This story was updated at 7:18 p.m. with the final list of candidates; Donald Cresitello failed to make the ballot.
The field for the special election in New Jersey’s 11th congressional district, vacant since Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill resigned from the House last month, is now largely set.
A whopping 13 Democrats have filed for the seat, the largest primary field for a single New Jersey House seat in years. Only one Republican, Randolph Mayor Joe Hathaway, filed to run for the Democratic-leaning district, essentially making him the GOP nominee by default.
All candidates had to file with a minimum of 500 signatures, a threshold that most of them easily surpassed despite the shortened timeframe for circulating petitions. (The threshold was increased from 200 to 500 at the beginning of this year; this special election will be the first time the heightened requirements will be in force for a congressional race.)
The deadline for filing an objection to any candidate’s petition signatures is on December 5, and all challenges must be resolved by December 10.
The thirteen Democratic candidates who filed to run are Essex County Commissioner Brendan Gill (1,700 signatures), Bernie Sanders 2020 national political director Analilia Mejia (1,509), former Rep. Tom Malinowski (1,501), Lieutenant Gov. Tahesha Way (1,280), Chatham Councilman Justin Strickland (1,110), activist Anna Lee Williams (1,089), Morris Township Committeeman/former Mayor Jeff Grayzel (1,042), former Army paratrooper Zach Beecher (999), Passaic County Commissioner John Bartlett (990), Obama administration alum Cammie Croft (948), former congressional staffer Marc Chaaban (849), Maplewood Committeeman/former Mayor Dean Dafis (719), and comedian and attorney J-L Cauvin (619).
A fourteenth Democrat, Morristown Mayor and perennial candidate Donald Cresitello, did file to run, but he submitted fewer than 200 signatures and was rejected on the spot. Cresitello had previously filed a lawsuit to push back the filing deadline for the seat, an effort that was rejected by a state Superior Court judge.
Besides Cresitello, no candidates who had launched campaigns for the seat failed to file; one other Democrat who had filed fundraising paperwork but hadn’t officially entered the race, Kennedy Pivnick, did not file.
As for Hathaway, his campaign filed with 1,627 signatures; he had already begun to consolidate local GOP support prior to today, and murmurings of a contested Republican primary never materialized.
The primary election for the seat, which includes parts of Morris, Essex, and Passaic Counties, will be on February 5, with the general election arriving on April 16. As is typical in New Jersey elections, candidates not aligned with the two major parties will have until Primary Day to file petitions to make the general election ballot.
Some candidates filed with ballot slogans, but many of them, anticipating upcoming Democratic county conventions that will confer official ballot slogans, are slogan-less for now. Essex County Democrats will award their endorsement tomorrow, while Morris Democrats will do so on December 14, though the Morris endorsement will not come with a ballot slogan due to timing issues.
