Runoff night in Jersey City with a shock in Ward E

Four wards in Jersey City had runoff elections today with three favorites winning in Wards A, B & C.

Denise Ridley is far ahead of Joe Conte in Ward A. Far ahead. She will take over for Frank Gajewski.

The boss shivved Chris Gadsden in Ward B, turning loose (and Gadsden put out the video to prove it) dirty politickers with former council member Phil Kenny and even council President Rolando Lavarro on scene where campaign materials were being 'fiddled' with. Mira Prinz-Arey sidled up to the Fulop machine and handily beat Gadsden today. Ward B loses a fine young talent on council in our opinion.

Ward C sees the return of Rich Boggiano who ran independently of Fulop but still won the runoff vs John Hanussak. Boggiano gonna Boggiano.

Which brings us to Ward E which will, for the next four years be "Unbought and Unbossed" as James Solomon pulls the upset over media and endorsement favorite Rebecca Symes. Symes had all the momentum, all the television ads, all the local endorsements from government groups, local businesses, style bloggers and even outgoing Councilwoman Candice Osborne. In the end the question Johnny asked on the first election night, would the Hudnut and Grillo vote move to Solomon and apparently at least some of it did. Johnny also heard from more than one person the whole ChicPea incident however well intentioned, didn't help. This was not Johnny picking that scab, this was people discussing it around him. There were also claims of a nasty push campaign in Ward E. We'll have time to go over all these races but tonight is, as an old boss of Johnny's used to call it, 'The quick and dirty" analysis.

The Big Show--Election night analysis

Well friends, the Cult of Personality has won and won big. Steve Fulop won by almost a 4-1 margin. Four more years of abatements for anyone who asks (More on the council later), sending thugs around to do his bidding and let department workers know what he expects on contracts and what not and another four years of swaths of Jersey City being ignored or given lip service like happened to Journal Square for over 30 years. Worst though is the finances that look great right now but aren't before too much longer. A lot of those first abatements to get people to buy downtown again are coming due and sadly because of the lack of city planning back then they'll come due at the same time a lot of them. More come off after that. That's when taxes go up and there's still never enough money to fix problems or invest in Greenville and other areas that are overlooked. Accounting tricks are great but there's always that moment of clarity where you realize how the trick works.

Do you really think the city can take close to $100 million off the city tax rolls downtown alone, hire more public servants, give the ones we have needed raises, pay rising insurance costs, not raise taxes for two years and not have a ticking bomb somewhere? Incidentally part of this time Mayor Fulop was looking at the governor's race and this year for mayor and optics mean you can't raise taxes. Not what's best for Jersey City in the long run, it's what's best for Steve Fulop short term. FYI if you're upset by Johnny pointing this out and want to bring up all the new buildings opening, yes, Mayor Healy can be proud of the ones opening now, these aren't Fulop buildings, these are the ones he railed against as councilman. Johnny's guess? This term starts out with Fulop once again forgetting who elected him as he eyes a bigger office, maybe Bob Menendez's job or a congressional run. He's done this very thing before when he sees something shiny. No reason to think that won't be repeated.

The council races went largely as expected. Incumbents and Fulop rubber stamps Rolando R. Lavarro Jr., Joyce E. Watterman and Daniel Rivera all won their At-Large seats quite comfortably. Great. Feel all that energy? Lavarro, who never met someone else's money he couldn't spend, will be trying to increase his visibility as he should be announcing he's running to replace Fulop in the next election by Friday.

In Ward A to replace the 'Gone fishing 4 years ago' Frank Gajewski, Denise Ridley and Joseph Conte will face each other in a runoff with Ridley's campaign running strong.

Ward B had maybe the biggest 'surprise' last night with new seat holder but incumbent Chris Gadsden, who has been a fantastic addition to council flush with new workable and smart ideas on school funding will face Mira Prinz-Arey, who outpolled Gadsden last night.

Despite one of the worst answers to a question about his independence from Steve Fulop, John Hanussak got enough votes to win a runoff in Ward C with incumbent and Fulop burr under the saddle Richard Boggiano. Our guess is Boggiano holds this seat at first glance but he's only ever one grumpy moment away from perhaps not.

Michael Yun will continue to serve Ward D with honor and distinction and continue to drive Fulop spokesperson Jennifer Morrill batshit.

Ward E (and you may be hearing more on this race in the upcoming days--maybe) brings the fourth runoff between top vote getter Rebecca Symes and James Solomon. Big question here is can Solomon coalesce the Hudnut and Grillo vote into enough support to win.

 Ward F also returns a good councilman, Jermaine Robinson who was never really headed in his race.

There you have it friends, election night in Jersey City 2017, a good night for team Fulop in November that could still go wrong on a night in December.

It's at this point we start thinking either Grillo or Symes has been thinking to a runoff

Johnny has had a hunch, pretty much backed when both Nicholas Grillo and Rebecca Symes, both candidates for Ward E refused to address the question Johnny posed to them for over a week on Twitter if they would accept any money or other support from Steve Fulop  should they be involved in a runoff vs either James Solomon or Jake Hudnut. It's sad it's come to this but since neither would answer a yes or no question as both Hudnut and Solomon did (in the negative) we have to wonder if they've been thinking about it or perhaps even spoken with the Fulop administration about an endorsement.

How about it, Nicholas, Rebecca?

Great debate tonight from the Ward E candidates

Jake Hudnut, Nicholas J. Grillo, James Solomon and Amanda Symes all gave a fine accounting of themselves and their ideas for Ward E tonight in the Hudson Media Group Ward E debate (Which if you click this handy link you can rewatch the debate AND see the debates from Wards A, B, C & D) and help make an informed choice come election day.

While all four come from the progressive range of the political spectrum there were differences you'll want to watch and learn from. Johnny is not going to prejudice your viewing. They'll be touching on tax abatements, schools, the lack of funding for schools, safe streets and bike lanes, affordable housing, the disaster that was the idea to roll Jersey City Parking into the city constraints among other issues facing residents.

Good stuff.