With Fort Lee, Johnson may be over 50% mark in bid for Weinberg Senate seat

Top Fort Lee Democratic leaders, including Mayor Mark Sokolich, have endorsed Gordon Johnson for the open 37th district State Senate seat.

Johnson, a ten-term assemblyman, also picked up the endorsements of Fort Lee Democratic Municipal Chairman Marc Macri and councilmembers Ila Kasofsky and Harvey Sohmer.

That adds as many as 38 votes for Johnson at the Bergen County Democratic Convention as he seeks to replace Loretta Weinberg in the Senate.

Johnson faces Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri for the Senate seat.

The addition of Fort Lee to Johnson’s current coalition of Hackensack, Englewood, Palisades Park and Northvale could mean the race is over.

While there may be individual county committee members that cast convention votes differently than the advice of the local party organization, Johnson could be as high as 146 votes in a race where the magic number is 132 out of a possible 262 votes.

They said Fort Lee Democrats “unanimously and wholeheartedly endorse Assemblyman Gordon Johnson as the next New Jersey Senator for the 37th District.”

Fort Lee is the fifth municipality to move in support of Johnson in his bid to replace Weinberg the Senate Majority Leader who announced her retirement last week.