Essex Dems backing all incumbents for re-election

Essex County Democrats will back all nine incumbent freeholders for re-election, and County Clerk Christopher Durkin will seek a fourth term.

InsiderNJ had reported that District 4 freeholder Leonard Luciano was in danger of losing the organization line, but the New Jersey Globe has learned that the report was inaccurate and that the three-term freeholder was never in real danger.

Freeholder President Brendan Gill will seek re-election to a third term, on an at-large slate with Patricia Sebold, Rufus Johnson and Romaine Graham.

Sebold, the longest -serving freeholder in Essex County history, will seek re-election to an 11th term.  She won a special election convention in 1993 and has won nine countywide elections, including a 1993 primary win against Sheila Oliver.

Johnson, a former aide to State Sen. Ronald Rice (D-Newark), is seeking his 5th term.  Graham became a freeholder in 2019 following the death of Lebby C. Jones and won a special election last fall.

Wayne Richardson, the freeholder vice president, is seeking his fourth term.  He is the president of Laborers Local 55.

Robert Mercado (District 1), Tyshammie Cooper (District 3) and Carlos Pomares (District 5) will seek second terms. Cooper succeeded Britnee Timberlake (D-East Orange) when she took Sheila Oliver’s seat after the 2017 election.