Arguably the most doltish municipal government lawyer in New Jersey today is Frederick C. Raffetto, who happens to be Gov. Phil Murphy’s nominee to serve as a state Tax Court judge.
As the Jamesburg borough attorney, Raffetto issued a seemingly heavy-handed legal opinion that the local Republican county committee can’t submit three names to replace a GOP mayor who resigned because the mayor ran off-the-line in the 2023 Republican primary.
That defies a state law followed by Democrats and Republicans for decades empowering the political party that won the previous election to fill the vacancy. Within fifteen days of the vacancy, the county committee meets to select three names for consideration by the governing body; either one of the three names is picked, or it remanded back to the county committee to make a direct appointment.
If Raffetto’s interpretation is correct – he told the New Jersey Globe he was – that could mean that Democratic county committee members across the state would be unable to fill any future vacancies of a candidate elected in 2024 since none ran on the organization line.
Mayor Thomas Gibbons, who announced his resignation last week after less than one year in office, departs tomorrow. Gibbons ran unopposed in the 2023 Republican primary despite being off the line without the backing of the local GOP; still, he signed an oath accepting the Republican nomination and was their nominee when he ousted three-term Democratic Mayor Marlene Lowande last year.
The agenda for a special meeting of the Jamesburg Borough Council on Monday indicates one item: “nominations by council of candidate(s) to temporarily fill the vacancy in the office of mayor.”
Democrats have a 4-2 majority on the council – Republicans held their two seats this week – and some in Jamesburg believe this is simply a move by local Democrats to steal an office that they didn’t win. Republicans are preparing to go to court to challenge Raffetto’s legal opinion, which could put him in the crosshairs of GOP senators when he appears before the Judiciary Committee next week.
Raffetto is a partner at Hill Wallack.
Update: at 3:49 PM: “I have recommended that the Jamesburg Borough Council pull the brakes on this and get a second opinion from an election lawyer,” Raffetto told the New Jersey Globe. “If I’m wrong, I’ll own up to it.”