Illustration by staff illustrator Sakura Siegel.
On November 8, Hudson County residents finished casting their in-person ballots and voted for their candidate. General elections for the U.S House Representative 8th, 9th, and 10th District, County Clerk, and County Sheriff were also held and the results are in.
Let’s look at and examine our winners.
County Clerk
E. Junior Maldonado of the incumbent of the Democratic Party won handily against his republican opponent Beth Hamburger with a vote tally of 53,994 to her 17,206.
Maldonado will be serving his second term as Hudson County clerk. He made history back in 2018 when he won his first term becoming the first County Clerk in New Jersey State history to be of Puerto Rican descent.
Maldanaldo has had a career that spans over 35 years in law enforcement and public service experience including seven years as a Detective with the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office and two years with the Narcotics/Gambling Strike Force. He also served four terms in a row as the Chairman of the Jersey City Housing Authority Board of Commissioners.
The County Clerk will oversee services such as real estate ownership/transfer, passports, public records, and is most importantly overseeing all elections within the county’s 12 municipalities.
County Sheriff
Frank X. Schillari of the Democratic party won his fifth consecutive term to continue to serve as Sheriff of Hudson County.
He received 54, 415 votes compared to his republican challenger Hussain Kolani who obtained 16,536.
Schillari is a lifelong resident of Hudson County, and a retired police sergeant and U.S. Navy veteran. He has served over 30 plus years in Law Enforcement including serving time on the county narcotics task force, the tri-state auto theft squad and the FBI Organized Crime Task Force.
He was recently sworn in to continue as a Special Deputy United States Marshall with the New York, New Jersey Regional Fugitive Task Force.
According to the Hudson County Democratic Organization some of Schillari’s accomplishments in his tenure has been shifting to a 24/7 patrol schedule for county parks and roads in an attempt to keep residents safe, adding more personnel to the Crash Investigation Unit to make streets safer and fostering better partnerships with other law enforcement agencies and the community.
US house Representative
8th District
Robert Menendez Jr of the Democratic Party won with 55,398 votes. Marcos Arroyo collected 18,447 votes.
Menendez Jr has served as a board member on the Hudson School Board of Trustees and as a commissioner of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Menendez also works as counsel at the national law firm Lowenstein Sandler.
9th District
Bill Pascrell Democrat beat Republican Billy Prempeh of 22,434 to 9,123.
Pascrell is a Military veteran serving in the Armed forces. He previously served as mayor of Paterson, New Jersey, and as a member of the New Jersey General Assembly. Pastcrell served as Representative for the 8th District from 1997 to 2013.
After redistricting he was elected to the redrawn Congressional 9th district where he has served since 2013.
10th District
Democrat Donald Payne Jr. received 41,603 votes Republican Candidate David Picnkney received 11,249 votes.
Payne Jr has served as a representative for the 10th district since 2013.
Prior to winning election, Payne Jr. was a two-term, at-large Newark councilman and the council president, as well as a three-term Essex County freeholder.
The U.S House Representative major job duties will be to raise revenue through taxes. Further, participate in committees to study bills, hold public hearings, get expert testimony and listen to votes so that legislation can be passed.
Hudson County favored the Democrats heavily in this election cycle.
Stay tuned as we will further analyze what does the election of these candidates mean policy wise for the citizens they represent.
