Party Spurns Mayor, Taps Mapp

Thanks to an extremely short City Council meeting Monday, Democratic political rivals Adrian Mapp and Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs did not have to be in each other's company very long. Earlier in the day, news broke that the mayor, who won on the party line in 2005 and 2009, will not enjoy that advantage this year, as party officials are backing Mapp.

The meeting ended with the mayor in dialogue with her pastor, Councilwoman Tracey Brown, and a latecomer with a red "Sharon!" campaign button on his dark jacket wandering around the courtroom. Plaintalker decided not to press either candidate for a comment, even though it was the last meeting before the April 1 filing date for the June primary.

Ever since she beat Mapp in 2009, the mayor has made the victory a leit-motif of her second term, verbally slapping him down with reminders that she won. During Mapp's tenure last year as council president, he used his power not to move certain mayoral initiatives to the agenda. But he was more gentlemanly overall in the rivalry than the mayor was ladylike, and as Mark Spivey pointed out in his Courier News article on the party decision, the mayor's affinity for giving hugs could not offset disfavor over her reported expletive-laced dealings with staff in the WBLS controversy.

Both Mapp and Robinson-Briggs announced 2013 mayoral campaigns last year, and the mayor snagged Mapp's former campaign headquarters in early December in yet another fillip of rivalry.

The decision of Union County Regular Democratic Organization Chairman Charlotte DeFilippo to back Mapp leaves the mayor needing to put together a slate with just days to spare before the filing date. It might seem like a bit of irony to those who recall 2005, when Mayor Albert T. McWilliams got a last-minute surprise at the hands of DeFilippo and had to scramble for a slate, ending up losing the primary to Robinson-Briggs.

The official filing deadline for the June 4 primary is 4 p.m. on April 1. Locally, four-year terms for mayor and the Fourth Ward City Council seat are up for election, as well as 68 seats on the Democratic City Committee (34 male and 34 female seats). Other seats include three for Union County freeholder, two for State Assembly, one for State Senate and of course one for governor.

Independent candidates for any of these seats and school board candidates must file on June 4 in order to be on the ballot for the Nov. 5 general election.

The Plainfield Public Library has copies of Union County Clerk Joanne Rajoppi's bright yellow brochure with all 2013 election dates, or you may click here to see them.

--Bernice