From left, mayoral candidates Janice Morrell, incumbent Mayor Dwayne Warren and East Ward Councilman Kerry Coley listen on Wednesday, April 6, at the United Clergy of the Oranges mayoral forum.
ORANGE, NJ — Voters in Orange will have four incumbents and 12 challengers to choose from when they go to the polls on Tuesday, May 10, to cast ballots for their choice of mayor and three council members at large.
According to Orange City Clerk Joyce Lanier, Mayor Dwayne Warren is running for re-election to a second term in office against former Zoning Board member Janice Morrell and current East Ward Councilman and former Orange Police Officer Kerry Coley. Warren’s official ballot position is line 1A; Morrell is 2A, and Coley is 3A.
With three incumbents and 10 challengers, the choices are a bit more varied for the three available council seats. The three incumbents are City Council President April Gaunt-Butler, Council Vice President Elroy Corbitt and Donna K. Williams.
Gaunt-Butler and Corbitt are running for re-election as independents and are listed as 11B and 12B, respectively. Williams is part of Coley’s Home Team ticket, which also includes newcomers Christopher Jackson and Vanessa Arroyave; they are listed as 13B, 14B and 15B, respectively.
Former Councilman Rayfield Morton is running on Morrell’s Change We Need – Voice We Deserve ticket, with newcomers Andrea Elliott and Sharief Williams. Elliott, Williams and Morton are listed as 4B, 5B and 6B, respectively.
The last five candidates, running as independents, are Merlin Hackett, the son of former Mayor Mims Hackett, 7B; Jeffrey Wingfield, the cousin of Mayor Dwayne Warren and brother of Deputy Director of Public Works Raymond Wingfield, 16B; Joseph Juliano, 8B; Ashley Cartwright, 9B; and Adrienne Wooten, 10B.
Corbitt is also chairman of the council’s Public Safety Committee, meaning he is the council’s liaison to the police department. This puts him in a unique position to comment on the recent spate of shootings in Orange that led to the deaths of 17-year-old Davon Jones on Thursday, April 14, and 23-year-old Jordan Bryan on Monday, April 18, and which prompted Warren to mount an Operation Spring Cleaning public safety campaign on Wednesday, April 20.
Public safety and crime have been staples of arroyave agenda during his time on the council. He said the timing of the recent shootings only serves to punctuate the community’s ongoing struggle to prevent similar tragedies from occurring.
“The recent shootings in the city of Orange has hurt many of us to the core of our existence,” said Corbitt on Tuesday, April 19. “We wonder what must we do to stop gun violence. I tell people every chance I get how difficult it is to stop gun violence. I wish there was a method in which we install metal detectors on every block in town that would alert police headquarters or officers as they patrol the city. I know it’s wishful thinking, but that would help solve the problem.”
But Corbitt said since that is a practical impossibility, Orange residents are going to have to fall back on personal responsibility, accountability and cooperation that have served black and other minority communities in the past.
“Often times, people blame police for the gun violence and ask, ‘Where were the police?’ when a shooting occurs,” said Corbitt on Tuesday, April 19. “Fortunately, the police are not the blame. It’s not the police who are putting the guns in the hands of these individuals. I personally believe we, as mothers and fathers, have failed in raising our families and instilling core values and expressing the value of life.”
In 2012, Donna Williams teamed up with Morrell for her own re-election bid, but the latter lost her mayoral bid to Warren. Corbitt and Gaunt-Butler were part of Warren’s winning team that year, though they are running as independents in 2016.
Hackett said he is running a solo campaign for one of the three at large council seats.
“I’ve been in Orange for 48 years,” Hackett said 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.”
Morton said he decided to run for public office again this year, after losing his re-election bid in 2012, because: “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. “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?”
3 mayoral, 13 at large candidates vie in Orange added by Chris Sykes on
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