Yesterday was Election Day in New Jersey, with some really interesting results in Hudson County: Let’s take a look at the biggest winners and losers.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
WINNERS
James Solomon
Jersey City’s Ward E councilman was the top vote getter for mayor, besting former Gov. Jim McGreevey by 2,447 votes on the strength of monster turnout downtown – which contributed to wins in Ward E and F, as well as securing big tallies in the at-large race.
Evidently, his poll from the end of October showing him winning the race wasn’t wrong. Don’t forget that he was elected in a December 2017 runoff, so he has some experience in that realm that could prove to be useful for him and his running mates.
Emily Jabbour
The Hoboken councilwoman-at-large led the six-person Hoboken mayoral field and also helped propel her at-large council slate to be at the head of the pack.
3rd Ward Councilman Mike Russo will be a game opponent who has a lot of weapons in his arsenal, including a massive war chest, but Jabbour is heading into to December 2nd on the strength of a first place finish that never appeared in doubt.
Brian Stack
The state senator (D-33) and Union City mayor was a driving force for now Governor-elect Mikie Sherrill, who posted gargantuan turnout numbers in North Hudson thanks to Stack.
As a matter of fact, his GOTV operation contributed to the fact that Republican gubernatorial nominee Jack Ciattarelli did not win a single district in North Bergen, despite being endorsed by Mayor Nick Sacco and his allies.
Diane Imus
Imus will be Hoboken’s next 6th Ward councilwoman, winning a four-person race to succeed the late Jen Giattino by a nearly 2-1 margin.
Her support from the Giattino family certainly contributed to her success, but she also rolled up her sleeves and got to work as part of 2nd Ward Councilwoman Tiffanie Fisher’s ticket.
Tina Nalls
I usually only do four winners, but it needs to be acknowledged that Tina Nalls, who ran on Mussab Ali’s ticket, is heading to the Jersey City council-at-large runoff without raising boat loads of money of having millions of social media impressions.
She finished fourth, right behind Solomon’s slate, which leads us to an interesting dynamic for the runoff that will also feature Meredith Burns, who ran with McGreevey, and Councilman Danny Rivera, part of Hudson County Commissioner Bill O’Dea’s (D-2) slate.
LOSERS
Hudson County Republican voters
Follow me outside the box for a second, local GOP voters had to be astonishingly disappointed to see Ciattarelli get shellacked in a race that most pollsters and pundits had between two to seven points (Sherrill won by 13).
And to add insult to injury, their six state Assembly, along with county sheriff, candidates all lost three-to-one. Furthermore, Kearny Mayor Carol Jean Doyle easily dispatched of Republican adversary Sydney Ferreira by a nearly 2-1 margin. The Trump effect is real.
Nick Sacco
The gamble on Ciattarelli didn’t pay off and Stack and Assemblyman-elect Larry Wainstein have to already be licking their chops when thinking about the May 2027 municipal elections in North Bergen.
Sacco, the commissioners, and the North Bergen Democratic Committee need to regroup quickly and start coming up with a game plan to ensure that the person operating the controls at Town Hall doesn’t chance.
Joyce Watterman
A lot of mayoral candidates had a rough night Tuesday, but the Jersey City council president for the last eight years came in a very distant fifth place in a seven-person field where the sixth and seventh place finishers didn’t even open ELEC accounts.
Ali, who came in fourth, secured over four-and-a-half times as many votes as Watterman, making for a disappointing end to her political career.
Anyone who hates runoff elections
Between Jersey City and Hoboken, their were 13 different seats up for grabs and only three of them were settled on Election Day (the Hoboken 6th Ward council seat and Ward E and F in Jersey City).
While no one should be getting sworn into office with 19 percent of the vote, this is a cumbersome process that is a huge undertaking for everyone involved. This should start a new discussion about the potential effectiveness of ranked-choice voting.
While a lot more people lost than won on Tuesday, the Hoboken mayoral campaign of Ruben Ramos was absolutely pathetic as his idiotic friends and campaign workers came on here and insisted he was going to win by a landslide.
It’s actually a shame because he’s been an effective councilperson, too bad he listened to people who haven’t been relevant in decades, if ever.
I read a lot of comments. i don’t recall anyone saying Ramos would win by a landslide.
What a traitor!
Ciatarelli was clearly a proxy for Trump- buy one get one free… when Sacco came out of the MAGA closet with that endorsement, it was a shock. Good to know who he really is. HudCo Dems don’t need MAGAts in our party.
Somebody give Nick one of those stupid red hats (warning label) so we all know what he is.
The real winners this year were NJ voters; no Murphy to buy the nomination, no Gold Bar candidate, legitimate primaries in June featuring candidates from across the ideological and georgraphic spectrum, and full slates of options in Hoboken and Jersey City – with more fun to come.- who were not scared off by incumbents or the machine. The national parties should take note of this and begin vetting candidates to place before the voters as options, not as appointments. When given the opportunity to CHOOSE a qualified representative — the people will speak.
Suggest one other loser and one other winner. The real BIGGEST LOSER is Hudson County MAGA. This year had MAGA Republicans get endorsed by machine Democrats while ignoring actual Republican voters and values. None of the other Republicans running in the primary endorsed Ciattarelli. So MAGA ran 20 points behind Trump. Was Kamala Harris that bad of a candidate? No.
WINNER: Braddock Park in North Bergen. Don’t forget that united Democratic leadership in Trenton, the county and Brian Stack’s district 33 (which includes the park) means there’s no chance for renewing the diversion application for the parkland that’s been used to house the preschool trailers for 25 years.
Mistress Kamala was a terrible candidate but President Trump wasn’t on the planet.
Of course Mikie “Vanilla Harris” Sherrill insisted otherwise claiming she will protect NJ from the tariffs bringing in hundreds of billions to the US Treasury. Now, part of it is being earmarked to give US citizens $2,000.
When Dems are not condescending to voters, this must absolutely gall them. All those monies will go to US citizens and not their base of illegal aliens. Yikes!