Issue 224: The Wisdom of Solomon
Plus: December 2 runoff!
Off to the races (again)
Election Day was November 4, but Jersey City won’t pick our next mayor or the majority of the new City Council until the runoff election on December 2.
No single mayoral candidate won more than 50% of the vote. Ward E Councilman James Solomon was the top vote getter with more than 17,200 votes or 29 percent according to the Hudson County Board of Elections’ preliminary totals. He was followed by former Gov. Jim McGreevey at 25.4 percent, County Commissioner Bill O’Dea at 21.5 percent and former school board member Mussab Ali at 18.29 percent.
Most politically engaged West Siders griped about the fact that James Solomon ran a downtown campaign throughout this election and gave short shrift to the west. But something can be annoying and effective at the same time. Solomon, as it turns out, knew what he was doing.
Ward E and Ward F not only came out big in numbers, but they went hard for Solomon and his slate. A quick (and potentially error prone) analysis* by your neighborhood correspondents shows not only did Ward E have the highest turnout for mayor (10,300 votes cast), but close to 60 percent (6,003) went for Solomon. Ward E and Ward F were also the only wards to avoid runoffs for their respective council seats with Team Solomon’s Eleana Little as the new councilmember for Ward E and Solomon-ally Frank Gilmore dispatching his competition in Ward F.
That means not only did Solomon turn out more voters than his competitors, but they were disciplined down-ticket.
By comparison, Ward B turned out 9,600 votes for mayor and Bill O’Dea took in roughly 34 percent. And while Solomon wasn’t competitive, Jim McGreevey and Mussab Ali were. McGreevey came in 2nd place in Ward B with 2,468 votes or 25.5%. Ali took home, 23.3 percent with 2,257 votes.
Ali has been seen as a “spoiler” in this race but one could argue in Ward B McGreevey was a spoiler for O’Dea. O’Dea would be the more likely inheritor of McGreevey’s votes, had the former governor not joined us recently here in Jersey City.
As for the runoff, the momentum is with Solomon, but McGreevey has the backing of the Hudson County Democratic Organization, aka the machine. While county leadership is a murky question right now, Union City Mayor and State Sen. Brian Stack just delivered big in Hudson for Mikie Sherrill, and is the most effective vote-mover out there right now. But his influence ran into a big old wall of Solomon downtown.
Sen. Andy Kim, destroyer of machines, came out yesterday to back Solomon. O’Dea and Ali both signaled their support as well. And just this morning, the Jersey City Times reported Ras Baraka is backing Solomon, too. Stack and McGreevey are gonna have to hand out a lot of turkeys to compete with those blocs.
Solomon is demanding six debates; McGreevey has agreed to at least one. Solomon also wants them televised which indicates the message here is the vitality of a new generation versus the recycling cans of a bygone era of error. Having observed a few forums ourselves, as well as Solomon’s public persona as a councilmember, that kind of arena is to his advantage in this matchup, both in optics and oratory.
Here in Ward B, McGreevey’s candidate Efrain Orleans was also competitive, coming in second to Joel Brooks, who had O’Dea’s backing. Born in the Philippines, Orleans is active in Catholic ministries here on the West Side which no doubt helped drive support among the crucial Filipino community. Here again we see Team McGreevey cutting into a vote that normally might have gone to Team O’Dea since the commissioner is a fixture of St. Al’s parish. In hindsight, the HDCO’s decision to put up Orleans was effective in hurting O’Dea but it allowed Solomon to ‘let them fight’ and focus on his base.
Still, Brooks also has the momentum with 24.5 percent to Orleans’ 21.7 percent. HCO might put up a fight but the forces aligned against them now are more focused. Solomon needs to run up the score on the Council and most of the other political camps are motivated to block the McGreevey advance.
The rest of the city is running off through December. Wards A, B, C and D all have runoffs as do all three At-Large seats. The Jersey City Times lays out the Council races thusly:
Ward A: Ridley, a Solomon candidate, and teacher preparation director Brandi Warren, a McGreevey candidate.
Ward B: Brooks, who cross-endorsed Hudson County Commissioner Bill O’Dea, and church leader Efrain Orleans, a McGreevey candidate.
Ward C: Boggiano, a McGreevey candidate, and lawyer Tom Zuppa, an O’Dea candidate.
Ward D: Attorney Catherine Healy, a McGreevey candidate, and Ephros, an independent candidate.
At-Large: St. Peter’s University administrator Rolando Lavarro, a Solomon candidate, hospitality director Michael Griffin, a Solomon candidate, JC Families executive director Mamta Singh, a Solomon candidate, Community Treasures CEO Tina Nalls, a former Board of Education President Mussab Ali candidate, Art House Director Meredith Burns, a McGreevey candidate, and Rivera, an O’Dea candidate.
Voters were split on the school board with union-backed President Noemi Velazquez winning re-election with the most votes and non-union candidate Lorenzo Richardson coming in second. Incumbent board trustee Afaf Muhammad, also pro-teachers-union, got the third seat. Richardson had previously served on the board as a union-backed candidate before losing re-election in 2023. He was running on the opposition slate this election.