Teska Frisby is new Trenton council president

Teska Frisby is the new Trenton City Council President, a move that ends a four-year reign of dysfunction and infighting in the state’s capital city.

Trenton held a second inauguration ceremony tonight with a full council reorganization after the city clerk miscalculated the threshold for runoff elections and triggered a contest for three at-large seats on January 24.

Jasi Edwards, Crystal Feliciano, and Yazminelly Gonzalez were sworn into the at-large seat.  Four ward councilmembers – Joseph Harrison (East), Jenna Figueroa (South), Jennifer Williams (North), and Frisby – took office on January 1.

Mayor Reed Gusciora was re-elected to his second term with 71% of the vote.

Frisby won a West Ward seat in November by a 55%-34% margin in a five-candidate race to replace Robin Vaughn.   She is the wife of Mercer County Commissioner Samuel Frisby and the daughter-in-law of Jeannine Frisby LaRue, a New Jersey political legend.

Vaughn, who had been a divisive figure during her four years on the council, engaging in homophobic and anti-Semitic rants, gave up her seat to run for mayor.

The drama in Trenton politics is not necessarily over.

Net week, Superior Court Judge William Anklowitz will hear an election challenge mounted by Algernon Ward, Jr., who lost the North Ward election to Williams by one vote.