Title: The Jersey City Mayoral Race

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Brian: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. We've talked a lot about the New York City mayoral race, and we've talked a lot about the New Jersey gubernatorial race. How about the mayoral race in New Jersey for mayor of Jersey City, second biggest city in the state next to Newark, and the current mayor, Steve Fulop, is stepping down after three terms. Mayor Fulop failed to get the Democratic nomination for governor, you may remember, back in June, and he's moving on to a new job. He's going to be CEO of the Partnership for New York City, which is kind of a big business lobby group. You may know the name Kathy Wylde as the person who's done that for a long time.

Steve Fulop, interestingly, though, he ran as a progressive in the gubernatorial primary. He's now going to be taking over as the head of the business lobby in New York City. That means Jersey City is going to get a new mayor for the first time in 12 years. This is a very crowded, non-partisan race. That's the way Jersey City does it. If none of the seven candidates gets more than 50% of the vote, there'll be a runoff for the top two vote-getters on December 2nd.

Now, one of the frontrunners in the race is a name you know, even if you're not a Jerseyite, and that is former governor Jim McGreevey, who some of you will remember resigned back in 2004 over an affair with the man he appointed as a Homeland Security advisor and who threatened to sue him for sexual harassment. That scandal has been a punching bag for his opponents, as you might imagine. To talk about all the candidates and the big issues in this race is John Heinis, publisher, owner, and reporter for the Hudson County View. John, thanks so much for joining us. Welcome to WNYC.

John: Brian, thanks so much for the invitation. Pleasure and a privilege. A long-time listener, so very happy to join you this morning.

Brian: Thanks very much. Listeners, Jersey City residents, electioneering, welcome here. Who are you for, as early voting continues, or with any question on this crowded Jersey City mayoral race? 212-433-WNYC, call or text, 212-433-9692. What issue is moving you in this race, or again, any question? 212-433-9692. You want to run through the other six names briefly so people don't get the misimpression that this is an up or down vote on Jim McGreevey?

John: Yes, absolutely. Thanks. Basically, a lot of people believe that this is a three-horse race. The other two outside of Jim McGreevy are Hudson County Commissioner Bill O'Dea. He's a 40-plus-year public servant. He's been the Ward B City Councilman of Jersey City, and for the past 25 years or so, he's been the county commissioner. They were formerly freeholders. He's been a real advocate on the West Side. That's been the district that he represents, and he has a pretty good track record with his constituent services. He's also had a good track record of not necessarily going with the flow on everything. He's voted no on a number of budgets, he hasn't taken any salary increases.

Some call him a grandfather of reform, which is interesting because another guy in the race is Ward E Councilman James Solomon. This is a guy that obviously has been very progressive. He's been very far left-leaning. His support comes from downtown and, of course, a lot of voters down there are true-blue type of Democrats. Before James even ran for the city council eight years ago, he actually was doing a bunch of rallies that were anti-Trump and other causes that would reflect those kinds of values. He's anti-machine, again, a very true-blue Democrat.

Then you have Mussab Ali. He was the former Board of Education president. He's also running to the left, and his big attack point lately is that he doesn't take any donations from city contractors, and he's thrown that in Solomon's face a few times. He's also talked about, I want to be the guy that does the most development, but does it smartly. That's been his appeal. Of course, he's the youngest candidate in the race. He's at least, I'd say, about roughly 15 years younger than anyone else running. Interesting there.

Then you have Council President Joyce Watterman. She was elected to the council at large three times under Mayor Fulop's ticket. Other than that, she's had a tough time fundraising, and she didn't run a full slate of candidates for council. She doesn't really have a great campaign going, as far as I can tell. She's definitely a long-shot candidate.

Then you have this guy, Kalki Jayne-Rose, he didn't do any debates, he didn't do any forums. He's not present on social media, but he's on the ballot, and we're just going to have to see what that means. Probably a few hundred votes, if that. That's basically where we're at, and that's the dynamic. Oh, we also have police officer Christina Freeman, and she's basically running as someone who thinks that public safety in the city can be better, and also as someone who thinks the South Side has been underrepresented. She's also taken a bit of a controversial stance that says we should halt development completely for a little while until we get our house in order. I think that would cover the field of candidates.

Brian: All right. You're saying that there are those three leaders who I've read are tied in the polls at around 20%: McGreevey, Bill O'Dea, and James Solomon. Looks like we have O'Dea and Solomon voters calling in. Let's take a couple of phone calls from listeners. 212-433-WNYC with anyone you're supportive of, any questions you have, or what issue you think is the most important in the Jersey City mayor's race. 212-433-WNYC, 433-9692. Deborah in Jersey City, you're on WNYC. Hi, Deborah.

Deborah: Hi. Good morning, and good morning to John. I actually subscribe to his newspaper.

John: Thank you.

Deborah: I ended up going for O'Dea, but I didn't make a decision until about a week before early voting because my heart wanted to go with someone else. I think all the candidates are pretty good, except McGreevey, but Jersey City is messed up, period, everything, all issues. I want somebody that can step in day one and get the ball rolling. O'Dea, I didn't know a lot about him a year ago, but I started doing research, started hearing about him. He's a lifelong Jersey City resident. I've been here 35 years. He has done a lot and has a good reputation. He's just been quiet. He didn't brag about what he's done, and all the different people I've talked to in the forum.

It just came to the point where I think he has the best shot of getting Jersey City back to where it needs to be, or get it on the road to the right path. Unfortunately, I voted for Steve Fulop when he first was elected, and I actually volunteered in his campaign. That's a regret I have because the person now is like a totally different person than then. I want somebody that's going to care about all residents, whether they voted for him or not, that can get in there day one and start the ball rolling to get Jersey City back on the track it needs to be. That's why I ended up going for O'Dea.

Brian: Deborah, for you, what's the turn that Mayor Fulop took that you disapprove of?

Deborah: I think he stopped caring about the constituents. When he was a council person, I had a couple of interactions with him, which were great, and he was very positive. I haven't volunteered on too many campaigns. I think I've volunteered on like three in my 35 years here. It seems like he got jaded, or he just stopped caring for the residents.

Brian: On what issue? Top issue or two?

Deborah: On all the issues. There's no enforcement here. Our taxes have gone up. He just doesn't care.

Brian: All right. Deborah, thank you for your call. We are New York and New Jersey Public Radio on the Jersey City side now, in particular, as we talk about the Jersey City mayoral race with John Heinis, publisher, owner, and reporter for the Hudson County View. We just heard from a supporter of one candidate, Bill O'Dea. Let's go to Rebecca in Jersey City, who's calling in to support another. Hi, Rebecca, you're on WNYC.

Rebecca: Hey, Brian, and hey, John. How's it going? It's Rebecca Mistle. I'm a longtime activist in Jersey City, and really, I am supporting James Solomon for mayor. I echo a lot of what Deborah's points have been about, just things in Jersey City do not work. I, too, supported Steve Fulop at the beginning, had tremendous hopes for his mayorality, and have watched as taxes have skyrocketed and as the community has suffered, particularly outside of downtown.

To pinpoint why that's happened, it's because Steve Fulop was bought off by developers in Jersey City who don't pay their fair share of taxes. The only mayoral candidate who is not bought off by developers and who is prioritizing affordability of our city is James Solomon. I feel that he is a candidate who is going to be responsive to the people because the people are who are putting him, hopefully, in office and not the Kushners and not these other massive developers.

Look, Jim McGreevey is getting money from Republicans down in Ocean County. I think having an independent candidate who is not bought off by the machine or by these corporate interests is what the city needs because, to Deborah's point, 911 services don't work in Jersey City. You call 911, people wait 15 minutes to get a response. Not just 15 minutes for the fire department or the police to show up, but I mean literally dispatch, and this is a city where people are paying $20,000, $30,000 a year in property taxes. Things should work. Schools should work. Our schools are a mess. The buildings are falling apart. Lead pipes, vermin in the classrooms, issues like that.

We saw yesterday, my apartment flooded during the storm, other massive flooding happening because the sewage systems haven't kept up with the rate of development. It's why we need a mayor who isn't beholden to these developers, who can actually stand up to them and say, "If you want to build in this city, if you want to profit off of the land of this city, you need to be paying your fair share in taxes and you need to be providing affordable housing." The only candidate that I believe can do that is James Solomon.

Brian: Rebecca, thank you very much for your call. I'm going to play a clip of each of those three leading candidates in just a second. John, I'm curious to get your take on the commonality between the two callers who are supporting different candidates on how messed up the basic infrastructure of Jersey City seems to be. They're talking about 911 response time, about sewage systems that don't work, real basic stuff. For you, as the publisher of the Hudson County View, which covers just this kind of thing, are they describing the extent of the problem right in your journalist's opinion? Is it that bad?

John: Look, the point about 911, it can't be disputed. This has been talked about and covered by a number of publications for a number of years, not just one or two. The 911 dispatch, it's correct, what that caller said was true. A lot of times, you call 911, and it takes 10, 15 minutes just to get connected. I know steps have been taken to try to fix that, but the bottom line is it's still not fixed. It still doesn't work 100% of the time, and obviously, something as important as 911 should work at least 99.99999% of the time. What she said was true.

On top of that, you'll notice that every mayoral candidate has talked about a lot of quality of life issues, whether that's clean streets, whether that's the garbage vendor, that's something that's also been a point of contention. There's only been one person that's been on the garbage collection contract for a number of years as well. Then DPW operations and how the City Hall Annex is going to be used, and how they're going to run the Department of Public Safety. A lot of, again, quality-of-life issues have been very important in this campaign.

A lot of people have went out of their way to distance themselves from the incumbent mayor, as other callers have said. Just particularly with Solomon, he's flat out called this administration corrupt. He said there's a corruption tax in Jersey City, and he said it's costing taxpayers every day. He calls that corruption tax patronage at City Hall, and basically, fat on the land that needs to be trimmed, that he's vowed to do that in office. You've also heard that from McGreevey to a lesser extent. All the candidates you've heard talk against a lot of projects of this administration, like the Centre Pompidou, that big French museum at Journal Square that's gotten a lot of coverage over the past three, four years.

There was another iteration that's been in the works for about a year, ever since the New Jersey Economic Development Authority pulled their funding out of that project. Everyone has come out and said, "Under my administration, that's not happening. It's a waste of taxpayer money." There's definitely a healthy number of voters, in my estimation, that are going to be going to the polls and say, "Which person can bring me change? Which person can make Jersey City as great as it could possibly be?" That's definitely a sentiment that I'm hearing from voters.

Brian: Now, before we run out of time, often we play clips of candidates in these kinds of political race segments at the beginning of segments. In this case, I wanted to get you on the table to some degree, and then we got some interesting callers supporting the two of the candidates, because a lot of listeners are not from Jersey City, and I think probably appreciated the general background here. Affordability in Jersey City, as in so many places, has broken out as if not the number one issue, certainly a number one issue. We're going to play a little bit on that from each of the three leading candidates. Here's Jim McGreevey talking to Marcia Kramer on Channel 2 about his housing plan.

Jim McGreevey: I think, Marcia, we have to understand that the cost of rents and property taxes have gone up exponentially in Jersey City, not only because we have individuals coming from across the river from New York City into Jersey City. We have to do a couple of things. One, we have to designate a percentage of market rate. When we're looking at market-rate housing, we have to have affordable housing, workforce housing, where there's 20%, if not higher, when we're building market-rate and affordable housing.

Two, we have to work with our houses of worship, where there are mosques, where there are temples, where there are churches, to upzone. That is, if they're building senior citizen housing, if they're building workforce housing, allow them to go higher for their parishioners, for their members of their congregation. Three, we've got to look at distressed properties throughout the city and reclaim them, utilizing money from affordable trust fund. Part of this is as mayor, we have to be persistent and deliberate in the approach to affordable housing. I committed in the first 4 years, 1,000 units of senior citizen housing, 1,000 units of affordable housing, particularly for seniors.

Brian: Jim McGreevey with Marcia Kramer on Channel 2. Marcia also interviewed Jersey City Council member James Solomon, also considered one of the top three candidates. Here's his take on how to create affordable housing. At least 30 seconds worth.

James Solomon: You pass what's called an inclusionary zoning ordinance that says every large-scale development has 20% affordable homes in it, and then you set the rents.

Marcia Kramer: How much are they charged? [crosstalk]

James Solomon: 100%. We have a plan to make sure some of those rents are $1,000 a month. Some of those rents are $1,500 a month.

Marcia Kramer: How can you guarantee that the developers will do that?

James Solomon: Because they can't build if they don't. You force them to sign agreements, and basically, you can get tough on these guys who have built luxury-only projects year after year after year in Jersey City.

Marcia Kramer: What else do you have to do to make Jersey City affordable?

James Solomon: We got to protect tenants and keep them in their homes. We have corporate landlords that too often are jacking up rents 10%, 15%, even 20%.

Brian: Here's another 30-second clip of the third candidate who's considered in the top three. It's Bill O'Dea on his housing plan on PIX11.

Bill O'Dea: I have a plan that would create 2,800 units of affordable housing in Jersey City using state tax credits, low income housing tax credits, local incentives, state affordable housing trust fund, everything from developing a 12 unit, 3 story building, getting 20% of these high rises that are going up all over Jersey City to be 20% minimum, 30% to 60% area median income. I understand it. I know it. None of the other candidates come close when it comes to that issue.

Brian: John, as we run out of time, I just want you to give me another word on one of the other candidates who is not polling in the top tier, but polls often get things wrong, and it's the former Jersey City Board of Ed president, Mussab Ali. He has garnered millions of views on social media, and his campaign has been comparing him to Zohran Mamdani, as he's a Muslim progressive running against a former governor of a state who had to resign from office. Is it possible that Mussab Ali is tapping something the same kind of thirst for certain kinds of change and in certain demographics, including younger demographics, that Mamdani has been tapping in New York?

John: Yes. Just real quick on the clips that you just played, and I'll answer your question. I just wanted to point out that O'Dea has been very adamant that he's the only person that's actually built affordable housing. He just had a commercial come out where he called James Solomon "gentrifying James." He said no housing has come during his tenure on the council. It is hallmark of this campaign. I'm going to be the guy that makes Jersey City affordable, and I'm the only one that's actually has a track record of doing it.

I wanted to say that to your question about Mussab, look, his social media is great. I think he's only 27 years old, if I'm not mistaken, and he's a guy who clearly knows how to use TikTok. He clearly knows how to use Instagram. He's gotten a lot of publications that the average mayoral candidate would, like Teen Vogue, for example, he was just in this past week.

Is there a chance he pulls some surprises and maybe gets more votes than people expect? There's definitely a chance, but him getting in that top two is just going to be really, really tough. Jim McGreevey's raised around $5 million. O'Dea and Solomon have both raised over $2 million, and they've all bided the political and governmental sphere for decades. That just seems like a real tough hurdle to overcome in my eyes.

Brian: There, folks, is a little primer on the Jersey City mayoral race with John Heinis, publisher, owner, and reporter for the Hudson County View. Thank you very much for joining us. We'll see how it turns out on Tuesday and if there's going to be a need for a runoff.

John: There will be a runoff. [laughs] Thanks for the time, Brian. Really appreciate it.

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