Mims Hackett

Emerging as a strong candidate for Mims Hackett's seat in the State Assembly is Mila Jasey, a member of the Maplewood-South Orange Board of Education and a longtime community activist in South Orange.  Essex Democrats have reportedly been searcing for an African American woman to fill the 27th district seat.

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Mims Hackett's successor will become Richard Codey's eleventh running mate since Codey first went to Trenton as a 27-year-old Assemblyman in 1973.  In that race, Codey was the newcomer on a slate that included Frank "Pat" Dodd, who won re-election to a second term in the State Senate (he became Senate President after Democrats took control in 1973, and freshman Assemblyman Eldridge Hawkins.  When Hawkins unsuccessfully challenged Dodd in the 1977 Democratic primary (Tennis great Althea Gibson was the third candidate in that race), Mildred Barry Garvin, an East Orange school board member, went to the Assembly.

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Senate President Richard Codey is seeking an African American woman to replace Mims Hackett in the State Assembly-- a move that could eliminate Black men from the Essex County Assembly delegation, and make State Senator Ronald Rice the only African American man in the Essex delegation.

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Democrats in three legislative districts have scheduled conventions to elect new legislators and pick new candidates.

Saturday, Sept. 15: District 35 Democrats will hold a Special Election Convention to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Assemblyman Alfred Steele, and a Special Primary Convention to choose a new candidate to run as the Democratic Assembly candidate in the November 2007 general election.

Sunday, Sept. 16: District 38 Democrats will hold a Special Primary Convention to pick a new candidate for the State Senate.  The incumbent, Joseph Coniglio, announced on Wednesday that he will not seek re-election.

Wednesday, Sept. 19: District 27 Democrats will hold a Special Election Convention to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Assemblyman Mims Hackett, and a Special Primary Convention to choose a new candidate to run as the Democratic Assembly candidate in the November 2007 general election.

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Essex County College President Zachary Yamba reportedly turned down the 27th district Assembly seatThe Democratic Party turf wars persist in the concentrated power centers and in the diffuse reaches of Essex County, where the old ethnic wards are now whole municipalities with particular populations and political needs, as the 21st century bosses here struggle to find a candidate suitable to all of the affected encampments.

To date it’s been tough for the power players to reach a willing consensus pick pre-Sept. 17th deadline to replace former district 27 Assemblyman Mims Hackett, Jr., who resigned earlier this week in the aftermath of his arrest on a charge of bribery.

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Less than a week after Passaic Mayor Sammy Rivera and Councilman Marcellus Jackson were arrested on bribery charges, City Council President Gary Schaer says the Council will hire an independent special counsel to review city contracts over the last two years. Schaer says he wants to hire a lawyer with “significant experience in matters before the U.S. Attorney.”

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Donald PageOrange City Councilman At-Large Donald Page wants Mayor Mims Hackett to resign. He also wants to succeed Hackett.

"On Nov. 1st, I was planning to formally announce my candidacy for Mayor of the City of Orange, before yesterday's developments unfolded," said Page in a release. "As of now, I still plan on that date to formally declare for the May, 2008 election. If actions warrant, I will move up this timetable and be prepared to run for the unexpired portion of the current term. At this time, I am still awaiting answers on what the procedures are in the event of his resignation."

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One possible explanation for the timing of Thursday's arrests of Mims Hackett and Alfred Steele: U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie has an unofficial policy of not indicting or arresting candidates within sixty days of election day.  So if Hackett and Steele were not arrested before the end of last week, as candidates for re-election to the State Assembly, they would have been effectively protected until November.  Both legislators have now resigned from the Assembly and withdrawn as candidates for re-election.

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The Committee to Recall Mims Hackett, Jr., reiterated its call this week for the mayor of Orange to resign rather than force a special election on Sept. 10th, while the mayor’s former executive assistant announced today from Atlanta, Ga., that she intends to proceed to file a civil complaint against Hackett for sexual harassment.

In a release he issued in the wake of the arrest last Thursday of Hackett, who has resigned from his 27th district Assembly seat but appears dug in as mayor, the committee’s spokesman, Bruce Meyer of Orange said, "The recall petition drive... comes to a conclusion today, having been overtaken by current events.

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At the first class of Politics 107 this morning at Essex County College, some of the students chuckled when they read the list politician guest lecturers slated to speak to the municipal government class over the course of the semester.

“One of these dudes is going to jail,” said Klon Julu, a 27-year-old Political Science major from Newark, after taking a look at the syllabus.

Indeed, one of the several mayors slated to speak at the experimental class this semester was Mims Hackett, the recently arrested Orange mayor and, as of this afternoon, former Assemblyman.

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