Two county Democratic organizations have announced their endorsement convention schedules in the special election for Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill’s 11th congressional district: Essex County Democrats will hold their convention on December 2, and Morris County Democrats will do so on December 14.
In Essex County, the endorsement vote will be conducted via Zoom among elected district leaders who live in the 11th district. Candidates interested in seeking the endorsement must submit a letter of intent to run by 5 p.m. on November 30.
At the end of the convention, the top vote-getter will be recommended to Essex County Democratic Chair LeRoy Jones for the organization’s official endorsement. There will be no runoff, meaning that the winner could receive the endorsement with far less than 50% of the vote.
In Morris County, the convention will be conducted in-person among elected committeemembers and other local party leaders; candidates must submit their intention to screen for the endorsement by 5 p.m. today, with virtual screening interviews taking place next week.
The convention will be conducted using ranked-choice voting, an important detail given how crowded the field is. Convention participants will be given the ability to rank their preferred candidates, and if no candidate reaches 50% in the first round, ranked votes will be reassigned until one candidate crosses that threshold.
Whichever Democratic candidate wins the Morris endorsement will receive the county party’s “formal endorsement and full organizational support.” They will not, however, be given the use of the party’s official ballot slogan thanks to the rapid pace of the special election schedule; by the time the organization awards its endorsement, the December 1 filing deadline for the primary will have long since passed, and the ballot drawing will only be two days away.
Passaic County Democrats, who make up the remainder of the 11th district (albeit a far smaller portion than Essex or Morris), will, as usual, determine their endorsement via a leadership-dominated screening committee, the timing of which has not yet been determined.
At least 14 Democrats are running in the February 5 special election primary, all of them with roots in different parts of the district.
Morris County candidates include Morris Township Committeeman/former Mayor Jeff Grayzel, Chatham Councilman Justin Strickland, former Army paratrooper Zach Beecher (Morristown), former Morristown mayor and perennial candidate Donald Cresitello, former congressional staffer Marc Chaaban (Montville), and activist Anna Lee Williams (Morristown).
In Essex County, there’s Essex County Commissioner Brendan Gill (D-Montclair), former top Bernie Sanders staffer Analilia Mejia (Glen Ridge), Maplewood Committeeman/former Mayor Dean Dafis, Obama administration alum Cammie Croft (Montclair), and comedian and attorney J-L Cauvin. And Passaic County has two local candidates: Passaic County Commissioner John Bartlett (D-Wayne) and Lieutenant Gov. Tahesha Way (Wayne).
Former Rep. Tom Malinowski, who represented parts of western Morris County as well as the Essex County town of Millburn during his time representing the neighboring 7th district in Congress, is also running.
Then again, there’s no guarantee that any county party’s endorsement will go to a local politician. Sherrill is from Montclair in Essex County, but she easily won the Morris Democratic convention during her first run for Congress in 2018, and quickly became a beloved figure among the county’s Democrats.
This story was updated at 10:50 a.m. with information about the Essex Democratic convention.
