Plainfield mayoral candidate Adrian Mapp and Rick Smiley, candidate for the Assembly from the 22nd District, will be in court this morning, fighting for their right to be in the same column on the Union County Democratic Primary ballot.
That is just one of several intertwined matters that will be taken up by Superior Court Judge William L'E. Wertheimer with regard to the lineup of the Democratic party's ballot in Union County.
Mapp and Smiley are also joining with reform-minded Democrats from Elizabeth and Roselle in asking to be listed together in a single column -- a custom known as 'bracketing' -- under the slogan 'Union County Independent Democrats'.
Wertheimer will have to rule on County Clerk Joanne Rajoppi's move to deny bracketing to Mapp and Smiley as well as the other bracketing issue.
"I feel we did everything possible to comply with the filing guidelines," says candidate Mapp, "crossing every 't' and dotting every 'i' in filing our petitions. At no point in the filing process were we told that an Assembly candidate and a mayoral candidate could not be bracketed."
Assembly candidate Smiley, who hand-delivered his petition to Trenton on the filing date, confirms that State election officials only raised one issue about bracketing the two candidates.
"They told me that the bracketing letter from Adrian Mapp as chair of the New Democrats also needed to be filed with Union County Clerk Joanne Rajoppi before the close of business on filing day," says Smiley. "I called our team from Trenton and the document was in Rajoppi's hands within the hour. We have a receipted copy of the document, and nothing was said at the time to indicate there was any problem."
The three groups of Democrats -- from Plainfield, Elizabeth and Roselle -- are part of a growing shift in Union County Democratic Party affairs away from the go-along, get-along mindset which allows the lawyers, engineers and contractors who bankroll the 'regular' organization to feed at the public trough once their candidates are elected.
"I think President Obama's victory and his politics of change have given heart to reform-minded Democrats throughout the county," says Mapp.
Observers have noted that the winds of change are blowing in Hillside, stronghold of Union County Democratic chairwoman Charlotte DeFilippo, where the 'regular' organization is on the defensive, as well as in Linden, where the machine's power has been eroded by an end-run by Democrats working as independents.
"The Democratic Party statewide is aware that they are in difficult straits," says Mapp, "and they are painfully aware that voters are looking for fresh faces, intelligence and a commitment to more open and transparent government."
Mapp points to the challenge the independent Democrats face this morning as evidence of this conflict.
"Whatever the outcome on Monday, I think that the Union County Democratic organization knows that they are facing a shift of historic proportions, and that is what has them running scared," he adds.
Judge Wertheimer will also hear and decide on challenges by Mapp to several of the other mayoral hopefuls' petitions.
"I think that the great interest shown in running for mayor indicates the view that the current administration is bankrupt and cannot lead us forward," says Mapp, "and I welcome a contest between those of us who meet the requirements for running."
"In that regard, I have gone over the petitions of my opponents just as I am sure they have gone over mine, and I have submitted challenges to several of them regarding the validity of many signatures for a variety of reasons," he added, "and I look forward to Judge Wertheimer's ruling on these challenges, clarifying who has and has not met the requirements of candidacy."
-- Dan Damon
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2 comments:
This is exactly why we have stopped financially supporting the DNC. We've endlessly explained to them that we are not giving because the money filters down to the local level, where we are dissatisfied with the politics.
Was this in the newspapers? If so, I missed it. What was Rajoppi's reason for denial? Sounds like what the machine democrats tried over in Hillside.
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