Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop, a Democratic candidate for governor, was a vocal critic of the county line while it was being adjudicated out of existence last year. On top of that Fulop has put together his own slate of candidates running against incumbents and party-backed candidates in more than half of the Assembly districts that will be decided on in the November election.
Assemblywoman Jessica Ramirez was elected on the county line two years ago in the 32nd Legislative District, which encompasses Hoboken and Jersey City. This year, she’s on the Fulop slate, a decision some insiders warned her against.
“I’m proud to be on his slate and it does take courage to not be with the machine, and to kind of be seen as a little bit of a rebel, ” Ramirez said, “especially down in Trenton as well, where the machine is still going.”
In the days of the county line, Assembly primaries, when they were contested, were rarely competitive. The Democratic race in the 32nd District has three slates of candidates. The one unaffiliated with any gubernatorial candidate or party organization has the candidates with the highest name recognition: Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla and Katie Brennan, a housing and planning advocate who took on the Murphy administration in its earliest days.
“We’re not going to represent the interests of the county party. We’re not going to represent the interests of a political machine. …Democracy has never looked like that in Hudson County for as long as I’ve lived here, which is a quarter century,” Bhalla said.
“Obviously, this is a new world,” said Hudson County View editor John Heinis. “If I told you as recently as two years ago that we were going to have a primary here in New Jersey where you have six Democrats running against each other, you would think that I was on all kinds of illicit substances.”
