NEWS FLASH: HOW TO RIG AN ELECTION IN ESSEX COUNTY

LeRoy Jones, county establishment seem ready to go all out for Brendan Gill in CD-11

ECDC chairman LeRoy Jones.

The infamous “county line,” which allowed New Jersey’s county bosses to rig ballots for favored candidates of the establishment, is gone. But statewide, and in Essex County especially, the bosses aren’t giving up – especially the “boss of bosses,” LeRoy Jones, the wealthy lobbyist who is both chairman of the county committee in Essex and chairman of the New Jersey Democratic State Committee.

On the penultimate eve before the Thanksgiving holiday, the leadership of the Essex County Democratic Committee (ECDC) suddenly announced that it would convene an online “convention” on Tuesday, December 2, to make an endorsement in the crowded race to succeed ex-Representative Mikie Sherrill in the 11th congressional district. Members of the ECDC learned of the convention in an email sent at 7:50pm on Tuesday, November 25, from Kerry Kilborn, operations manager for ECDC. (The primary election is February 5, 2026.The general election is set for April 16.) Not only did the county announce the convention – to be held on Zoom – two days before Thanksgiving, but the convention itself will he held just two days after the hectic travel weekend.

And it’s no secret to anyone that the county bosses, including Jones and Joseph DiVincenzo, want Brendan Gill, over dozen or so rivals including Analilia Mejia and Tom Malinowski.

So far, at least some of the candidates in CD-11 haven’t been informed that the convention – at which they’re being invited to make a two-minute speech – is happening.

Why does the Essex convention have to occur so quickly? Jones, the ECDC chairman, told The New Jersey Democrat that the reason the county organization has imposed an accelerated timetable for the convention is to be able to award its slogan to the candidate who’s eventually endorsed by ECDC, a process that must be completed by December 4, according to the state. (The slogan, which the endorsed candidate can list under his name, is “Essex County Democratic Committee Inc.”)

Asked whether he had set up the process in order to stack the deck in favor of Gill, Jones said, “No, not at all.” The governor, Phil Murphy, established the timetable for the special election, he said.

“That expedited the whole process,” said Jones. “The timeline, I’m not crazy about at all.”

In sharp contrast to ECDC, however, the Morris County Democratic Committee (MCDC) isn’t holding a nominating convention until December 14, according to a notice sent out on Wednesday, November 26, by Darcy Draeger, the MCDC chair. It’ll be far more carefully prepared, with a screening committee, questionnaires for candidates, interviews (recorded and shared with voting members), and a ranked-choice voting tally, in comparison with ECDC’s headlong rush in what’s expected be an effort to anoint Gill.

And Morris County specifically noted that, because of the December 4 deadline, it won’t award its own slogan to whatever candidate it endorses.

To some, that more relaxed schedule makes sense. “As if the rushed filing deadline over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend weren’t bad enough, ECDC’s decision to schedule a convention a mere one day [after the filing deadline], when signature verification can’t possibly be accurately completed, is wholly anti-democratic,” said Becky Morrison, a district leader in South Orange. “We should be taking a page from our neighbors in Morris County and allowing district leaders to make informed choices about whom to support.”

Some Essex County political insiders are expected to ask ECDC to postpone its convention, but there’s no telling whether Jones & Co. will listen.

In its announcement of the convention, no explanation was provided as to why the ECDC convention was being held on such short notice. No explanation was given about why the convention was being called just one day after would-be candidates were required to deliver their petitions to compete in the special election next February. Why couldn’t the convention be held in mid-December, or mid-January for that matter? And why endorse at all? Why not just let the dozen candidates or so vie for votes independent of ECDC putting its fleshy thumb on the scale?

Gill, the Essex County Commissioner-at-Large, who announced his campaign to succeed Sherrill on November 6, had already lined up dozens of endorsements from Essex County pooh-bahs, including Amiri Jones, the recently elected county sheriff and son of LeRoy Jones; Phil Alagia, chief of staff to “Joey D”, the county executive; and Christopher Durkin, the Essex County clerk. Three state senators and four members of the state assembly also lined up behind Gill at the get-go, including Alixon Collazos-Gill, Brendan Gill’s wife. Dozens of machine-backed mayors, council members and other politicians echoed them in signing on to Gill’s run.

Soon afterwards, Governor Phil Murphy threw his weight behind Gill. (On his campaign website, Gill calls himself “the architect of Governor Phil Murphy’s historic 2017 campaign.”)

Like LeRoy Jones, a lobbyist with 1868 Public Affairs, both Brendan Gill and his wife, Alixon, are lobbyists with The BGill Group, “your full-service public affairs, digital media, and government consulting firm.” According to its LinkedIn page, among its clients are Fortune 500 companies, just the sort of entities you want your member of Congress to represent.

Gill, for his part, is deferring to ECDC and the other county organizations in how they decide to organize their conventions and endorsements. “The constituents of CD-11 deserve representation in Washington, especially with Congresswoman Sherrill heading to the State House. This seat should not remain empty,” said a Gill spokesperson. “With mail ballots going out in December, democracy cannot wait. We need someone who can move quickly, stand up to Trump and the MAGA agenda, and fight every day for New Jersey families.”

So far, at least a dozen Democrats are jockeying for the nomination in CD-11. Two others, at least, have weighty endorsements, and they’ve positioned themselves as anti-machine candidates.

One, the most recent entry, is Analilia Mejia, the co-executive director of the Center for Popular Democracy and the former leader of the New Jersey Working Families Alliance. Mejia, who was the national political director for Senator Bernie Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign, has been endorsed by the Vermont senator. And Mejia also has the support of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, who, although the city of Newark lies just east of CD-11, has considerable clout inside ECDC.

“I would obviously love the support of my fellow Democratic committee members, but this should be a truly open primary without anyone putting their finger on the scale. This is a special election for an open seat, and the people of the 11th district deserve a real choice over who represents them,” Mejia told The New Jersey Democrat.

“When I talk to voters, they’re all tired of insider politics like this,” she added. “You can’t say you want to fight for democracy in Washington and then participate in a rushed, un-democratic system like this here at home.”

The second candidate of note is former Representative Tom Malinowski, who previously represented neighboring CD-7, a seat now held by Representative Thomas Kean, Jr. Malinowski has put together a formidable campaign, raised substantial money, and racked up the endorsement of Senator Andy Kim. For 12 years, Malinowski served as Washington director for Human Rights Watch, worked for President Obama as assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights, and labor, and was elected to Congress in 2018.

Malinowski told The New Jersey Democrat that he’s not worried about the ECDC. “As of now, they haven’t even informed me or my campaign that they’re having this convention,” he said. “But it doesn’t concern me. I expect to have strong support from voters across the county, and this sort of thing will annoy more people than it persuades.”

Both Mejia and Malinowski could give Gill a run for his money in what’s expected to be a compressed, frenetic campaign in advance of February’s primary. And many other candidates have lined up to run, too, including Lieutenant Governor Tahesha Way; Dean Dafis, a member of the Maplewood township committee; John Bartlett, a Passaic County commissioner; and half a dozen or so others. At least one potential candidate, former Morristown Mayor Donald Cresitello, has filed a lawsuit challenging what he believes is a rushed effort to have the required 500 signatures collected and filed by December 1, given the Thanksgiving holiday immediately preceding that deadline.