Credit: (Screengrab from NJSN)Former Newark City Council President LaMonica McIver becomes New Jersey’s third female House member, at least for a short while, having won Wednesday’s special 10th District election.
The Associated Press called the race at 8:08 p.m. without reporting any results. An NJ Spotlight News review of the early vote totals — most likely those cast prior to Wednesday during early voting — posted as of 8:15 p.m. showed McIver had won 85% of the vote, compared with 12% for Republican Carmen Bucco.
McIver will fill the remainder of the term of the late Rep. Donald Payne Jr., who died April 24. McIver stepped down as Newark city council president on Tuesday.
The 774,000 residents of the district, which includes parts of Newark and Jersey City and 16 other municipalities in Essex and Union counties, have been without representation in the House of Representatives for some five months. And after this election, they will have to wait at least a bit longer. McIver can’t be seated until all the votes are counted, confirmed and finally certified by the State Board of Canvassers, sometime between Oct. 8 and Oct. 14.
Detailed AP results
With the House currently not slated to meet until Nov. 12, it is unclear when McIver will be sworn in. House Speaker Mike Johnson’s office did not reply to the question of when the winner of the race would be seated.
Heavily favored
The 10th District is the most Democratic congressional district in the state, with 54% of registered voters identifying as Democrats and fewer than 9% as Republican. The district has been safely in Democratic hands for decades.
Wednesday’s results mean McIver will represent the district until the new Congress takes office Jan. 3. But it’s likely she will continue on after that, as well. McIver and Bucco are also on the general election ballot this fall, along with four independents. Whoever does win the general election will get a full two-year term in the new Congress beginning in January.
November will be the fourth time this year the more than 500,000 registered voters in the 10th District were called on to vote.
The timing of Payne’s death made it impossible to schedule the special primary to coincide with the June primary, as has happened in the past. Instead, the special primary was held in July. In issuing the writ of election as required by law, Gov. Phil Murphy chose to call for the special general election to fill out the term as quickly as possible, in part because of the slim margin Republicans hold in the House.
What Christie did
The most recent special House elections — in 2012 when Payne Jr. was victorious in replacing his father Donald M. Payne, who also died in office — were held concurrently with the regular primary and general elections on order of then-Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican. That year, the GOP had a wider majority in the House and special elections are costly, so Christie chose to not rush to fill the seat.
However, a year later, when Democratic Sen. Frank Lautenberg died, Christie took a different course, scheduling the special general election to fill Lautenberg’s seat in October, less than a month before the general election in which Christie was seeking reelection. The move allowed Christie to keep popular Democrat Cory Booker on the ballot as a Senate candidate while Christie sought reelection by a large victory margin. Booker won the Senate seat in October in a statewide election and about a quarter of all voters cast ballots. Christie got the large reelection margin he sought the following month, beating Democrat Barbara Buono by 22 percentage points.
The numbers
The official turnout for Wednesday’s special election won’t be known for a while, but it is not likely to be high. Close to 17,000 people voted early, mostly using mail-in ballots.
The last time House seats topped balloting, in 2022, the turnout was about 41%.
The municipalities that make up the 10th District are Caldwell, East Orange, Essex Fells, Irvington, Orange, Verona, West Orange and parts of Montclair and Newark in Essex County; part of Jersey City in Hudson County; and Cranford, Garwood, Hillside, Kenilworth, Roselle, Roselle Park, Union and part of Linden in Union County.
McIver joins Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman in the 12th District and Mikie Sherrill in the 11th as the state’s female representatives. Still, despite women comprising more than half the state’s population, they make up just one-quarter of House members and 21% of all federal representatives (including U.S. senators).
It’s possible female ranks will grow further in the next Congress. State Sen. Nellie Pou (D-Passaic) is replacing long-time Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr., who died Aug. 21, in the 9th District, which has also traditionally been safely Democratic. Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans 2 to 1 there and make up 40% of all registrants. Under state law, the timing of Pascrell’s death does not leave enough time for a special election to fill out his term so his seat will remain vacant until January. Pou will face Republican Billy Prempeh, making his third attempt for a House seat, and two independents on the general election ballot for a full two-year term in the next Congress.
