Candidates interested in running for Bayonne mayor or city council can begin picking up their petitions of nomination from the city clerk’s office on Friday, Clerk Madelene Medina announced.
By Dan Israel/Hudson County View
Peninsula City voters will head to the polls this spring to select a new mayor, two council members at-large, and one council member in each of the city’s three wards for four-year terms beginning on July 1st.
The Bayonne City Council voted unanimously (5-0) last month to name Public Safety Director Robert Kubert as the interim mayor, succeeding former Mayor James Davis who is now the Hudson County Sheriff as of January 1st.
Thus far, Councilman At-Large Loyad Booker, former Council President Sharon Ashe-Nadrowski, and local developer Lance Lucarelli have filed with the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission (NJ ELEC) to succeed Davis, as HCV first reported.
1st Ward Councilman Neil Carroll, former Mayor Mark Smith, and political operative John Minella, outgoing Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop’s chief of staff and the Hudson County Schools of Technology board president, are all said to be considering a mayoral run as well.
Each candidate for municipal office has to submit a nominating petition, consisting of separate petition certificates, signed by 5% of the voters they seek to represent, according to Medina.
The number of voters needed for each petition was calculated based on the voter turnout in the 2025 General Election.
In other words, mayor and council at-large candidates must obtain 870 valid signatures, 1st Ward council candidates need 300 signatures, 2nd Ward nominees will require 260 signatures, and 3rd Ward candidates must submit 315.
The filing deadline is Thursday, February 26th.
Signatures will be verified by the City Clerk’s Office, after which a ballot position drawing will be held, Medina said in the announcement. Candidates will be supplied with more certificates than the number required to get on the ballot.
“In the past, some candidates have had several people pick up nominating materials, apparently as a means to file a large number of nominating petitions,” Medina said.
“This practice can cause shortages in the number of available certificates, and delays while additional petition forms are printed, and additional expense to the taxpayers.”
