Sharon Robinson-Briggs

Former Scotch Plains Mayor Martin Marks campaigns today in North Plainfield.

NORTH PLAINFIELD - Marty Marks, former mayor of Scotch Plains and an Assembly candidate in the 22nd Legislative District, has seen polling in Union County that puts that much more spring in the stride of he and his running mate, businessman Bo Vastine, candidates who raised more than $25,000 at a well-attended fundraiser Sept. 12th at Marks' home.

The Republican running mates are challenging longtime incumbent Assemblyman Jerry Green (D-Plainfield) and Green's running mate, former two-time Congressional candidate Assemblywoman Linda Stender (D-Fanwood), in a 2-1 Democratic district where Green and Stender will have more money to fight their challengers and who in normal circumstances should be fine - but where an intensely contested gubernatorial race at the top-of-the-ticket heartens the GOP opposition.

"We're satisfied that statewide issues are penetrating in our district," said Marks, going door-to-door on a Monday afternoon, whose fundraising guests included U.S. Rep. Leonard Lance (R-Clinton), state Senate Minority Leader Thomas Kean, Jr. (R-Westfield), Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce (R-Parsippany), Assembly Minority Whip Jon Bramnick (R-Westfield) and Assemblywoman Nancy Munoz (R-Summit).

Roselle Mayor Garrett Smith

Roselle Mayor Garrett Smith needed this one, and so did the Union County Democratic Organization.
 
Those two mutually exclusive desires added up to one thing: a war.
 
Ever since former Assemblyman Neil Cohen's (D-Roselle) career went belly up amid charges of keeping child porn on his computer, the battle lines for local party control intensified here in his town, which, depending on your perspective, is either a buffer for Westfield against the danger-zone of Elizabeth or a buffer for Elizabeth against the whitebread excesses of Cranford and Westfield.
 
A mild-mannered wonk in Trenton, Cohen could get tough in his hometown as head of the local party. He wasn't beyond delivering full-blown, profanity-laced public dress-downs to recalcitrant committee members as he dealt with the ongoing headache of Smith, a charismatic independent Democrat, originally from Jersey City, who built his name as head of a thriving local basketball league before seeking his first term as mayor in 2003.
 
Smith and Cohen could grudgingly come together to beat on Republicans in presidential or gubernatorial general elections, but mostly they embroiled themselves in a Roselle battle-royale with themselves as chief antagonists.

There's some buzz that Edison Mayor Jun Choi might try to run for as a Republican now that the GOP has lost their candidate, but the idea is a non-starter.

Reached by PolitickerNJ.com, Choi, who lost the Democratic primary earlier this month, pointed out that that the state's "sore loser" law bars him from running in the general after losing the primary.

Choi is correct.  Even though the law does not apply to legislators, freeholders, and even municipal council members, mayors are barred from running again.  But a Democrat allied with Choi could switch parties and become the GOP candidate against Democrat Toni Ricigliano.

The law was challenged in 2005, when the late Albert McWilliams, then mayor of Plainfield, lost the Democratic primary to Sharon Robinson-Briggs.  McWilliams tried to run as a Republican, but County Clerk Joanne Rajoppi wouldn't let him on the ballot.  After a court challenge, Union County Superior Court Judge Walter Barisonek ruled the law unconstitutional, but his decision was overturned on appeal.

Mayor Donald Cresitello, left, and Zoning Board Chairman Tim Dougherty at their debate the week before Election Day.

Certainly, someone running for re-election this year might be comforted by special case asterisks in those contests where challengers upset sitting mayors or council people.

But consider the name politicians who lost over the course of May and June municipal cycles, or found the terrain too tough to run again, or barely won re-election, and it looks like treacherous territory for incumbents in a gubernatorial election year.

Two of last week's losers - Morristown Mayor Donald Cresitello (buried by Tim Dougherty, 62.46 to 37.48%) and Edison Mayor Jun Choi (who lost, 50.70 to 47.79% contest to Councilwoman Toni Ricigliano) - arrived at their re-election bids with their own particular challenges.

In or around elected office for over 30 years, Cresitello possesses institutional knowledge and insider connections that helped as he kept Morristown's tax rate stable over the course of his most recent four-year term. But he also asked for pay raises for himself, which the council refused, targeted undocumented workers in his crackdown of apartment house stacking, and considered placing a public works' garage in Ward 2, which empowered his opponent to build on a base of residents who felt disrespected.

Worth watching on Tuesday: Democratic mayoral primaris in Edison, Englewood, Morristown,  Atlantic City, Plainfield, Camden and East Orange, and Republican intra-party fights in Bergen, Gloucester and Passaic counties.

Kostas Petris

The deadline for Independent candidates to file petitions is 4PM tomorrow.  In the race for Governor, so far only former state Environmental Protection Commissioner Christopher Daggett and Trenton resident Kostas Petris have filed nominating petitions.  Two other announced candidates, Libertarian Kenneth Kaplan and Rev. Shannon Wright, an African American minister who began the cycle managing Brian Levine's campaign for the GOP gubernatorial nomination, have not yet filed.

Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs prepares for the debate tonight.

PLAINFIELD – Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs played it feisty throughout the course of a two hour debate forum featuring seven mayoral candidates and two Assembly candidates, poking now and again at her chief rival, then letting it rip when she stood for her closing statement and again focused most of her ire on 3rd Ward Councilman Adrian Mapp, who’s challenging the establishment Democrat as the leader of the upstart New Democrats.

“There’s one candidate up here who can’t even get the budget of Roselle right, a budget that ended up in court, and now he wants to be mayor,” said Robinson-Briggs, Plainfield’s first woman mayor, landing a last second dig at Mapp, who serves as chief financial officer of Roselle.

Mapp laughed it off.

It was the last of several barbs Robinson-Briggs tossed in his direction during a forum sponsored by the red-jacketed Robinson-Briggs allies - Women for Progress in Plainfield.

Plainfield Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs

Plainfield Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs has an enormous money advantage over the New Democrats’ challenger, Councilman Adrian Mapp, having raised $140,000, according to the state Election Law Enforcement Commission, compared to $16,000 raised by Mapp. 

“Money always makes a difference,” Mapp admitted. “It helps you get your message out there, but I have a great group of volunteers to help me get my message out. Her truckload of money will not help her get around the failed leadership she has exhibited under the control and domination of Assemblyman Jerry Green (D-Plainfield).”

A member of the Union County Democratic Party seeking re-election to a second term in office, Robinson-Briggs did not attend a candidates’ forum last week. There are at least two more scheduled.

Plainfield 3rd Ward Councilman Adrian Mapp

PLAINFIELD – Running as the New Democrat successor of the late Mayor Al McWilliams, 3rd Ward Councilman Adrian Mapp opened his campaign headquarters on Watchung Avenue Saturday and promised to end what he described as “a dictatorial form of government” in Union County’s Queen City, and to fairly represent all four wards.

“I will create an economic development plan that is not developer-driven, and develop an aggressive marketing plan to enhance Plainfield’s image,” said Mapp, standing at a podium in front of an American Flag hung from the ceiling. “With a transit village tax credit, the train station can be our linch pin for  revitalization. I would also like to undertake a study of all brownfield structures and create retail store ratables where possible.”

A large concentration of those old structures stands in the 4th Ward, the city’s longtime poorest residential district and the epicenter of the 1967 Plainfield riots. When she first won election nearly four years ago with the establishment backing of Assemblyman Jerry Green (D-Plainfield) , Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs defeated then-incumbent Mayor Al McWilliams in the 4th, 868 to 698 votes.