Home » Primary election June 8 has much to consider for Republicans

Primary election June 8 has much to consider for Republicans

by Amie Rukenstein

According to the Mercer County Clerk’s website, for the upcoming NJ Primary Election to be held on June 8, 2021, voters will be able to vote at their assigned polling location, or by mail, if you apply for a vote-by-mail ballot. Voters will not automatically receive a vote-by-mail ballot in the mail unless they have requested to receive a ballot for “all future elections.” Further information on elections can be found by clicking here.

In the primary, only voters registered with a party, either Republican or Democrat, can vote. The vote is to elect who will represent your party in the general election in November. The graph below shows the positions and candidates who will be on the primary ballots. 

For Democrats, there is only one contested election, which is for the female representatives to the Democratic State Committee – four people are vying for three spots. Most voters are familiar with the national committee for each party – the Democratic National Committee (the  DNC) and the Republican National Committee (the RNC). Each party also has representatives to its organization at the municipal, county, and state levels, which must be voted on. These positions are strictly political and will not be part of the general election in which one party representative runs against the representative of the opposing party.

For all the regular positions (governor, senator, assembly, commissioner, municipal council), every Democrat is an incumbent, with the exception of Kristin McLaughlin and Terrance Stokes, who were selected by the Mercer County Democratic organization earlier this year to campaign for seats formerly held by Democrats (former Commissioners were Pat Colavita, who retired, and Ann Cannon, who lost the County Democratic organization’s election).

The Republican ticket has much more interest to primary voters: four people are running to be the Republican candidate for governor, and six people are running for the three Commissioner candidate positions. At the municipal level, the only Republican running in the Hopewell Valley running is Ed (“Jack”) Jackowski who is running for Hopewell Township Committee. No petitions were filed by Republicans for either the Pennington or Hopewell Borough Council seats.

Election for Democratic Representative:
Governor (Vote for 1 of 1)Phil Murphy
State Senate (Vote for 1 of 1)Shirley Turner
General Assembly (Vote for 2 of 2)1.Verlina Reynolds-Jackson
 2.Anthony Verrelli
Surrogate (Vote for 1 of 1)Diane Gerofsky
Board of County Commissioners (Vote for 3 of 3)1.Sam Frisby
2.Kristin McLaughlin
 3.Terrance Stokes
Democratic State Committee Male (Vote for 3 of 3)1.YZ Zhang
2.Greg Politi
 3.Kelvin Ganges
Democratic State Committee Female (Vote for 3 of 4)1.Cordelia Staton
2.Scarlet Rajski
 3.Vanessa Sandom
 4.Ebony Witherspoon
Hopewell Borough Council (Vote for 2 of 2)1.Samara McAuliffe
2.Debra Stuhler
Hopewell Township Committee (Vote for 1 of 1)Julie Blake
Pennington Borough Council (Vote for 2 of 2)1.Nadine Stern
2.No petition filed for the 2d position
  
Election for Republican representatives
Governor (vote for 1 of 4)1.Jack Ciattarelli
 2.Hirsh V. Singh
 3.Phillip Rizzo
 4.Brian Levine
State Senate (Vote for 1 of 1)Susan Gaul
General Assembly (Vote for 1 of 2)1. Pat Johnson
2. No petition filed for the 2d position
Surrogate( Vote for 1 of 2)1. Douglas Miles
 2. Richard LaRossa
Board of County Commissioners (Vote for 3 of 6)1.Richard Balgoway
2.Michael Chianese
 3.Andrew Kotula, Jr.
 4.Joseph Stillwell
 5.Vlad Machevus
 6.Michael Hurtado
Republican State Committee Male (Vote for 1 of 1)Dave Fried
Republican State Committee Female (Vote for 1 of 2)1.Ileana Schirmer
2.Jennifer Williams
Hopewell Borough Council (2)No petitions filed for either position
Hopewell Township  (Vote for 1 of 1)Edward Jackowski III
Pennington Borough Council (2)No petitions filed for either position

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