fulop has also found candidates in two staunchly Republican legislative districts in Ocean County: South Toms River Democratic Municipal Chair Debra DiDonato will run in the 10th district, and Rosalee Keech, a former Montville Democratic municipal chair who monitors the United Nations for the national League of Women Voters, will run in the 9th district.
Steve Barratt, a ranked choice voting advocate, will seek the Democratic nomination in the 24th district, a heavily Republican district that includes Sussex County and parts of Morris and Warren counties.
In the 40th district, which has never elected a Democrat, former Woodland Park Councilman Ron Arnau will be Fulop’s Assembly candidate. A former Democratic municipal chairman, Arnau resigned his council seat in June after alleging that his fellow Democrats bullied and discriminated against him. The district includes parts of Essex, Bergen and Passaic counties.
“We are continuing to build a campaign that empowers people and grows the Democratic Party,” Fulop stated.
Earlier this week, Fulop announced that Belleville Councilman Frank Vélez III and former East Orange Councilwoman Brittany Claybrooks would seek Assembly seats in the Essex-based 34th district. They’ll face incumbents Michael Venezia (D-Bloomfield) and Carmen Morales (D-Belleville).
In the Bergen-based 37th district, Tamar Warburg, a Teaneck Democratic leader and general counsel of the Jewish Community Foundation of MetroWest NJ, and Tenafly Councilman Dan Park will take on Assemblywomen Shama Haider (D-Tenafly) and Ellen Park (D-Englewood Cliffs).
Team Fulop Assembly candidates include Evesham Councilman Eddie Freeman III in the 8th district, where each party is defending one seat, along with Rashan Prailow in the 5th and Rebecca Holloway and Kevin Ryan in the 6th.
Four Hudson lawmakers – Barbara McCann (D-Jersey City), John Allen (D-Hoboken), Jessica Ramirez (D-Jersey City), and Julio Marenco (D-North Bergen) – have committed to running with Fulop. However, whether Allen will seek re-election to a second term remains unclear.