Prospective East Orange 3rd Ward City Council candidate Mamie Robinson, right, was out collecting signatures on her nominating petitions outside the Langston Hughes Elementary School polling place on Tuesday, June 6, the day of the Democratic primary, so she can run against her fellow Democrat, current Board of Education President Bergson Leneus, in the general election on Tuesday, Nov. 7. She and Leneus are running to fill the 3rd Ward seat, which Ted Green is giving up in his quest to be the next mayor. She is running as an Independent off the Democratic Party line.
EAST ORANGE, NJ — Mayme Robinson is working both sides of the table at the general election on Tuesday, Nov. 7. She will be supporting East Orange Councilman Ted Green in his run for mayor, while opposing his Green Team running mate, East Orange Board of Education President Bergson Leneus, as the two vie for Green’s soon-to-be-vacant 3rd Ward council seat.
Green won the Democratic Party primary election on Tuesday, June 6, receiving about 90 percent of the vote against challengers John Thompson Jr. and Kenwyn Williams. He got 6,215 votes, compared to their 661 and 76 votes, respectively, with 10 write-in votes, in the overwhelmingly Democratic city.
Leneus is running to become the city’s first-ever Haitian-American councilman; he got 93.2 percent of the 1,533 votes cast with 2 write-ins in the June primary. Leneus ran unopposed in the primary because Robinson, a longtime Democrat, opted to wait until the general election to toss her hat into the ring as an Independent.
Robinson admitted she and the rest of her family members voted for Green in the primary and intend to do so in November, along with most of the rest of his ticket.
Robinson organized a 3rd Ward Community Forum for Thursday, Oct. 26, at 7 p.m. in New Ephesus Baptist Church at 175 Brookwood St. to formally introduce herself as another 3rd Ward candidate. Constituents may know her as a registered Democrat, former city employee and longtime resident of the ward she’s seeking to represent on the council.
She is scheduled to host a fundraiser at Bogie’s Lounge on William Street on Sunday, Oct. 22, from 3 to 7 p.m.
“I am running and I am not a write-in and the Oct. 26 forum is not a debate. I’m an Independent Democrat on the ballot and I am on Line C-11 and I’m giving the 3rd Ward residents the opportunity to meet me and ask me questions,” said Robinson on Tuesday, Oct. 10. “I am supporting Ted and Line A 100 percent on the state level, just not supporting their choice for the 3rd Ward on the local level. I am running as an Independent Democrat, so that the 3rd Ward residents have a choice as to who they want to represent them and not the only choice that was given to them.”
According to Essex County clerk Chris Durkin, there are 38,627 registered voters in the city. Democrats are the majority, with 24,996, while there are 13,107 unaffiliated and 524 Republicans. Those numbers might deter any other candidate from running against the city’s powerful East Orange Democratic Committee and its chairman, Leroy Jones, who also chairs the Essex County Democratic Committee, but Robinson is undeterred.
“I am already claiming the victory, because God is in the midst of it all and people are tired of the powers that be,” Robinson said. “This forum on Oct. 26 is not a debate. My opponent will not be there. This is my forum to give 3rd Ward residents the opportunity to meet me and ask me questions.”
According to East Orange City Clerk Cynthia Brown, Green got 89.27 percent of the 6,962 votes cast on Tuesday, June 6. His Green Team in 2017 running mate, 1st Ward Councilman Chris James, ran unopposed and got 99.61 percent of the 1,273 votes cast, with five write-ins; 2nd Ward Councilman Romal Bullock got 69.39 percent of the 993 votes cast, with two write-ins; Leneus got 93.2 percent of the 1,533 votes cast, with two write-ins; 4th Ward Councilwoman Tyshammie Cooper got 99.75 percent of the 800 votes cast, with two write-ins; and 5th Ward Councilwoman Alicia Holman got 99.92 percent of the 1,209 votes, with one write-in.
The Green Team is running unopposed in the general election, except for Leneus, who is being challenged by Robinson. Leneus could not be reached for comment about Robinson.
The Green Team is running on the same Line A ballot that includes 2017 Democratic Party gubernatorial candidate Phil Murphy, lieutenant gubernatorial candidate Sheila Oliver and the rest of the Democratic Party primary winners.
East Orange is different from other New Jersey municipal governments operating with the Faulkner Act, because it has a 10-member City Council composed of two representatives from each of the city’s five wards, instead of a system of single ward members and an odd number of at large members that are supposed to represent the interests of the entire city, the same as the mayor, instead of focusing mainly on ward constituents’ concerns.
In Faulkner Act governments, the elections for mayor and city council seats that use a ward and at large seat system are set up separately 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 in city government, when it comes to experienced elected officials in office, thanks to the overlap of the respective terms.
Since there are no at-large seats in East Orange, however, that means that the Mayor’s Office and five ward seats are up for grabs at the same time as they are this year and then, two years later, the other five ward seats are contested. So the candidates who get the “party line” endorsement from Jones are almost assured a win in the general election.
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