Game-Playing

I’m getting the distinct impression that the local Democrats are playing games with their own Democratic electorate in the run-up to the primaries.

My understanding is that the filing deadline for candidates is next Monday, April 7.

Councilwoman Mary Forbes made a specific reference, during the Democratic Club meeting, to her belief that the Democratic nominating process in North Plainfield is more small-d democratic than the Republican Club’s procedures.

The Republican Club chose its candidates last week by a selection committee nomination, followed by a floor nomination, followed by candidate presentations to the floor voters, followed by a floor vote, as posted here. By the way, if anyone knows the breakdown of that Gatto v. McGarry vote, many readers are interested in learning those numbers.

As posted after the Democratic Club meeting, Mrs. Forbes said that two delegates are elected from each electoral district in the Borough, and those people then gather together to consider applicants and choose the Mayor and Council candidates.

However, when I e-mailed her later for more detail, especially about the timeframe for those representative elections, she emphasized that the Democratic Club has nothing to do with the candidate selection process, and that she is not a member of the Democratic Committee, which is responsible for candidate selection.

She referred me to the state website for elections, which is far too general to shed light on North Plainfield’s selection procedures, and to Somerset County Democratic Chair Elia Pelios at eliap@mac.com, who has not yet responded to my Friday e-mail query, copies of which also went to all six Democratic Council members, five of whom have also not responded.

Dear Mr. Pelios-

I was referred to you by Councilwoman Mary Forbes, of the North Plainfield Borough Council.

I’m looking for information about how local Democratic candidates for Mayor and the three open Council seats on our Borough will be chosen.

The Republican Club completed its selection process earlier this week, and my understanding is that the primary filings from both parties and from independent candidates who gather 50 signatures on petitions, must be received by the Borough Clerk no later than April 7.

At a Democratic Club meeting last night, Mrs. Forbes mentioned a process through which two representatives are chosen from each electoral district, and they then form a committee to choose candidates.

However, I would like more detail, especially about the timeframe for the different steps in the process, so that I can inform local blog readers (www.npccr.org) about how they can get involved in the process should they be interested in doing so.

Any information you can offer will be most appreciated.

Thanks. – KW

Over the weekend, I poked around some more and discovered that the chair of the local Democratic Committee is Tom Fagan (Planning Board chair and member of the Economic Development Committee), who was present at the Democratic Club meeting last week, but didn’t make any public remarks about candidate selection.

I e-mailed Mrs. Forbes for Mr. Fagan’s e-mail address, and she wrote back to say she’d passed my request  on to Mr. Fagan.

What gives?

Are there written, duly-adopted Democratic Committee by-laws that lay out these procedures?

Do Mary Forbes, Tom Fagan, Skip Stabile, Doug Singleterry, Mike Giordano, Frank Righetti or Bob Hitchcock have current copies of those by-laws?

If they forward a copy to me, I’ll read it and figure out how the process is supposed to work.

But didn’t they all go through the selection process themselves?

Do they remember how the process worked, or not?

UPDATE: Response from Councilwoman Mary Forbes:

Regarding your recent posting, I do not have bylaws as I am not a member. The committee asked me to accept nomination in 2006 based on my record of service in the Boro and in another municipality (information provided to the talent bank when I moved to North Plainfield).

Thank you, Mrs. Forbes.

One Council response down.

Five to go.