The primary is June 2 and from now on out, expect a lot of charges, counter-charges, wolf tickets, innuendos and prevarications showing up in your mailbox. Some are coming in as comments to the blog. I am currently holding three dubious ones and have to decide whether to delete or let 'em rip.
It is local folk wisdom that the June primary is the defining contest for council and mayoral seats, even though people can still file on June 2 to be on the November ballot as independent candidates. For city committee seats, it is the only contest, as the winners meet on the following Monday to choose a party chairperson for the next two years.
The chairmanship has been held by Assemblyman Jerry Green for a couple of decades. His committee candidates have only faced a major challenge once, when Mayor Harold Mitchell ran a slate and won enough seats to pick a new chairman. The factions made up and Green kept the chairmanship.
Correction: Former Mayor Albert T. McWilliams won the chairmanship in 2003 and served until Green won it back in 2005.
There are two slates this year, one for Green's Regular Democratic Organization and one for the Progressive Democratic Organization backed by Mayor Adrian O. Mapp. Mapp would have to garner more than half of the 68 seats ( a male and female in each of the 34 voting districts) to replace Green as the Plainfield Democratic Party chairman at the reorganization. Green's slate is on Column A and Mapp's is on Column C.
The two City Council primary races this year are for the Second Ward seat, with incumbent Cory Storch running on Column C and Charles Eke on Column A. The other contest is for the First & Fourth Ward at-large seat held now by Vera Greaves. Green gave the RDO line to Steve Hockaday and Mapp's slate includes Barry Goode. The council primary winners will be on the ballot for Nov. 3 general election, along with any independents who file on June 2. No Republicans filed for the council seats this year.
Green is also seeking re-election to his Assembly seat for another two years. Mapp's slate does not include Assembly or freeholder candidates.
So look at the campaign fliers and really look at your sample ballot if you want to see who is running in your voting district for the Democratic City Committee, if you are a registered Democrat or want to declare as one at the polls.
According to the latest voter affiliation report from the Union County Board of Elections, registered voters are down by 460 since November 2014. The number of Democrats is down by 306, from 13,177 to 12,871; Republicans dropped from 865 to 806 and unaffiliated voters declined from 8,087 to 7,992. Without a major race at the top of the ticket, turnout is expected to be low on June 2. If you have a point of view on who should be in charge of the Democratic Party for the next two years, look for the male and female city committee candidates in your voting district and act accordingly. Plaintalker does not endorse, but hopes voters will go to the polls on June 2 and exercise their right to vote for the candidates of their choice.
--Bernice
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The people need a patrice lumumba.not another puppet for colonial party powers
ReplyDeleteBernice you do endorse.Your reporting is very bias, very pro Mapp.Save that I don't endorse for the birds.
ReplyDeleteLeave Bernice alone, she can write what she want, when she wants, IT'S A BLOG (HER BLOG) what part of her prerogative don't you understand? since you have so much to say, write your own, then you can endorse or don't who cares?
DeleteA Democrat is a Democrat is a Democrat. Do not even think for a second there is any difference. We will have the same to the descent until we become Camden on Route 28.
ReplyDeleteIt is hard to endorse anyone Jerry Green supports. I've gotten flyers from Green full of outright lies and innuendo, but so far nothing that tells me what Green has done for Plainfield in the past 22 years he has spent in Trenton. I wonder why that is? I also know that Eke, (eek if you think of what damage he can do for Jerry), I don't think I can trust anyone Jerry supports. I didn't even get a chance as a member of the City Committee to decide who would run. Green decided that letting us vote was too democratic for him. Green asked me to run on his ticket and I had to refuse in moral grounds. There is no on on his slate, including Green who I can support with a clear conscience. Let's hope the voters are watching and thinking and voting their conscience.
ReplyDeleteBob Bolmer 2nd Ward, District 1
Al McWilliams mounted a challenge to Jerry Green for city committee seats and won a majority. He wanted to be the chair, and Jerry didn't run, so Al was elected. I forget what year this was...obviously it wasn't recent.
ReplyDeleteDotti, didn't Jerry get a ruling from the County Party Organization that the local committee chairman did not have to be elected as a member, and he kept the chairmanship despite Al's election?
Deletethat was I believe another year, when Peter Janis (in a write-in) beat Jerry for his committee seat--but Jerry remained chair.
DeleteAl McWilliams won a majority of committee seats in 2003 and became chairman. He held that position until Union County machinations by then county chair Charlotte DeFillippo and Jerry Green deposed him as chair and reinstalled Jerry Green, thus disenfranchising the Plainfield Democratic City Committee, duly elected members who had voted Al as chairman. We all know how that ended--Jerry put Robinson-Briggs on the line and she won the primary by a little over 300 votes. You are right, Bernice--it's gotten even more foul this year, but I am hopeful that the voters are finally done with Jerry and his toxic politics. Mayors come and go, but Jerry has been the one constant obstruction to Plainfield moving forward for 30 years. The kind of garbage he mails to Plainfield voters clearly shows his disrespect for our community. He would never send such filth to voters in Scotch Plains or Clark.
ReplyDeleteI think that the City Committee rules should be changed to read...You shal hold a City Committee seat in order to be voted in as Chairman. I is just not wright that one can come off the street and be Chairman. We do need change for the the future of Plainfield to become the Queen City again
ReplyDeleteDottie you are correct about Peter Janis. That was the best political move that Plainfield has had in a long time.It is just too bad that it did not keep Green out of the Chairmanship. Are people afraid that if Green is not in charge that all the Democrats will loose their jobs? If Plainfielder's hate the way things are being run then why do they keep voting him in ?
ReplyDeleteWhy did Green remain as Chair?
ReplyDelete