With Democratic primaries in the books for governor, sheriff, and state Assembly, here are the biggest winners and losers in Hudson County from Election Day.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
WINNERS
Brian Stack
The state senator of the 33rd Legislative District and Union City mayor wasn’t on the ballot, but you wouldn’t have known it the way he was getting voters to the polls in North Hudson.
His candidates, Assemblyman Gabriel Rodriguez and Larry Wainstein, won by an over 2-1 margin and he played a big role in Bayonne Mayor Jimmy Davis being elected sheriff.
James Solomon
The Jersey City Ward E councilman/mayoral hopeful wasn’t on the ballot either, but his endorsed Assembly candidates, Katie Brennan and Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla, are poised to head to Trenton based on preliminary tallies.
He has shown that his GOTV operation is a force to be reckoned with as he keeps racking up wins against the HCDO, a valuable asset for a crowded Jersey City mayoral race.
Jerry Walker
The former standout Seton Hall University basketball player was the top vote getter by a big margin in a tightly contested Assembly race in the 31st Legislative District.
His running mate, Assemblyman Will Sampson, also appears to be joining him in Trenton as it stands now and whisper of a Walker for state Senate campaign for 2027 can officially begin.
Mikie Sherrill
I don’t like to do the extremely obvious picks here, but Sherrill finished with over a third of the vote in a six-person field – certainly exceeding most, if not all, expectations.
She now heads into a grudge match with former state Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli, who is backed by President Donald Trump and was the GOP nominee in 2021, for all the marbles on November 4th.
LOSERS
Nick Sacco
While Tony Hector and Frank Alonso were expected to come up short in the LD-33 Assembly race, Larry Wainstein did remarkably well in North Bergen and it seems almost impossible to think he doesn’t already have his eye on the 2027 mayoral race.
Additionally, the fact that Hudson County Sheriff Frank Schillari was beaten convincingly by Bayonne Mayor Jimmy Davis, who was backed by Stack, was an insult to injury.
Raj Mukherji
The state senator of the 32nd Legislative District is nearly guaranteed to square off with Bhalla in 2027 in what will surely be an ugly and expensive contest that no candidate hopes for.
Of course, two years is several lifetimes away in politics, so the odds of this being a head-to-head contest can absolutely change at a moment’s notice.
Steven Fulop
The three-term Jersey City mayor was the first gubernatorial candidate to announce in April 2023 and was quick to roll out comprehensive policy ideas that included raging hard against the political machine.
However, that just didn’t resonate with most voters for whatever reason, as Fulop finished in third place behind Sherrill and Newark Mayor Ras Baraka. His Assembly candidates also did not fare in Hudson County and beyond.
Voter turnout
I’ve said this before, but I’ll say it again: Voter turnout as a whole just wasn’t great countywide, hitting just a hair under 20 percent according to preliminary tallies from the Hudson County Clerk’s Office.
Considering what was at stake yesterday, that is way too low. While the voter rolls probably need to be purged, something, anything needs to be done to convince people to come out and vote around here.
Nice Job Without Stack you would all have lost and lets’s not forget that last guy that wore that hat was a one term wonder as sheriff let’s not forget you all sucked each others asses and backed Schillari for 5 terms none of you can ever top that and to say you won by 4000 votes is no great victory. It;s a short three years be aware oof your surroundings and who helped you cause they will surely be the ones to take you out next term a thankless game that you seek your soles to but outside of this area who even knows who any of you are ? Look at people Like Anthony Romano well known in a 3 mile radius outside of that a nobody. Take time enjoy spend time with your families and enjoy your life its just a job you win and loose your identity at the same time. Life is for living not living a lie!
While Fulop is a loser today, I predict Ravi Bhalla will be a loser tomorrow, no matter the outcome of his narrow Assembly race.
Conquer yourself rather than the world.
Agree our turnout is too low, but it’s the highest turnout we’ve had in a primary election since 2020. Also, that 20% number is a bit misleading since it takes into account all registered voters – including undeclared and other parties like conservative, green, etc.
Additionally, NJ voter rolls were cleaned up earlier this year with almost 225,000 voters being removed – link: https://newjerseyglobe.com/campaigns/n-j-drops-nearly-250000-from-voter-rolls/
Hudson County lost almost 10,000 people from that clean up – state archive here: https://www.nj.gov/state/elections/election-information-svrs.shtml
You want higher turnout, you need better candidates.
As for the 33rd race, yes, Wainstein won (with his running mate Rodriguez) but if you only look at North Bergen’s part of the 33rd for a comparison, you see Wainstein actually got FEWER votes from North Bergen this year (under 3500) than his 3,558 votes when he last ran for mayor of NB in ’23. Wainstein won, sure, but maybe he had coattails from Mikie Sherrill while the other guys were running with (big gulp here) Steve Fulop!
None of these guys are popular. We need better candidates.
When democrats win the country loses they are the party of China, illegal alien criminals waving American flags, they/thems and domestic terrorism.
Democrats suck
Cornholio has no portfolio,
This magamanio has no brainio,
He kisses Trump’s behindio,
He’s lost his mindio.
The biggest loser here is Steven Fulop. He was the first one to declare for governor and spent the most on the campaign by far. A corrupt career politician fails to portray himself as a progressive and a reformer. Don’t let the door hit you on your way out.
Steve Fulop has been running for governor for the past two years and more truthfully since he came to office. Fulop was very lucky to run virtually unopposed the last two mayoral elections. His lack of popularity has clearly shown here.
Steve was the only candidate to not win his home county. Not only does Mikie Sherrill more than double his vote count, Steve comes in at a paltry third. Not only that but all of Steve’s down ballot candidates LOST in HUdson County.
A very weak showing for Fulop.
Hudson County politicians are viewed with great suspicion around the rest of the state – and with good reason. How many HudCo pols did Christie round up 16 years ago? How many of our Mayors have gone to prison? Whatever happened to Carmelo Garcia? And then there is Menendez Sr. And the vote farming scandal in Hoboken. This is not normal – yet we have been conditioned to think that it is….By comparison to what we have here in Hudson, Sherrill is a breath of fresh air….
Don’t be down on HudCo. Big comeback and they are spreading their wings. The Jersey Sting is gone and forgotten, Solomon Dwek is forgotten and Michael Russo is leading Hoboken to a long-dreamed corruption revival. Sherrill is future of Democrats going from inflation, waste, incompetence and Biden vegetable worship to the new and improved insider trading scam making millions. HudCo wants a future like Mikie. She’s one of them. Enjoy!
Solomon Dwek, convicted of kiting two, multi- million dollar checks, wore a wire to try and “catch” several Hudson County pols in accepting alleged quid pro quo bribes. How many convictions did Christie to get on that score? All but two of Christie’s targets were Democrats. What has Michael Tusso ever been officially charged with? You’ve got nothing here. Our next Governor (and she WILL defeat MAGA Ciattarelli) was not charged with any crime. She did pay a $400 fine for improper reporting of $350,000 of her husband’s income from stocks, not “millions” that you casually lie about. Biden did suffer significant cognitive decline in late 2023, and his horrific 2024 debate performance forced the issue for him to drop out of 2024 race. We Democrats are not into cult worship, like you MAGA cultists.