Eighteen independent candidates for the New Jersey Legislature submitted nominating petitions in advance of today’s 4 PM deadline, including Nina Jochnowitz, the whistleblower in a strange case involving the dumping of hundreds of pounds of pasta along a creek in Old Bridge.
Jochnowitz, a former Old Bridge council candidate, filed to run for an open State Senate seat in the 12th district.
Mary Jane Desmond, a former Bayonne city councilwoman, school board member and deputy county clerk, and Jersey school board member Noemi Velazquez are running as an independent for State Assembly in the 31st district.
Veronica Fernandez, who won the Democratic organization line for State Assembly in the 24th district but then lost it after party leaders reviewed her history of slamming Cory Booker, Phil Murphy, and Tom Malinowski, filed to run for the Assembly under the slogan “End the Corruption.” She had previously lost races for U.S. Senate, Congress, and Washington Township Committee.
Because this is the first legislative election under the new map, several candidates took advantage of a 1948 law that requires just 50 signatures on petitions.
The Libertarian Party has fielded three State Senate candidates: Shawn Peck in the 2nd district, Matthew Asman in the 6th, and Richard Byrne in the 16th. Running as Libertarian candidates for the Assembly are John Morrison in the 13th and David Diez in the 19th.
The Green Party came up with just one candidate this year: Barry Bendar for Assembly in the 9th district.
In the 4th district, two “Conservatives South Jersey” candidates filed: Giuseppe Costanzo for Senate and Maureen Dukes Penrose for Assembly.
Mohammed Kabir, a Bellmawr man who has declared his candidacy an independent candidate for President in 2024, is running for State Senate in the 5th district under the “Rights Tranquility Peace” banner. Kabir received less than one-half of one percent as a candidate for Congress in 2018 and 1% as a State Senate candidate in 2017.
Perennial candidates Karen Zaletel, a conservative and GOP county committeewoman in Eatontown who has run for office ten times since 1996 as a Republican and independent, filed as the NJ Patriot Party candidate for State Senate in the 11th district.
In the 29th district, Pablo Olivera, is running as the “Labour Party” candidate for State Senate. Another perennial candidate, Olivera is making his 14th bid for public office since 2004; he’s run for Congress, State Senate, Assembly, Essex County Freeholder, and the Newark City Council
The Socialist Workers candidate for governor in 2021, Joanne Kuniansky, field to run for State Senate in the 33rd district. This is her eighth campaign since 1986; she has also run in Texas Pennsylvania and Australia. Lea Sherman is running for Assembly with Kuniansky; she has lost seven bids for public office, including Congress in 2022. She ran for mayor of San Francisco in 2011, Governor of California in 2010, and for Texas State Representative in 1998.
Nashawn Vazquez is seeking an Assembly seat in the 11th district. With just 52 signatures, its not clear he will remain on the ballot.