Screening committee makes no pick in race for Pou Senate seat

Passaic County Democrats made no recommendation in the race for Nellie Pou’s 35th district State Senate seat after Assemblywoman Shavonda Sumter (D-Paterson) and Assemblyman Benji Wimberly (D-Paterson) appeared before a screening committee today.

County committee members in the Passaic and Bergen municipalities in the 35th must hold a special election convention before February 7 to pick an interim replacement for Pou, a 28-year veteran of the New Jersey legislature, who will resign this week to take her seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.  The convention date has not yet been set.

Four candidates for a second special election convention for the open Assembly seat of either Sumter or Wimberly also appeared before the Passaic screening committee: Paterson City Councilman Al Abdelaziz, the city’s Democratic municipal chairman; Paterson School Board Vice President Kenneth Simmons; Prospect Park Mayor Mohamed Khairullah; and former Paterson Deputy Mayor Derya Taskin, who sought the Democratic nomination for county commissioner last year on a slate headed by sheriff candidate Jerry Speziale.

Abdelaziz could become the first Palestinian American to serve in the New Jersey Legislature.

It’s unclear whether the candidate who doesn’t win the convention will contest the seat in the June 10 Democratic primary, which will likely have no organization line with office block ballots.  A primary fight between Sumter and Wimberly means the one who doesn’t win the convention must decide if they will give up their Assembly seat for a risky Senate race.

The 35th district includes Paterson, Prospect Park, Haledon, North Haledon in Passaic County, and Elmwood Park and Garfield in Bergen.