Hudson Dems win executive, legislative primaries; two commissioner seats too close to call 

The Hudson County Democratic organization, one of the strongest county parties in New Jersey, has swept most contested primaries for legislative and county office against a progressive off-the-line slate, the New Jersey Globe projects, but two county commissioner seats remain too close to call.

The county’s lone contested legislative primary came in the 31st district, where Assemblywoman Angela McKnight (D-Jersey City) faced Michael Griffin in the contest to succeed State Sen. Sandra Cunningham (D-Jersey City). Griffin had one running mate, Shanelle Smith, who went up against Assemblyman William Sampson (D-Bayonne) and Barbara McCann Stamato.

As of 10:12 p.m. and with only mail-in ballots reporting, McKnight has 74% of the vote to Griffin’s 25%. Smith has 18% of the vote in her Assembly primary, well behind Sampson’s 42% and McCann Stamato’s 40%.

In the contest to replace retiring County Executive Tom DeGise, DeGise’s longtime chief of staff Craig Guy has easily defeated challenger Eleana Little. Guy currently has 71% of the vote to Little’s 29%.

But Hudson Democrats aren’t having such an easy time in two county commissioner races.

Four incumbent commissioners – Kenneth Kopacz (D-Bayonne), Bill O’Dea (D-Jersey City), Robert Baselice (D-North Bergen), and Albert Cifelli (D-Kearny) – are well ahead. Commissioners Yraida Aponte-Lipski (D-Jersey City) and Anthony Romano (D-Hoboken), however, are in rougher shape.

Aponte-Lipski currently leads challenger Mamta Singh 54%-46%, while Romano actually trails his challenger Ron Bautista, 50.5%-49.2%. It remains to be seen whether those results will hold up as more ballots are counted.

Since every part of Hudson County is solidly Democratic, each of the primary victors can be expected to easily win the November general election.

Thanks in large part to legislative redistricting, this year’s elections will mark a significant changing of the guard in Hudson County politics. State Sen. Nicholas Sacco (D-North Bergen) is retiring after being put in the same district as State Sen. Brian Stack (D-Union City), and Assemblyman Raj Mukherji (D-Jersey City) is ascending to the Senate in his place; both Stack and Mukherji are running with two brand-new Assembly candidates.

But such changes are largely happening without voters’ direct input. Outside of the 31st district, no other Democrats filed to take on Hudson Democrats’ preferred legislative candidates.