Filing day coming up for May non-partisan elections

Nominating petitions for the May 12 non-partisan municipal election are due at 4 PM on Thursday, leaving candidates who waited until the last minute and then missed days as a result of the snowstorm in a last-minute scramble.

Bayonne, Belleville, Irvington, Keansburg, Long Branch, Newark, Ocean City, Orange, Paterson, Union City, and Weehawken are the eleven municipalities with elections in May.

Jay Gillian is running for a fifth term as mayor of Ocean City despite filing for personal bankruptcy with $6 million in debt.  He owns the Wonderland Pier and won the mayoralty in 2010 after his father, Roy, retired.

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka is expected to face a group of minor candidates in his bid for a fourth term, and all nine seats on the city council are up this year.

Baraka appears to have forged a unity ticket that will put some council incumbents, including Luis Quintana and Anibal Ramos, on his slate.  Only Councilman At-Large Carlos Gonzalez is not seeking re-election; Baraka is expected to run with Quintana and incumbents Larry Crump and Rev. Louise Scott-Rountree, and will leave the fourth slot open.  The frontrunner is Gonzalez’s chief of staff, Josephine Garcia.

In the Central Ward, Councilwoman Amina Bey faces a rematch with Gayle Chaneyfield Jenkins; Bey won the unexpired term of now-Rep. LaMonica McIver by 98 votes last November.  Chaneyfield Jenkins has served two stints on the council and ran for mayor in 2018, winning just 23% against Baraka.

In Bayonne, Councilman Loyad Booker and former Council President Sharon Ashe Nadrowski are facing off for an open seat.  Interim Mayor Robert Kubert, who assumed the post in January after Jimmy Davis stepped down to become the Hudson County Sheriff, is not seeking a full term.

Four years ago, Davis just narrowly avoided a runoff against Nadrowski in his bid for a third term.

Paterson Mayor Andre Sayegh is seeking his third term against a group of challengers he’s beaten in the past.  He won 48% of the vote against three city councilmen: Alex Mendez (27%), Michael Jackson (10%), and Luis Velez (4%).  All three are running again, along with former Councilman Mohammed Aktaruzzaman.

Four ward council seats are up in Orange, which is perpetually hard fought.  Local elections in Keansburg have not been competitive for more than a decade.

Union City Mayor Brian P. Stack, Irvington Mayor Tony Vauss, Long Branch Mayor John Pallone, and Weehawken Mayor Richard Turner are in strong shape for re-election.  Stack has been mayor since 2000 and Turner since 1990.  Pallone, the brother of Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr., ousted a 28-year incumbent in 2018.