Assemblyman Jerry Green corrects Dan?

Assemblyman Jerry Green teaches Dan a lesson in government.

Plainfield Assemblyman Jerry Green, who also serves as chair of both the Plainfield and Union County Democratic committees, corrected Dan in a post on his 'Jerry Green's Page' blog Monday afternoon (see post here).

Green takes Dan to task for asserting in a Monday post (see 'Gloria Taylor: A carpetbagger on residency?') that Green appointed Councilor Gloria Taylor to fill the vacancy left when Adrian Mapp was elected mayor.

Here is what Jerry wrote --

I find it in my duty to correct misinformation that is out there. Otherwise this misinformation could be taken as truth. To get to the point, Dan, Councilwoman Gloria Taylor was elected in the June primary by voters in the Third Ward. She won this primary, she was not appointed by me as the Chair, she was elected. A man of your caliber should know the difference between getting voted in and getting appointed in.

Now, I can be accused of using the shorthand phrase 'Jerry appointed' to convey a larger sequence of events.

In the event of a Council vacancy, the party committee of the officeholder's party is by law to submit three names to the Council, from which the Council is to select one to fill the vacancy.

Since in Plainfield, as Assemblyman Green has told the world (see his famous 'I run this motherf***er' video here) his word runs as writ, I used the shorthand phrase. There is no doubt in anyone's mind that Jerry picked Taylor, nor that the Council was not to have any other opinion in the matter.

What intrigues me is that Jerry asserts that the PRIMARY election voted Taylor into office.

My understanding is that a vacancy is filled by the Council with someone to serve until the voters elect a replacement at the next general election. The general election is the one held in November of each year in New Jersey, as one would hope members of the Legislature know.

The fact that Ms. Taylor had an opponent in the Primary election means that she was running to be the Democratic candidate in the November general election.

Though Taylor won the primary, she is still not out of the woods. In order to take the seat for the balance of Mapp's original term, Taylor must defeat her Republican opponent in the November general election. Until she wins the November election and is sworn in on January 1, 2015, Taylor is filling the seat as an appointee.

Should a man of Assemblyman Green's caliber know the distinction?

Or, as Jerry so often says at the end of making a point, 'Am I right or am I right'?

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  -- Dan Damon [follow]

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