Brian Levine

Pastor Shannon Wright kicks off her campaign with her husband, Pastor Michael Wright and campaign publicist Tarin Donatien

SOMERSET – Pledging to run an aggressive, grassroots campaign focused on improving healthcare, safety and education, Pastor Shannon Wright of Plainfield on Saturday officially announced her entry into the gubernatorial race as an independent. 

“It’s time to put the bloom back in the Garden State,” proclaimed Wright, joined by her husband, Pastor Michael Wright, their two children, Chandra and Michael, and her mother, in the lobby of the Crowne Plaza Hotel.

“It's an honor and a privilege to have this opportunity,” said the candidate. “If I become an example for young girls, proving that they can be anything they want to be, then I've done my job. I'm looking forward to doing what it takes to get New Jersey back on track and it would be an honor to be the first African-American woman in a position to do that." 

She won’t reveal how she intends to finance her run for governor, but promises to run hard and campaign in every county. When asked if she could live with being the Ralph Nader of New Jersey in the event she stays in the campaign through Election Day and records just enough votes to swing a close Democratic-Republican contest, she said, “It’s Politics 101 that one person can’t elect of unelect anyone.”  

She will not unequivocally commit to staying in this general election until the end, however.

Without mentioning gubernatorial rival Steve Lonegan by name, the Chris Christie campaign chastised him for removing three lesser-known Republican candidates from the primary ballot.  

Lonegan successfully challenged the petition signatures of Franklin Township Mayor Brian Levine, inventor David Brown and corrections officer Christian Keller.

“They worked hard, brought diverse ideas to the table and added to the debate over the last few months,” said Christie Campaign Manager Bill Stepien.  “It's a shame that some saw fit to spend taxpayer dollars trying to knock good candidates off of the ballot.”

Franklin Mayor Brian D. Levine today in New Brunswick.

NEW BRUNSWICK – The jumbo jet hanger-sized building sits in an industrial upchuck of Middlesex angst on Jersey Avenue behind a sign that says “Division of Elections” at the end of a long line of bars and rust-colored warehouses and faded factories and at least one boxing gym, and inside on a cellphone, GOP gubernatorial candidate Brian D. Levine fights to remain in the primary.

Administrative Law Judge Gail Cookson plodded through a morning and early afternoon of signature sifting and while the mayor of Franklin Township still hasn’t officially dipped under the 1,000-petition threshold that would render him doomed as a candidate failing a successful appeal, the judge told him bluntly that it wasn’t looking good.

The momentum was against him.

Pastor Shannon Wright will run as an Independent candidate for Governor

As he poured over petition signatures to determine whether he will be able to remain a gubernatorial candidate in the GOP primary after an opposing campaign challenged his signatures, Franklin Mayor Brian D. Levine today sustained yet another blow. 

Pastor Shannon Wright announced her resignation as  Levine's campaign manager, and declared her intentions to run for governor as an independent.  

“I can no longer endorse a candidate that has demonstrated inability to make the hard decisions necessary to put our state back on solid ground,” Wright said in a statement. “Our state is in a crisis.  This is not the time to be indecisive.  We need a strong, clear thinking leader with a heart of the people, an ear for wisdom, and a spirit of the greater good.  Politics can no longer be “me first,” too many families are hurting.”

Assemblyman Daniel Van Pelt (R-Ocean), who is running for re-election to a second term, will be unopposed in the Republican primary

Establishment political parties have successfully challenged several rebel primary candidates, removing them from the primary ballot.

Casualties

In the 6th District, the Camden County Regular Republican Party found enough problems with the petition signatures of state Senate candidate Joseph Welsh, a Haddonfield resident who was running on gubernatorial candidate Steve Lonegan's rival slate, to get him kicked off the ballot, clearing the way for Republican Joseph Adolf to take on newly elected state Sen. James Beach (D-Voorhees) in a special election. 

Also in District 6, the Democratic State Committee successfully challenged the petition signatures of Democratic primary challenger Michael Stevenson, a Voorhees resident who was running under the slogan "Bringing the Process Home."

Steve Lonegan's slate also lost a candidate in District 9, where Republican State Committee Counsel Mark Sheridan got William Maxwell, of Beachwood, ruled ineligible.  That clears the way for incumbents Daniel Van Pelt (R-Waretown) and Brian Rumpf (R-Little Egg Harbor) in the primary.

Up in the 39th District, Bergen County Republicans successfully challenged the petition signatures of college student William Fenwick, a Republican who filed to run against incumbent Charlotte Vandervalk (R-Hillsdale) and Washington Township Councilman Bob Schroeder, who won the party nod to replace retiring Assemblyman John Rooney (R-Northvale) at the Northeast Republican Organization (NERO) convention.

Franklin Mayor Brian D. Levine

TRENTON – The gubernatorial candidacy of Franklin Township Mayor Brian D. Levine appeared close to an end tonight as the Republican left an administrative law judge’s court room in New Brunswick facing the prospect of several hundred of his petition signatures not meeting muster with the Board of Elections.

F. Michael Daly, an attorney from Camden, admitted under oath that the campaign of Steve Lonegan paid him to challenge many of Levine’s 1,325 submitted signatures.

Today, a judge rendered close to a hundred of Levine’s signatures invalid, with another 300-400 questionable heading into another session tomorrow. Many of the signatures were of people who are either registered as Democrats or unregistered.

A dip below the 1,000 threshold would knock Levine out of the contest.

Fellow long-shot candidate David Brown of South Brunswick also hangs in the balance on a similar challenge put to his signatures by Lonegan ally Daly.

New Jersey will have contested primaries for Governor, for two State Senate seats, and in 23 districts for the State Assembly.

Gov. Jon Corzine will face three opponents in the Democratic primary as he seeks a second term as Governor - the first incumbent to have a primary challenge since Brendan Byrne ran for re-election in 1977.  Corzine faces former Glen Ridge Mayor Carl Bergmanson, Phillipsburg businessman Roger Bacon, and Jeffrey Boss, who ran for President in 2008 saying that he witnessed the U.S. government planning the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Five Republicans filed to run for Governor: former U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie, former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan, Assemblyman Rick Merkt (R-Mendham), Franklin Mayor Brian Levine, and David Brown, an inventor from South Brunswick.  Newark businessman Dennis Knight and Morris County Freeholder James Murray, mentioned as potential gubernatorial candidates, did not submit nominating petitions.

Two Republicans filed to challenge State Sen. James Beach (D-Voorhees) in a special election in the sixth district:  former Magnolia Mayor Joseph Adolf, who ran and lost two years ago, and Joseph Welsh of Haddonfield, who will run on a Lonegan slate.   Beach won a special election convention in January to replace John Adler (D-Cherry Hill), who was elected to Congress.

In District 23, State Sen. Marcia Karrow (R-Raritan) will face a primary challenge from Assemblyman Michael Doherty (R-Oxford).  Karrow won the seat in a January special election convention, defeating Doherty for the seat of Leonard Lance (R-Clinton), who resigned to take his seat in Congress.

The Assembly primaries:

Roger Bacon, a 61-year-old Phillipsburg businessman, campaigning for the Democratic nomination for Congress in 2008. Bacon has filed petitions to challenge Gov. Jon Corzine in the 2009 Democratic primary.

Candidates seeking to run in the Democratic and Republican primaries for Governor, State Assembly, and county and local office must file nominating petitions by 4PM today.  There are also special elections for State Senate in districts 6 and 23.  Independent candidates have until 4PM on June 2 to file for the general election.

Filing to run against Gov. Jon Corzine in the Democratic primary are Roger Bacon and Jeff Boss.  Bacon, a Phillipsburg resident who runs a customized ceramic mug business, won 7% in the Democratic congressional primary in the fifth district last year.  A former Republican, he was the Libertarian candidate for Congress against Marge Roukema fourteen years ago.  Boss ran for President and U.S. Senate in 2008 and said he witnessed the U.S. government planning the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.  Corzine and another announced Democratic primary candidate, former Glen Ridge Mayor Carl Bergmanson, had not filed their petitions as of Friday.

On the Republican side, former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan and David Brown, an inventor from South Brunswick, have filed petitions.  Former U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie, Assemblyman Rick Merkt (R-Mendham) and Franklin Mayor Brian Levine are also expected to file.  Newark businessman Dennis Knight had announced his candidacy late last year, but has not made any campaign appearances.

Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC) Executive Director Fred Hermann calls it "Selection Tuesday."

The commission, which requires all candidates who receive public campaign funds to participate in two debates, will farm out the hosting of the Republican gubernatorial primary debate to two applicants on Tuesday, April 7.

Three television stations that are partnered with newspapers, civic groups and a public university have applied for the two spots. 

In one corner are the ABC affiliates from New York and Philadelphia, who applied to host the debate along with the League of Women Voters of New Jersey.  In another is My9, whose reach is limited to the New York media market but has the added heft of being partnered with the state's two biggest dailies: The Star-Ledger and The Record, and William Paterson University.  Finally, there's NJN, working in collaboration with The Asbury Park Press and The Philadelphia Inquirer - which has hosted an ELEC gubernatorial debate each year since the commission started requiring them in 1989.

So far, it looks like only two candidates will be eligible to participate: former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie and former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan.  The other three, Assemblyman Richard Merkt (R-Mendham), Franklin Township Mayor Brian Levine and entrepreneur David Brown, are not likely to raise the $340,000 necessary to qualify for public financing, making them ineligible to participate.

Christie, who as the frontrunner in the race might stand to benefit by facing more candidates than just his closest rival, said that he would like to see the other three Republican candidates participate as well.

"I can tell you how difficult it is to raise money out there, and I don't think money should be involved in the decision at all," he said.  "I've watched Rick Merkt, Brian Levine and Dave Brown travel all over the state."

The ELEC commissioners will consider a number of factors in picking the two winners, according to Hermann: the networks' audience reach, pre-debate publicity, time slots, audience selection (if there is an audience) and geography.