New York isn’t the only city electing a mayor on Tuesday — it’s not even the only one with a scandal-marred former governor as a candidate.
Jersey City, located directly across the Hudson River from Manhattan, is voting for a new mayor and Council. There’s a crowded field of candidates since current Mayor Steve Fulop is term-limited (and will soon be commuting to his new job as head of the Partnership for New York City.)
The city’s elections are nonpartisan, but all the viable candidates are Democrats. The contenders include Hudson County Commissioner Bill O’Dea, Councilmember James Solomon, former School Board member Mussab Ali and former New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey.
If McGreevey’s name sounds familiar, it’s because he made national headlines when he resigned in 2004 after famously coming out as a “gay American.” McGreevey had an extramarital affair with a man he tried to appoint as his Homeland Security director without any qualifications. McGreevey’s administration was also wrapped up in numerous other scandals at the time and his competitors have been reminding voters of that throughout the election season.
For one McGreevey canvasser, those attacks may have worked. Doaa Amer, 18, was stumping for the McGreevey campaign but said her T-shirt did not indicate whom she was voting for. Her biggest concern was the new mayor doing something “to provide food for families in need.”
Nas Mallett, a 31-year-old self-identified “Jersey Boy,” was split between Mussab Ali, Bill O’Dea and James Solomon. McGreevey, he said, was a no-go. He said doesn’t like that McGreevey is a “career politician.”
Ultimately, he voted for Ali, “because I think it’s dope to have that young energy in, and he’s like around my age, he’s from Jersey City, and he has actual policy plans that he talked about.”
Still, he said, he’d be OK with O’Dea or Solomon, too. Ultimately, he doesn’t think anybody is going to hit 51% and that the race will end up in a run-off.
He’s probably right. In Jersey City, if no one cracks 50% plus 1 vote, the election goes to a runoff in December between the top two vote-getters. There’s been no independent polling in the race, but candidates have been releasing their internal polling throughout the election cycle and none have come close to 50%. A lot of voters are undecided, but otherwise it’s been a consistent three-way race between O’Dea, Solomon and McGreevey.
Kat Choate moved to Jersey City from Brooklyn and said that scenario would have been a great opportunity for ranked-choice voting, which New York City started using in 2021.
“There were sort of three front-runners who were tied for mayor, so it felt weird to have to make, like, a strategic decision about who could feasibly make it … versus who most closely, specifically matched with our like positions,” Choate said. “I voted O’Dea ultimately.”
Rosalyn Riley called the mayor’s race a “hard choice.” Affordability was her top issue. “In Jersey City we just see a lot of people being priced out,” she said. “I would like to see more of us, more people being able to get their homes. … My kids can’t even afford to buy a home.”
It came down to housing for Mindalia Green, 55, too. She was born and raised in Jersey City and said she voted for O’Dea.
“The rent is too high,” she said, noting lives by herself and has to work two jobs to make rent. “Something needs to be done.”
Donal McGeady, 32, has been inundated with text messages and knocks on his door throughout the campaign season. “It’s certainly been an interesting election, so I think it’ll be close,” he said.
Though McGeady wouldn’t say whom he voted for, he did give a hint: “I guess I could say I believe in second chances.”