The possible election of Newark City Council President LaMonica McIver to Congress in a special election in September could set up a complex and potentially discordant game of political musical chairs.
If McIver wins and takes office as the congresswoman from New Jersey’s 10th district at the end of September, it would create two vacancies: one for council president, and the second for the Central Ward seat on the Newark City Council.
McIver is the choice of Mayor Ras Baraka and the Essex County Democratic organization to replace Donald Payne, Jr. (D-Newark), a six-term congressman who died on April 24.
Baraka has a working 5-4 majority on the city council that includes McIver as his ally, along with Louise Scott-Rountree, Larry Crump, Pat Council, and Dupre Kelly. The other faction, at least right now, includes Anibal Ramos, Jr., Luis Quintana, Carlos Gonzalez, and Michael Silva.
One scenario has McIver resigning after the results of a September 18 special election are certified, leaving a split council to fight over who gets the Central Ward seat; one potential candidate is Shawn McCray, the Central High School basketball coach who ran competitive races against McIver in 2018 and 2022.
Another option would be for McIver to resign her council seat in August – the 10th district is one of the most Democratic in the nation – and allow a November 2024 special election to fill the Central Ward seat. That might be Baraka’s best way to assure a continuing council majority.
There are disagreements over when voters would get involved: some say the special election would be held in November 2025, and others suggest that the city could lawfully hold a special election in April 2025 since there will be a citywide school board contest at that time; both are non-partisan races.
The council presidency is important if Baraka is elected governor in 2025; that person would become interim mayor heading into the May 2026 Newark mayoral election.
Newark has had difficulty filling council vacancies in the past.
Veteran Councilwoman Mildred Crump resigned on August 23 for health reasons after missing several months of meetings, but the city clerk chose to ignore a state law that would have required a November special election to fill her seat. Instead, the city council quietly voted to give the seat to her son, Larry, and bypass an election.
The city clerk, Kenneth Louis, acknowledged that a special election should have been held.
“Technically, yes,” Louis told the New Jersey Globe. “But in reality, it’s impossible to do. There really isn’t time for us to pull this off.”
After Payne was elected to Congress in 2012 — his father, Rep. Donald Payne, Sr. had died in office – a riot nearly broke out in city hall after a split council couldn’t agree on someone to fill his at-large council seat, or a successor for council president.
Shanique Speight, now an assemblywoman, had been the initial choice of a faction of the city council allied with then-Mayor Cory Booker to replace Payne. Booker’s rivals, led by Baraka, wanted to appoint John Sharpe James, the son of former Mayor Sharpe James.
The Booker faction included Ramos, Quintana, Gonzalez, and Augusto Amador. Standing with Baraka were Mildred Crump and Darrin Sharif; another councilman, Ronald C. Rice, who had challenged Payne in the congressional primary, abstained. This counted as a no vote, making the motion to appoint Speight tied at 4-4. Booker broke the tie and Speight was sworn in, but she was removed after Superior Court Judge Dennis Carey ruled that Booker didn’t have the legal authority to do that.
Baraka was among the group of council members who went to court to challenge Booker’s authority.
It took ten months for the council to agree on Quintana as the new council president. Because Booker was running for U.S. Senate, it became clear that the council president would become acting mayor; with Baraka and Ramos both running for mayor, Quintana became a compromise pick.