In a letter to the editor, Jersey City Young Democrats President Cory Garriga, also the director of constituent services for Hudson County Commissioner Bill O’Dea (D-2), gives his take on why runoff elections are important.
To the Editor:
It’s not so unusual these days to see a surprising political viewpoint being expressed, but a recent letter from Michael P. Hussar claiming that run-off elections in Jersey City are bad for democracy is on a different level of bizarre.
Hussar writes that runoffs “undermine the democratic process.” Huh?
It makes more sense when you realize that Mr. Hussar is a supporter of the disgraced ex-governor who wants to be mayor of Jersey City.
Hussar blames Commissioner Bill O’Dea and the many, many Jersey City residents who oppose Jim McGreevey’s mayoral campaign for conspiring to create a runoff election which under current law happens when no candidate receives more than 50 percent of the vote on the first ballot.
McGreevey apparently agrees, sharing the letter on his social media pages and commenting that it was “worth reading.”
Requiring a candidate to receive majority support is not “anti-democratic” — in fact the opposite is true. Runoff elections prevent fringe (or corrupt) candidates from winning.
Without a runoff there could be a situation where a dozen candidates run for mayor and the “winner” might take office with the support of just 10 or 15 percent of the voters. That outcome would hardly be a victory for democracy.
What the letter really shows is that the McGreevey camp realizes that he is not going to win this election because there is no way that a majority of Jersey City voters will choose to support the most corrupt governor in New Jersey history who moved here just to run for mayor.
With at least five candidates currently running, a runoff is almost certain. So is a McGreevey loss, which is why he’s now trying to sow doubt in the integrity of our elections.
McGreevey is raising millions of dollars from political insiders who got rich when he was governor. Some are corrupt politicians and convicted felons close to Donald Trump.
He is also backed by numerous machine politicians and political bosses, nearly all of whom do not even live in Jersey City.
Without the protections of a runoff system, in a crowded field McGreevey might be able to buy around 25 percent of the vote and slip back into public office.
The runoff makes that impossible in Jersey City, and it’s a good thing for our community that we have this pro-democracy system in place to protect us from McGreevey.
Cory Garriga
President, Jersey City Young Democrats
Editor’s note: Cory Garriga is supporting Hudson County Commissioner Bill O’Dea for Jersey City mayor.
Peter Cammarano won a runoff election in Hoboken. So did Mariano Vega in Jersey City. Both were corrupt.
This pissing contest is stupid since JC will have a runoff and whining about it serves no purpose.
But the idea that runoffs reduce corruption is nonsense.
Runoffs have their pros and cons but reducing corruptions not even on the list. The reality on the ground in Hudson County has been that runoffs have been a huge source of public corruption. My favorite example is from a Hoboken fifth ward race years ago. The odd man out in the first round, a man named John Corea, was made head of the parking utility after supporting Mayor Robert’s candidate in the runoff. But the job was The least of it. The guy proceeded to steal $millions of dollars from the City’s parking meters.
When the first round is over in the JC mayoral, the corrupt bidding war for support from the losers will almost certainly commence.