BY WALTER ELLIOTT
PHOTO VIA MEJIA CAMPAIGN
NEWARK – Although ballots are still being counted and verified as of presstime among the New Jersey 11th Congressional District’s three counties and 47 municipalities, Essex County’s results reflect the narrow plurality between upset winner Glen Ridger Analilia Mejia and the Morris County Democratic Committee endorsed Tom Malinowski, of Ringoes.
The unofficial Essex County tallies, including those from the seven “Local Talk” towns, have Mejia mustering 10,759 votes from among a Feb. 5 balloted field of 13 as per county clerk Chris Durkin’s Election Division office here as of 2 p.m. Feb. 9. That current 10,759 tally gives U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders for President’s former campaign manager 32.53 percent of the vote.
Former CD-7 Sen. Tom Malinowski has meanwhile amassed 8,403 votes or 25.40 percent of the vote. Mejia’s plurality over Malinowski here comes out to 2,356 votes or 7.13 percent. The overall Mejia-Malinowski CD-11 margin by 10:30 p.m. Feb. 5, was 486 votes or .8 percent.
Ninety one percent of received Vote By Mail Ballots, Feb. 5 and early polling station votes were counted by then, leaving provisional and absentee ballots and what VBMB received on or by Feb. 9 to be verified and/or tallied. The remaining counts and/or recounts fall into the 14-day period before Clerk Durkin and his Paterson and Morristown colleagues certify the results on or before Feb. 19.
Malinowski had gained an initial lead after the polling stations and drop boxes were closed at 8 p.m. that Thursday. Mejia’s voters then surged ahead into the narrow lead by 9:30 p.m. Those publications who had declared Malinowski the winner had to correct themselves by 10 p.m.
The race has shaped up to be a “progressive versus party establishment” contest. Mejia, with her win agreed upon Feb. 10, upset the four county organization-supported candidates – who are now ranked second-through-sixth in the results.
NBC News reported that the Mejia-Malinowski CD-11 district-wide split was 29.1 percent of the vote to 27.7. The remaining votes are still being counted as op press time.
Mejia, 48, was the former Working Families Alliance of NJ director. She had been Deputy Director of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Women’s bureau in President Barack Obama’s Administration. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) had stumped for her here the last three weeks.
Tom Malinowski’s concession statement Feb. 10 came from his Millburn campaign headquarters.
“I congratulate Analilia Mejia on her hard-won victory in the NJ-11 special primary. I look forward to supporting her in the April (16) general election. It’s essential that we send a Democrat to Washington to fill this seat and not a rubber stamp for Trump. Analilia deserves unequivocal praise and credit in running a positive campaign and inspiring so many voters on Election Day (Feb. 5).”
Malinowski meanwhile took to task the “United Democracy Project” Section 527 campaign finance group, believed to be a proxy for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee lobbying organization. The Federal Elections Commission had recorded $2.3 million used against him by UDP/IAPAC to inundate the district with “third party” handbills and broadcast outlets with ads.
The ads tried to tie Malinowski with a 2019 bipartisan Congressional appropriations bill to fund humanitarian assistance and southern border security. The ads declared that the Congressman “voted with Trump and the Republicans to fund ICE.”
“The outcome of this race cannot be understood without taking into account the massive flood of dark money that AIPAC spent on dishonest ads the last three weeks. I wish I could say that this effort failed in NJ-11 . . . but I met several voters in the last days of the campaign who saw the ads and sincerely asked me, ‘Are you for MAGA? Are you for ICE?”
Mejia, since her Feb. 5, “We’re in the lead” speech, credited her campaign’s street-level Get Out the Vote effort for countering the county-committee resourced rivals.
“The national organizations (were) trying to say that our people-powered movement was too small, too late, unfunded; in fact, they called it. But here’s the bottom line: our party, this moment, this moment calls for every one of us to be big, bold and brave. To face off millions of dollars, building the airplane while we were flying it, to be in this race for only 12 weeks.
“We left everything on the ground; we connected with people on a daily basis.”
New Jersey Democratic Committee Chairman LeRoy Jones – who is also East Orange and Essex County’s party chairman – asked district leaders and voters Feb. 10 to stand with Mejia.
“We should all be rallying behind the winner,” said Jones. “It’s time to put together a coalition of Democrats from all corners of the party to move as one.”
Republican Party primary winner Joe Hathaway, on Feb. 10, promptly labelled Mejia as “an extreme, far-left progressive” and was “the HEAD (his capital letters) of the N.J. Working Families Party (which) proudly supported defunding the police, instituting cashless bail for violent criminals (and) promoted antisemitic attacks that put our Jewish neighbors in danger!”
Hathaway received all 2,666 Essex County votes. He will now face Mejia in the April 16 special CD-11 general election to fill now-Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s (D-Montclair) unexpired House of Representative term. That winner will have the later option to run for a full two-year House term.
Two of the other 10 seekers of the Democratic Party nomination – including four from “Local Talk” towns – received votes in double-digit percentages and the remaining eight with single-digit percentages.
Montclair’s Brendan Gill currently ranks third with 6,499 or 19.65 percent. “Local Talk” crossed the eastbound NJTransit Montclair-Boonton Line Bloomfield train station platform with the Essex County Democratic Committee-endorsed County Commissioner while he shook hands and presented palm cards to riders Feb. 3.
Former Lt. Governor and Secretary of State Tahesha Way, of Wayne, currently places fourth at 5,353 or 16.18 percent. The Passaic County Democratic Committee had co-endorsed Way with County Commissioner and fellow Wayne resident John Bartlett. Bartlett is currently ranked fifth in Essex County with 527 votes for 1.59 percent.
Montclair’s Cammie L. Croft has been placed sixth at 353 votes or 1.07 percent. Morris Township councilman Jeff Grayzel is next at 258 or .78 – six votes or .02 percent ahead of Morristown’s Zach Beecher.
There were 183 voters, or .55 percent of the county vote, who selected Maplewood Township Committeeman Dean Dafis – even though the former mayor had withdrawn his campaign and had endorsed Gill. All five Maplewood committee members, indeed, were backing Gill.
Although Dafis ended his run before the Vote By Mail Ballots started coming to Durkin’s Election Division office here, it was too late to have Durkin remove his name.
The currently 10th-12th ranked Democratic primary candidates were separated by an overall 18 votes or .06 percent. Bloomfield lawyer J-L Cauvin. at 158 or .48, led this subcategory.
Anna Lee Williams, of Morristown, was next at 152 or .46. Chatham Borough’s Justin Strickland followed up with 140 or .42.
Morris County resident Marc Chaaban completed the field at 40 or .12 despite withdrawing from the race Dec. 5.
