New Bayonne mayor gets to pick top county officials — and maybe fill an Assembly seat

In Hudson, the county clerk is traditionally selected by the mayor of Jersey City, and the deputy county clerk is chosen by the mayor of Bayonne.

Until she was let go at the end of 2022, the deputy county clerk was Diane Ashe Liming, the sister of Bayonne Mayor-elect Sharon Ashe Nadrowski.  Liming lost her job because her sister, then serving as city council president, ran against Mayor Jimmy Davis the previous May and came within 93 votes of forcing him into a runoff.

The replacement named by Davis was his wife, Jamie.  The post pays over $107,000 a year.

Now, Davis is the Hudson County Sheriff; he was elected last year after ousting longtime incumbent Francis Schillari in the Democratic primary.  But that won’t save his wife’s job, and Ashe Nadrowski is widely expected to replace Jamie Davis.

Also on the chopping block is Nicole Sorbara-Fedrow, the deputy Hudson County Register of Deeds and Mortgages.  She was named to the post in early 2024 at the direction of Davis; now the job belongs to Ashe Nadrowski.

Less certain is how eliminating the county organization line in Democratic primaries will affect the longstanding deal in which the mayor of Bayonne gets to pick someone for one of the two State Assembly seats in the 31st legislative district.

In 2021, Davis refused to support the re-election of Assembly Majority Whip Nicholas Chiaravalloti (D-Bayonne), a onetime ally, and replaced him on the ballot with William B. Sampson IV, a member of the International Longshoremen’s Association Local 1588.

Chiaravalloti, once a top political ally of Davis, had fallen out of favor.  Davis told party leaders that he wanted to exercise his unwritten prerogative to name Bayonne’s representative in the legislature.  Chiaravalloti went to the legislature in 2015 after Davis picked him to replace Assemblyman Jason O’Donnell (D-Bayonne); O’Donnell had been an ally of Mayor Mark Smith, who was unseated by Davis in 2014.

Sampson supported Loyad Booker for mayor in yesterday’s non-partisan municipal election.  Last year, he won the Democratic primary for a third term by just 232 votes.

If Ashe Nadrowski decides she wants to replace Sampson, the Hudson County Democratic organization would likely feel obliged to support her.  Still, the political landscape in the district, which includes Bayonne, Kearny, and part of Jersey City, remains complicated: freshman Assemblyman Jerry Walker (D-Jersey City) is eyeing a Democratic primary challenge against freshman State Sen. Angela McKnight (D-Jersey City) next year.