Bayonne Council President Sharon Ashe Nadrowski formally launched her mayoral bid against incumbent Jimmy Davis at her campaign headquarters at 895 Broadway this evening.
“I’ve heard the question many times, people have asked me, people who are in this room here tonight, if I was running for mayor. Well I’m here tonight to answer that question: yes I am running for mayor,” she said in a packed room of around 150 supporters, with several watching intently from the sidewalk.
“It was never my goal to run for mayor, it was only my goal to help the community be the best we can. But Bayonne has lost it’s way, they’re no longer for everybody. Too many times I’ve heard residents come up to me and say ‘hey, I can’t get any help at City Hall, I can’t get a question answered.'”
She also said that friends have stopped her in the streets expressing frustration in the direction the city has gone in, stating that City Hall is broken and residents deserve more than just someone who wants to show up and take credit when the work is done.
The council president’s announcement was a long time coming, dating back to the spring where she came out against eminent domain of the Bayonne Medical Center hospital land and escalating over the summer before she filed paperwork to run for mayor last month.
In an interview, Ashe Nadrowski, who ran with Davis in 2014 and 2018, reiterated the she decided to run after determining that “City Hall is broken, it doesn’t work for the people anymore.”
She continued that the municipal government needs to be open, responsive, and transparent for the people and it simply isn’t right now.
As far as CarePoint Health and the Bayonne Medical Center goes, she questioned how BMC Hospital, a for-profit company, could be the minority owner of the local hospital when CarePoint announced they were converting to nonprofit status in October.
The New Jersey Department of Health will hold a hearing on that matter on December 14th at 6 p.m. and while Ashe Nadrowski doesn’t feel that it needs to be voted down, larger issues at play still need to be addressed.
“The government don’t need to say whose running it and we don’t need to spend taxpayers money to decide whose running it. It’s private fight between two private companies and really has nothing to between the Bayonne taxpayers.”
The mayoral hopefully said she’ll be rolling out her platform in the near future, but for now stated that the Peninsula City’s streets need to be cleaner and safer, claiming that crime is on the rise.
In closing, she said it’s time for City Hall to do the people’s business again.
“I want to make City Hall about the people of Bayonne, a government about the people of Bayonne, a government that includes the people of Bayonne.”
The Bayonne municipal elections are set for May 10th, 2022 and Davis campaign spokesman Phil Swibinski said they like their chances against any challenger.
“Mayor Davis is running for re-election on his record of moving Bayonne forward and delivering the progress that residents deserve, and he’s confident that the people will continue supporting him regardless of the opponent.”
The event streamed live on our Facebook page and can be viewed here:
