EAST ORANGE, NJ — East Orange is a Democratic Party stronghold and this wasn’t lost on any of the victors of the Democratic primary on Tuesday, June 6, when East Orange City Council Chairman and 3rd Ward Councilman Ted Green received more than 90 percent of the vote against challengers John Thompson Jr. and Kenwyn Williams, allowing him to soundly win, 6,215 votes to 661 and 76, respectively, with 10 write-in votes.
According to Essex County Clerk Chris Durkin, there are 38,627 total registered voters in East Orange. Democrats are in the majority with 24,996 voters, while there are 13,107 unaffiliated and 524 Republican voters.
According to East Orange City Clerk Cynthia Brown, Green received 89.27 percent of the 6,962 votes cast in the primary. His Green Team in 2017 running mate, 1st Ward Councilman Chris James, ran unopposed and received 99.61 percent of the 1,273 votes cast, with five write-ins; 2nd Ward Councilman Romal Bullock received 69.39 percent of the 993 votes cast, with two write-ins; 3rd Ward Council candidate and current East Orange Board of Education President Bergson Leneus received 93.2 percent of the 1,533 votes cast, with two write-ins; 4th Ward Councilwoman Tyshammie Cooper received 99.75 percent of the 800 votes cast, with two write-ins; and 5th Ward Councilwoman Alicia Holman received 99.92 percent of the 1,209 votes, with one write-in.
Green will officially be recognized as mayor-elect after he wins in the general election Tuesday, Nov. 7. The East Orange mayoral seat and five council seats will be on the local ballot, in addition to others in the county and state. The Green Team is running on the same Line A ballot that includes 2017 Democratic Party gubernatorial candidate Phil Murphy; the candidate for lieutenant governor, former Assemblywoman Sheila Oliver; and the other Democratic primary winners.
The Green Team will be running unopposed, except for Leneus, who is being challenged by Democrat Mamie Robinson in the 3rd Ward. East Orange is different from other municipal governments in New Jersey operating by the Faulkner Act, because it has a 10-member city council composed of two representatives from each of the city’s five wards, rather than a system of single ward representatives and an odd number of at-large members to represent the interests of the entire city.
Normally, in Faulkner Act governments, the elections for mayor and city council seats using a ward and at-large system are set up in alternating off years, with the mayor and at-large candidates running at the same time, followed by the ward candidates two years later. The system is designed to ensure continuity within city government, when it comes to experienced elected officials in office, thanks to an overlap of terms.
Since there are no at-large seats in East Orange, the office of mayor and five ward seats are up for grabs at the same time; two years later, the other five ward seats will be contested. A “party line” endorsement from the East Orange Democratic Committee and Essex County Democratic Committee Chairman Leroy Jones, both of which Green and Team Green have already received, makes their victory almost a certainty.
Many have already taken to referring to Green as the “mayor-elect,” although the general election is still more than a month away. But Green and Jones said they are still pulling out all the stops and campaigning hard to win in November.
“I am very honored and I never ever take folks for granted, so I’m going to get out there and work just as hard for the general election as I did for the primary election,” said Green on Monday, Sept. 11. “I am very excited. I look forward to the upcoming election. We won by getting 91 percent of the vote, which is unprecedented in the city of East Orange.”
Green said it’s a “pleasure and an honor” to have the support if his constituents and he looks forward to being mayor of East Orange, the city of 3.9 square miles where he was born and raised.
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