Shaw leads Holley by 50 votes in Roselle mayoral primary

Roselle Mayor Donald Shaw leads former Assemblyman Jamel Holley (D-Roselle), a vaccine skeptic and prominent backer of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential campaign, in the Roselle Democratic mayoral primary by 50 votes, 51%-49%. With all election districts reporting, that likely means Shaw has won, but it’s not yet clear how many provisional and mail-in ballots remain to be counted.

Holley ran off-the-line with two council candidates; one of the two,  incumbent Councilwoman Cynthia Johnson, won her Ward 3 primary, but party-backed candidate Isabel Sousa beat Holley’s running mate in Ward 1.

Assuming Shaw does ultimately win the primary and the November general election – the latter is essentially guaranteed in the plurality-Black, solidly Democratic borough of 23,000 – he’ll soon begin his first full term in office after winning a 2020 special election. Prior to being elected mayor, he was the borough’s official “recreation leader.”

Holley, meanwhile, has a longer political history, serving as mayor from 2012 until he won a January 2015 special election convention for the State Assembly. During his three-and-a-half terms in the legislature, he was generally a party-line Democrat, but drew controversy for lobbying against a bill eliminating religious vaccination exemptions for schoolchildren.

That anti-vaccine activism brought Holley into the orbit of Kennedy, the son of the former U.S. Attorney General and one of the nation’s leading vaccine skeptics. When Kennedy launched his Democratic primary campaign against President Joe Biden in April, Holley was one of the featured speakers, calling Kennedy “a personal friend” and “a big brother.”

But his stances have also caused trouble for his own political aspirations. In 2021, Holley faced the prospect of losing the county line for re-election, so he chose to challenge State Sen. Joe Cryan (D-Union) instead. That campaign never gained much steam and Cryan won by a hefty 63%-34% margin – but Holley still carried Roselle by double digits.

The result showed Holley still has a strong following in his hometown, so even running without the county line, his challenge this year was always going to be a serious one. Notably, Holley got the support of all three living ex-mayors of Roselle: Joseph Picaro, Garrett Smith, and Christine Dansereau.

Holley also recruited a full ticket of six running mates for county commissioner and state legislature. All six lost, but that’s not unexpected; their main purpose was to fill out Holley’s ticket, not to actually win.

In the 20th legislative district, Holley’s old foe Joe Cryan leads Roselle Board of Education member Angela Alvey-Wimbush 73%-26%, while Assemblymembers Annette Quijano (D-Elizabeth) and Reginald Atkins (D-Roselle) together have 76% of the vote against challengers Charles Mitchell and Myrlene Thelot.

And in the race for three Union County Commissioner seats, incumbents Joseph Bodek and Lourdes Leon and Union Township Committeewoman Michele Delisfort collectively lead Travis Amaker, LaTysha Gaines, and Janet Vera Reynolds 77%-23%.