18 candidates file for upcoming Orange election

ORANGE, NJ —

Monday, March 7, was the filing deadline for candidates running for mayor and three open at-large seats on the Orange City Council in the May 10 nonpartisan municipal election, and several nominating petitions were turned in at the City Clerk’s Office at Town Hall.

According to Joyce Lanier, the city clerk, the three mayoral candidates who turned in petitions are incumbent Mayor Dwayne Warren, former Zoning Board member Janice Morrell and East Ward Councilman Kerry Coley.

As for at-large City Council candidates, 15 people filed, including: incumbents City Council President April Gaunt-Butler, Vice President Elroy Corbitt and Councilwoman Donna K. Williams; former Councilman at large Rayfield Morton; former West Ward Councilman Hassan Abdul-Rasheed; former Councilman at large and current Orange Housing Authority Commissioner Coram Rimes; Adrienne Wooton; Andrea Elliott; Merlin Hackett, the son of former

Mayor Mims Hackett Jr.; Jeffrey Wingfield, the brother of Public Works Supervisor Raymond Wingfield and Warren’s cousin; and newcomers Vanessa Arroyave, Ashley Cartwright, Christopher Jackson, Joseph Juliano and Sharief Williams.

Corbitt said he is running for re-election to a third consecutive term alone as an independent candidate. However, since the May election is nonpartisan, party affiliation will not be a factor.

“I turned in petitions and I am running for re-election,” said Gaunt-Butler on Tuesday, March 8. “I

truly enjoy serving the residents of Orange and hope they’ll return me to elected office to continue the work I’ve started.”

Gaunt-Butler was part of Warren’s successful 2012 ticket, along with Corbitt, but though the mayor turned in his petitions on Monday, March 7, he has not indicated whether he will form a re-election slate with anyone else.

Donna Williams is running for re-election to a third consecutive term on Coley’s slate, along with Arroyave and Jackson. Four years ago, Williams teamed up with Morrell to get re-elected, although the Morrell lost her bid for mayor to Warren. This time around, Morrell heads up a

slate that includes Morton, Elliott and Williams.

“To me, Orange is my house; if I want somebody to lead in my house, it’s going to be somebody who cares about the house and everybody in it,” said Morton on Friday, March 4, outside Christian Pentecostal Church in Irvington, where the funeral for My Father Knows Best founder Ron Alston took place. “The thing is, everytime you go outside of the house, you’re going to have

problems, because the family is not first. I’m always one to push Orange people but I even find, with Orange people, you’ve got to know those people and know their heart. Is this person trying to help the city or help themselves?”

“I’ve been in Orange for 48 years,” said Hackett, who is running a solo campaign for one of the council seats, on Monday, March 7. “It’s a town with great potential and it’s coming back. We’re taking Orange back and we’re going to move Orange forward. That’s why I’m running.”

Abdul-Rasheed, Wooton, Juliano, Wingfield, Cartwright and Rimes could not be reached for comment by press time this week. Warren is the only mayoral contender who appears not to have any running mates on a united ticket.

According to Lanier, she and her staff still have to sort through petitions and verify they are valid for the election, so there’s no guarantee that all 18 people who filed will be on the ballot May 10. Later in the process those prospective candidates who get enough petitions certified for the ballot will participate in a drawing conducted by the clerk to determine their individual and

group positions.

“We’re turning in some ballots for some people running council seats on the Coley ticket; the whole team, the Orange Home Team,” said Orange Democratic County Committee Chairwoman Shelley Alexander on Monday, March 7, at the Clerk’s Office. She said she had turned Donna Williams’ petitions in, as well. “We wanted to make sure we met the timeline. We needed 161 petitions.”

“We need 161 to get certified,” said Jackson on Monday, March 7, who added he is glad the 2016 election season is officially under way. “We’re already certified, but we just wanted to get extra, in case some of our petitions had been challenged.

“We’re all from Orange and this is my first time running for elected office. I’ve known Kerry (Coley) for a while. I’m on the Zoning Board of Adjustment, as well as the Citizen’s Budget Advisory Committee and I’ve watched how Kerry Coley conducts himself on the council, so when I was approached by him and another councilman, Harold Johnson, as to whether or not

I’d be willing to join the team, after helping them understand I’m not one to go along to get along and that I’d be a man of my own mind, we discussed some of what our plans would be for Orange.”

Jackson said the Coley team intends to reunify Orange city government, so the mayor and council “work together in the best interests of Orange” and are not at odds “the way they are now.”

Corbitt said he thinks he has a very good chance of getting re-elected, though he’s running alone this year, because he knows how to run a winning campaign.

“I truly enjoy serving the citizens of Orange in the capacity of councilman at large,” said Corbitt on Monday, March 7. “I have a genuine passion for helping people and I care deeply about the safety of our residents. For these reasons, I have held several seminars on expungement, in an

effort to provide an opportunity to individuals with a minor offense to have that record sealed and to give those individuals a chance to obtain and hold on to employment. I have also been part of several rallies against gun violence. I have also rallied around our youth and work very closely

with them.”

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