Livingston councilwoman will seek open Assembly seat

Dr. Rosaura Bagolie, a Livingston councilwoman born in the Dominican Republic, has emerged as the leading candidate for the Democratic nomination for State Assembly in the 27th district, the New Jersey Globe has confirmed.

If Democratic county committee members approve her selection, Bagolie will join a slate that includes John McKeon (D-West Orange), an eleven-term assemblyman, for State Senate, and Essex County Commissioner Brendan Gill (D-Montclair) for Assembly.

The rearrangement of the Democratic ticket began on Monday with the unexpected announcement that State Sen. Richard J. Codey (D-Roseland), a former governor, would retire after 50 years in the legislature.  For a while, it looked like McKeon and Gill would face off for the Senate seat, but Gill will instead replace his wife, Alixon Collazos-Gill, on the Assembly ticket.

Democrats settled on Bagolie after considering other potential candidates: Livingston Councilman Shawn Klein; Millburn Mayor Maggee Miggins; Roseland Mayor James Spango; Millburn Committeewomen Annette Romano, the Democratic municipal chair; former Millburn Committeewoman Jackie Benjamin Lieberberg; and Carrie Parikh, the chief privacy officer at Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey and the state’s former chief data officer.  Klein is considered a potential candidate for county commissioner in the future.

The hectic, week-long game of political musical chairs leaves the Democratic ticket as it began: white Irish American men for Senate and Assembly, and a Latina Assembly candidate in a district that is 22% Hispanic.  If they prevail in a vote of the county committee on August 24, none of the three nominees will have been nominated in the Democratic primary.

The 43-year-old Bagolie, known as Rosy, is the superintendent of the East Newark public school district and the principal of the East Newark School.  She emigrated to the United States at age eight and grew up in Elizabeth, eventually receiving her doctorate from Seton Hall University.   In 2010, she sought to oust veteran incumbent Rose Carreto in a race for president of the Elizabeth Education Association but lost by a 65%-35% margin.

If she wins, Bagolie will become the second Dominican American to serve in the New Jersey Legislature.  The first, Assemblyman Pedro Mejia (D-Secaucus), became a casualty of redistricting and is not seeking re-election this year.

Bagolie would also become the legislature’s first Jewish Latina; her mother’s family were Dutch Jews who fled to the Dominican Republic via Curacao to escape the Nazis.  She would become the first Livingston resident to serve in the legislature since Thomas H. Kean gave up his seat in 1977 to run for governor and the first Jewish assemblywoman from Essex County since 1949 when Minna Greenbaum (R-Newark) retired after two terms.

She also comes with some political lineage: her aunt by marriage was Rose Brunetto, who spent eighteen years as an aide to U.S. Senator Bill Bradley and ran for Congress in 1984.  Her husband, Ricky Bagolie, an attorney and and former Passaic-Clifton Unico president, grew up in Clifton, the largest municipality in the district; his father, Barry, ran for Clifton councilman in 1962.

Livingston Democrats picked Bagolie to run for an open township council seat in 2022; she won the general election by nearly 2,400 votes.  Her election would pave the way for Ketan Bhuptani to be appointed the first Asian American councilman in January.

The 27th district was redrawn in legislative redistricting to include Livingston, Millburn, Montclair, Roseland, and West Orange in Essex County and Clifton in Passaic.  The new map forced two incumbent senators, Codey and Nia Gill (D-Montclair), into a Democratic primary that Codey won with 60% of the vote.

The Assembly ticket initially included two incumbent assemblymen, McKeon and Thomas P. Giblin (D-Montclair).  Giblin had originally sought re-election to a tenth term but decided not to run again just before the filing deadline.  He was replaced on the organization line by Collazos-Gill, a former aide to Rep. Steven Rothman (D-Englewood) and a Democratic state committeewoman from Essex County.

McKeon and Collazos-Gill easily won a contested primary against former Montclair school board member Eve Robinson, who ran with Nia Gill, and former Assemblyman Craig Stanley.

Codey, Nia Gill, and Giblin served a combined 98 years in the legislature and have a combined age of 227.  If McKeon, Brendan Gill, and Bagolie are elected, the average age of the lawmakers will be lowered from 76 to 52.