Noticias

It’s been a long year for Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-Newark), who won a special election to replace the late Rep. Donald Payne Jr. (D-Newark) last September, settled into Washington right as Donald Trump took power, and now faces controversial federal assault charges – but the seat she once held on the Newark Municipal Council still has yet to be filled.

That will at last change this November, when six candidates will compete in a nonpartisan election to represent Newark’s Central Ward. Today, McIver announced which of those six she’d like to see succeed her: Amina Bey, a community advocate with a long history in nonprofit and government work.

“Amina Bey is committed to making life better in Newark,” McIver said in a statement. “Serving the Central Ward taught me what it means to show up and fight for your neighbors; I know Amina is the kind of effective leader that can and will continue this work. I am proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with her and am hopeful for the opportunity to collaborate with her as I continue to work to serve NJ-10.” 

Bey is also, importantly, an ally of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, McIver’s political mentor; Baraka officially endorsed Bey earlier this month. Another Bey supporter is Assemblywoman Shanique Speight (D-Newark), who represents most of the Central Ward in the state legislature.

Bey’s most notable opposition in the November race seems to be Gayle Chaneyfield Jenkins, a former Central Ward councilwoman who gave up her seat in 2018 to wage an unsuccessful campaign against Baraka. (McIver was elected to succeed her that year on Baraka’s slate.) Jhamar Youngblood, Walter Jacobs, and George Tillman Jr. are running as well.

One other prominent local politician, Central Ward Democratic chair Andre Speight – Shanique Speight’s husband – had announced a campaign but decided not to run.

During last year’s congressional campaign, McIver declined to resign from her council seat until she was sworn into Congress, making it impossible for a special election to be held concurrently with that November’s general election.

Newark officials instead tried to schedule the election alongside the city’s April school board elections, but a judge refused, pushing it back to this November and keeping the Central Ward seat open for well over a year. (The normally nine-member council has been stuck at eight members as a result.) Whoever wins the special election will have to run for a full term during Newark’s regularly scheduled elections next May.

The Newark Municipal Council has proven to be a good launching pad for ambitious New Jersey politicians: McIver and Senator Cory Booker both represented the Central Ward; Payne and his father, the late Rep. Donald Payne Sr. (D-Newark) were municipal councilmen at one point in their careers; and Baraka held the South Ward seat before winning the mayor’s office in 2014.

The post McIver endorses a successor in Newark’s Central Ward appeared first on New Jersey Globe.