Initial filings for Plainfield's 68-seat Democratic City Committee reveal plans for a palace coup.
In 2015, Mayor Adrian O. Mapp's team won enough seats to wrest the chairmanship away from longtime Chairman Jerry Green. Running off the line and winning meant Mapp's "Progressive Democratic Organization" candidates became members of the Regular Democratic Organization, kind of a play on the old "we have met the enemy and it is us" joke.
Fast forward two years and the RDOs are now seeing a challenge from another PDO, mayoral candidate Tracey Brown's "Plainfield Democratic Organization."
As all good political observers in the Queen City know, there are 34 voting districts within the city's four wards, with male and female seats in each one for a total of 68. Every two years, Democratic voters get to choose city committee members in each voting district and the winners become a subset of the county committee. In 2015, Mapp won 48 of the 68 seats and became the new chairman.
The 2017 filings presently show 68 RDO candidates but also what looks like 32 Tracey Brown PDOs (two are in red, whatever that means). The factions can challenge each others' candidates and the tally is not yet final. So it looks like a PDO takeover may be out of reach, but the effort was strong compared to another one this year. Councilwoman Bridget Rivers is running with the slogan Democrats of Plainfield, and there were two DOPs in the First Ward, namely the Tolivers; one in the Third Ward and four in the Fourth Ward, including Rivers and her boyfriend.
Challenges to candidates' petitions should be resolved this week. Voters will see slates on their primary ballots that include the City Committee candidates in each district. On the Monday following the primary, the winners of City Committee seats will meet to vote on a chairman to serve for two years. The Regular Democratic Organization oral of Union County, comprised of all the municipal committees, meets the next day to elect a county chairman for two years, Jerry Green is the current RDO county chairman.
Primary Day (June 6) is also when any independent candidates file. Former mayoral candidate Mustapha Muhammad has already declared on Facebook that he intends to file for mayor this year as an independent, noting that the primary will whittle the Democratic field down to one for the November 7 general election.
--Bernice
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Are there gonna be any candidate forums before the primary? There was talk that the P.A.V.C might have a candidate forum. Topic Public safety and Gun violence in Plainfield.
ReplyDeleteWho and what is the P A V C? We don't need any forums ran by any bias entity. Each candidate should have a campaign headquarters, I plan on visiting all in hopes of having a one on one with each.
DeleteWho is P.A.V.C ? They are a Anti Violence advocacy group who's work of intervention and prevention. May just be the kind of advocacy that fortunately was productive. And you as well as our city benefited from their work.
DeleteSad that MAPP asked Peter R Price to remove his petition to run for a spot on The Democratic City Committee so that his Best Friend for the hot moment ASSemblyman Jerry Green has that seat in 2-6.
ReplyDeleteWhat disregard for a caring and generous person that Peter has shown for so many years
Peter R Price 2-6 can be a write in at the Primary in June, lets teach these career politicians to keep their games to themselves, Politics do not belong in our streets, keep that garbage in the backrooms.
One of our neighbors was defending Mapp, why defend someone who only cares about his image and not about the people that lives in our neighborhood.
Libby and Peter has devoted time to the Hillside Historical Area, hosted many events for the Plainfield Symphony and countless other organizations over the many last years living in Plainfield.
Libby and Peter will be honored on April 29 at the After-Dinner event from the Plainfield Symphony. Please let’s all support our neighbors at this special event, together we need to applauded both for all they do and honored to call them friends.
So many wonderful people in Plainfield work behind the scene of the city and ask nothing in return except respect and common courtesy. #GoPlainfield
Didn't Green demand this? Where is the blame on him?
ReplyDeleteDoes green pick Plainfield's city committee candidates? Thought not. Mapp does and Tim is right on the money.
Delete“Tim is right on the money” whose money? Every time Tim speaks in public or post a comment on a blog its quite evident he has been rehearsed. Yes you can say its admirable for one to move to a new town and immediately develop a passion for wanting change, but Tim’s passion just seems so disingenuous. Yes Green has and does pick DC committee candidates every year and this year is no exception.
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DeleteNO MAPP PICKS THE COMMITTEE MEMBER'S. FOR HIM TO DO THIS TO A MR. PRICE IS CRAZY. MR. PRIANO YOU ARE ON THE MONEY. WHY DONT YOU RUN FOR OFFICE YOU AREWHAT PLAINFIELD NEED. I AM AFRICAN AMERICAN AND I WILL SUPPORT YOU. YOU STAND UP TO EVERYONE.
ReplyDeletePriano is not following a drum beat for anyone but Bridget. He is unaware of all the good Mapp has done since coming into office and on his supposed to be non-political facebook page he is always criticizing Mapp and everything the administration for things he perceive as wrong. The fact is its a good thing that the mayor won Mayor of the year, it brings positive interest to Plainfield and increase the opportunities for more commercial economic development which leads to more jobs and more people coming to the city. He criticizes the mayor's photo on flyers even though thats always the way it has been with city sponsored events, you put the mayor and the council. And really, comparing Mapp to Trump/Conway is wrong, why the personal attacks on this mayor calling him Trump? what does Priano want? Does he think Bridget would make a better mayor or Tracy? And then he criticizes the crime numbers and murders and asking when crime will be addressed and then he praise Carl Riley who Mapp put in charge and Mapp has reached out to the county and state for help. Mapp and Riley expanded community policing and is reaching out to our young people and having events with them, Priano just calls this photo op but when Bridget takes a photo with him and picks up a piece of garbage for a photo its different. I am a parent who has not seen Priano at the events with our kids and the police. I thought Queen city Pride was not political and I support cleaning up and helping but now he just is very negative. It looks like all they do is post flyers and share Bridget political page and criticize Mapp. Hypacrite. Crime is being addressed but everyone knows that no one can stop every murder. The community who knows who is behind some of these things can also help. Bridget has been in the council in the 4th ward for so many years and what has she done to stop the murders? What has Tracy Brown done to stop the murders when she was on the council? Everyone is truly concern about crime but what is there plan? When Mayor sharon was in and there were a lot of murders and there was a lot of incompetence and Bridget and Tracy were quiet. There is nothing non-political about Priano and his agenda which seems to just criticize without knowing the history. Its just hypacritical. Mapp and his administration have done a good job in my opinion in just 3 years. Too bad Timothy Priano wasn't here for the 8 bad years of Mayor Sharon. No mayor is perfect and you don't have to personally like a mayor to see that he is doing a overall good job. And I bet Mr. Price will be voting for Mapp anyway because he knows Mapp is better for the city than the other contenders.
ReplyDeleteAnd to think, in her fourth year in office, Sharon Robinson-Briggs also won the Gateway Chamber's "Mayor of the Year" award.
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