Delisort will replace Garretson as Union County Commissioner

Michele Delisort, a Union Township committeewoman and former mayor, is expected to replace Angela Garretson as a Union County Commissioner, the New Jersey Globe has learned.

Garretson is not seeking re-election after six years as a county commissioner and fourteen years as a mayor, councilwoman, and school board member in Hillside.

Incumbents Lourdes Leon and Joseph Bodek are expected to seek re-election.  Leon was elected three years ago after seven-term freeholder Angel Estrada retired.

Bodek, the longtime Linden city clerk, won a special election convention last December after Christopher Hudak resigned to become Union County Surrogate.

A three-term local elected official, Delisort owns a consulting firm that specializes in urban planning.  If she wins, she would become the first Haitian American to hold countywide office in Union County.

Delisort would also return a county commissioner seat to Union Township, the second-largest municipality in the county, for the first time since Democrats dropped Mohammed Jalloh from the organization line in 2018.  Jalloh lost his seat by one vote at a party screening committee one week after Nicholas Scutari defeated Colleen Mahr in a special election for Union County Democratic Chairman.  Jalloh had endorsed Mahr.

Garretson is currently the chief external affairs officer at the New Jersey Institute of Technology.