Michael Vieira elected to Livingston Township Council

Michael Vieira was elected to the Livingston Township Council tonight, winning a seat left vacant when a councilman stepped down at the start of the year.

Michael Silverman, who had served six years on  the governing body, resigned because he was moving to West Orange.

Vieira, the Livingston Democratic vice municipal chairman and a transportation coordinator for Essex County, won an overwhelming victory in a vote by the local Democratic county committee.

He will face the voters in a November 2019 special election for the remaining fourteen months of Silverman’s term.  While there have been two vacancies in the past, this will be the first special election in township history.

The county committee had submitted three names to the council — Viera, Laurie Kahn and Scott Goldman — but the election was shifted back to the local party organization when the governing body declined to pick one of the three.

Democrats now have a 5-0 majority on the council and have had control for all but two years since 1975.

Vieira is expected to be sworn in later this month.