Next week’s runoff election for two ward city council seats in Bayonne has been canceled after both second-place candidates testified in court that they had withdrawn from the race and would decline to serve even if they won.
The ruling accelerates what was already viewed as a fait accompli: the city’s mayor-elect, Sharon Ashe Nadowski, has completed a clean sweep of council seats in the May 12 non-partisan municipal election.
The city had asked to cancel the runoff and instead order the immediate certification of Melissa Godesky Rodriguez in Ward 2 and Thomas Gillen Jr. in Ward 3 as the winners.
Superior Court Judge David Katz called it “a unique issue,” and the statute doesn’t address this particular situation.
“The two individuals who came in second place in Wards 2 and 3 have elected, for their own reasons, to withdraw from the race. There has been no indication of any coercion, influence, or any promises made to them,” Katz said. “There is no basis to have the election.”
Bayonne sought to avoid the expense of an unnecessary election, which they said is around $60,000. But some of the costs, including ballot preparation, printing, voting machine programming, and vote-by-mail administration, have already been incurred. Hudson County Clerk Junior Maldonado testified that vote-by-mail ballots had already gone out.
Godesky Rodriguez led Elgarhi by a 42%-26% margin in a four-way contest for the Ward 2 seats. In Ward 3, Gillen outpolled LaPelusa, a longtime councilman, 47%-37%, with two others running far behind.
The runoff was scheduled for June 9.