BAYONNE – It was a love fest at the Villa Maria catering hall on Broadway on Tuesday, March 10, as three candidates in the June Democratic primary were introduced and each proclaimed how happy they were to be running with the others.
Bayonne native Nicholas Chiaravalloti and Denise Ridley will be vying for Assembly seats in the 31st District, which encompasses Bayonne and part of Jersey City, and County Executive Thomas DeGise is seeking to retain his post.
All three are running on the Hudson Country Democratic Organization line on June 2. The HCDO announced the picks at a press conference at the Brennan Court House in Jersey City on Friday, March 6.
Chiaravalloti and Ridley replace incumbents Jason O’Donnell and Charles Mainor on the HCDO line. Neither man has dropped out of the Assembly race.
Chiaravalloti is a former state director for U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez, D-NJ, and is an executive at St. Peter’s University in Jersey City. Ridley graduated from Marist High School in Bayonne and Hampton University in Virginia and is a real estate agent.
“I honestly believe that working together we can more to make a difference,” Chiaravalloti said.
“You have people here that are ready to work for you,” Ridley said.
“We’re developing quite a bench and quite a future for forays into politics,” DeGise said of the relatively young HCDO newcomers such as Chiaravalloti, 42, and Ridley, in her early 30s, and others.
HCDO candidates launch their campaign with Bayonne event
