Discouraged by soggy skies and a lack of competitive races, a few thousand residents voted in person in the June 2 primary for the Democratic and Republican nominees for Hudson County executive and state assemblymen for District 33. According to preliminary numbers released by the Hoboken City Clerk’s Office, 1,157 Hoboken residents voted in that race.
For the two Assembly seats in District 33, which includes Hoboken, Weehawken, Union City, and parts of northern Jersey City, Raj Mukherji and Annette Chaparro ran unopposed for the Democrats and Garrett Simulcik Jr. and Javier Sosa ran unopposed for the Republicans.
In Hoboken, Chaparro received 750 votes, Mukherji received 681, Sosa received 87, and Simulcik received 85, according to the preliminary numbers.
Mukherji is seeking his second term, and Chaparro, a Hoboken city employee, replaces current Assemblyman Carmelo Garcia, who was dropped from the Hudson County Democratic Organization (HCDO) ticket in March and declined to try to keep his seat by running off the line.
For the Hudson County executive seat, incumbent Thomas DeGise ran unopposed for the Democrats and Ivan Sutherland ran unopposed for the Republicans. In Hoboken, DeGise received 720 votes and Sutherland received 82, according to the preliminary numbers.
Hoboken Democrats also voted for male and female committeepersons for the 40 electoral districts that make up Hoboken. As covered in The Hoboken Reporter two weeks ago, the 80-member committee will meet on Monday to pick the Hoboken Democratic Party chair for the next two years, a position coveted by some local politicos.
The vast majority of candidates for committeeperson ran unopposed on the HCDO line, which was picked by current Hoboken Democratic Party Chairman Jamie Cryan. The candidates Cryan picked were generally considered to be opposed to Mayor Dawn Zimmer and her allies.
Two races were contested. In District 5-3, Zimmer-affiliated off-line candidates Phil Cohen and Melissa Abernathy beat out HCDO candidates Vincent Rossi and Melissa Blanco, while in District 2-2, HCDO candidates Dylan Archilla and Susan Costomiris held off a challenge from off-liners Kenneth Nilsen and Katherine Prussack.
Zimmer-affiliated write-in candidates won committee seats in several districts where there was no candidate on the HCDO line. The write-in winners included Lon O’Sullivan in district 2-5, Stacy Mello in district 4-2, Patricia Kelly in district 5-2, and Zimmer herself in district 4-5.
There are bigger elections to come in town. The nominees for state Assembly and county executive will face off, along with nonpartisan candidates for Hoboken’s six City Council wards and three seats on the Hoboken school board, in the Nov. 3 general election.
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