John Currie

State Sen. John Girgenti (left) and Passaic County Democratic Chairman John Currie with Assembly candidate Elease Evans
The Democratic Party chiefs in the 35th district united today behind a woman they say is a powerful community presence: a social worker, grandmother, public servant and churchgoer; someone with deep and important community ties in Paterson and the environs.

Hoping to represent a nearly 2-1 Democratic district, Passaic County Freeholder Director Elease Evans will have the added challenge of proving that the trust she built in her grassroots work and public service means something in a legislative district where a man with many of those same credentials on paper violated his office, according to the U.S. Attorney.

The Passaic County Democratic Organization this morning unanimously decided on Evans to replace former Assemblyman (and Passaic County Undersheriff) the Rev. Pastor Alfred Steele on the 35th district legislative ticket, and immediately made a statement regarding the new candidate’s intentions. Acknowledging that dual public office-holding isn’t a practice the public will tolerate, Evans said if elected to the Assembly on Nov. 6th she would hold dual office only for a period of months, and would not seek re-election to the freeholder board when her term expires at the end of 2008.

Assemblywoman-elect Elease Evans will not seek re-election to the Passaic County Board of Freeholders in 200835th District Democrats today elected Elease Evans to the State Assembly. She will fill the unexpired term of Alfred Steele, who resigned last week after his arrest on bribery charges, and will seek a full-term in the Assembly in November.

Evans, the Passaic County Freeholder Director and former NAACP leader, became the unanimous choice at a Special Election Convention after party leaders agreed to support her earlier this morning.

Passaic County Democratic Chairman John Currie said that Evans will serve in both offices for now, but will step down as Freeholder sometime before the completion of her current term, which expires in January 2009. Under the new state law banning dual officeholding, Evans would be eligible to hold both posts, if she wanted to.

There is considerable speculation that Passaic County Democratic Chairman John Currie, will step down after the election.  Look for Sheriff Gerald Speziale, who has emerged as the county's most popular and powerful leader, to either take the job himself or decide who gets it. 

About 150 people attended a fundraiser for Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards in Colts Neck on Monday, raising over $100,000 for the campaign. Former Governor Richard Codey introduced Edwards at a private meeting with Democratic leaders organized by Assemblyman Michael Panter. Nine Democratic County Chairmen attended the session: Ronald Ruff (Atlantic), Rick Perr (Burlington), Jim Beach (Camden), Louis Magazzu (Cumberland), David DelVecchio (Hunterdon), Victor Scudiery (Monmouth), Lewis Candura (Morris), Wyatt Earp (Ocean), and John Currie (Passaic) -- and Middlesex County Vice Chairwoman Helen Gottlieb. Edwards spoke and took questions for about 45 minutes, and organizers said that the Edwards campaign did not ask for endorsements.

Mercer County Executive Brian Hughes, who will be supporting Hillary Clinton, was among the Democrats at the private meeting with Edwards.

Passaic County Democrats are meeting tomorrow to decide whether they want to stick with embattled Freeholder candidate Sami Merhi, an Arab-American businessman whose controversial comments about terrorism has caused a deep split among local Democrats and has caused leaders in the Jewish and Arab communities -- in New Jersey and in Washington -- to suddenly pay attention to a race for county office. Last Saturday, the Passaic Democratic organization voted 13-10 to support Merhi over Joanne Graziano, a Hawthorne Board of Education member and a teacher in Paterson.

Within two days, U.S. Senator Bob Menendez and Governor Jon Corzine led a group of Democrats who said that Merhi's remarks at a 2002 political event made it impossible for them to support him, and Passaic County Democratic Chairman John Currie quickly called for another meeting to discuss the future of Merhi's campaign.

Merhi has now publicly said that there is "no way" he made the comments attributed to him in the New York Times article -- though the fact that it took him a full four years to accuse the New York Times of inventing its story make his current allegations appear less than credible.

Congressman Bill Pascrell, who was Merhi's chief advocate during the candidate selection process, publicly stood by Merhi -- but privately, Pascrell, under pressure from key Democrats and Jewish community leaders, has sent strong signals that he would not mind seeing Merhi drop his Freeholder bid.

Arab American leaders say that dumping Merhi was discrimination, and the Herald News has suggested that Democrats keep Merhi and let the voters decide if they want to elect him -- not necessarily a solid plan, one strategist said, since the politically impotent Passaic County GOP has shown no signs of mounting a strong campaign.

Assemblyman Gary Schaer, an Orthodox Jew from Passaic, offered his own compromise to fellow Democrats: dump Merhi because of his comments, but replace him with another Arab American. Currie, who had backed Graziano initially, appears to be leaning toward supporting her again.

PASSAIC COUNTY DEMOCRATS BREAK THE LAW...AGAIN

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