A screening committee led by top Morris County Democratic Party officials has given its “strong recommendation” to four candidates running in the special election for the 11th congressional district – and none of the four are among the Morris-based candidates running.
Ahead of the county party’s December 14 convention to award its endorsement, the nine-member screening committee conducted interviews with every candidate running in the special election and sent out questionnaires to judge their policy know-how, their commitment to and understanding of local issues, and their ability to run strong campaigns. Each of the 12 candidates was then given a score out of 50.
Receiving the highest scores, and thus earning a “strong recommendation,” were Essex County Commissioner Brendan Gill (who scored 49), Lieutenant Gov. Tahesha Way (46), former Rep. Tom Malinowski (45), and Maplewood Committeeman/former Mayor Dean Dafis (42).
The next tier, “conditional recommendation,” consisted of Passaic County Commissioner John Bartlett (41), Bernie Sanders 2020 national political director Analilia Mejia (39), former Army paratrooper Zach Beecher (37), and former Obama administration official Cammie Croft (36). Finally, getting a “developing recommendation” were activist Anna Lee Williams (27), Chatham Councilman Justin Strickland (23), Morris Township Committeeman/former Mayor Jeff Grayzel (22), and comedian J-L Cauvin (18).
The recommendations, which the committee emphasized are not akin to an endorsement, are a notable snub of Grayzel and Strickland, the only Morris County elected officials in the race. Two other Morris County residents, Williams and Beecher, also landed well below politicians from outside the county. (Malinowski represented parts of Morris County during his two prior terms in Congress, though he’s never lived there.)
That’s strikingly different from how things have gone down in the district’s other two counties, Essex and Passaic. Essex Democrats awarded their endorsement to local county commissioner Gill, an endorsement that was so widely expected that his opponents tried to get their supporters to vote “abstain” instead of voting for them; Passaic Democrats, meanwhile, decided unilaterally to jointly endorse the two Passaic candidates in the race, Way and Bartlett.
But today’s recommendations only represent the opinions of the nine-member screening committee, which included Morris Democratic chair Darcy Draeger, vice chair Mike Delamater, and seven local elected officials and party leaders from across the 11th district.
When the full county party meets in Randolph on Sunday, the 12 candidates will have the ability to appeal directly to the hundreds of county committeemembers who will ultimately award the party’s endorsement. The vote will be conducted using ranked-choice voting, meaning that the winner will have to get a majority of the vote rather than winning a splintered plurality; at stake is the county party’s support but not its ballot slogan, since the deadline to change those has already passed.
See here for each candidate’s interview and questionnaire submitted to the screening committee.
FINAL CD11 Special Election Screening Committee_ Candidate Assessments
