Essex County Gets the Entitled Candidate Elected
Bloomfield’s Must-Have Mayor Mundell
In the 2025 New Jersey Governor’s race, we have 6 viable Dem candidates. It’s a new world for us and the chronic voter apathy needs to be reversed. We need democratic voter action.
In June, New Jersey will decide without ballot lines and without newspapers who our November candidate will be. This Governor’s race is an intelligence test—an intelligence test that the powerful politically connected hope we will fail.
Bloomfield is the central artery of Essex County and New Jersey party bosses. Understand us, and you'll know who (or who not to) vote for for Governor. At the heart of this story is electioneering. The right to vote in free and fair elections is the cornerstone of our democracy. We have rules regarding law enforcement activity at polling places, early voting sites, as well as the importance of protecting voters from intimidation and coercion.
To understand this story, we go back to June 1st during the primary and then even earlier to one year ago, January 2024 in our Bloomfield Town Council.
June 1st, A parade of adults and children chanting on the sidewalks
In my car, about mid-day, on June 1, 2024, this writer drove northeast on Glenwood Avenue. Then, while stopped at the traffic light at Lackawanna Place, witnessed a strange sight—on the sidewalk across the street, about 24 or 30 white European type folks (about 1/3 of them children), marched together and carried political signs, and proceeded to the corner at Glenwood.
The front end of the group stopped for the red light and my light turned green. As I drove past the group, I believe I heard them chanting “unfair.”
This was a somewhat surreal experience—white folks in purple t-shirts chanting unfair, teaching their white kids to be bitter about something—surreal considering the location, a neighborhood in Bloomfield New Jersey that was once considered undesirable with cold-water flats and dubbed “Negro Quarters.” This picture of their “protest” is now forever filed in my memory—especially the children, the purple shirts and the ghosts that still live in that neighborhood—but what’s happened since that day six-months ago haunts the ideals of what would be considered social justice and fair-election process.
This started one year ago.
In January 2024, after former Bloomfield Mayor Michael Venezia ascended in the previous November election to become Assemblyman Venezia, a contentious mayoral replacement meeting occurred among the powers of our Local Dem Committee. Verbal posturing, one straw poll, more verbal arguments, and finally a vote by the Town Council folks at a publicly announced council meeting elected Councilman Ted Gamble to be the interim mayor to finish Venezia’s remaining term. (This writer was there that day.)
Newly elected Mayor Gamble’s election did not sit well with the leaders in power of our Essex County Democratic Committee. Former Mayor Venezia [now our Assemblyman and to-this-day-still (1/6/2024) our Bloomfield Dem Committee Chair] called it a “power grab.”
The District Leaders of Bloomfield became a splintered group with some in the Jenny Mundell camp and aligned with The County Power and the “others.” The “others” had not yet grasped the reality that they are a meager few independent thinkers up against The County Boss Power, county power now threatened. This was January 2024.
[My story: by the June primary, I would be elected to be another of those independent thinker District Leaders too, but I digress. Let’s go back now to April, as the Primary Challenge runs in earnest.]
Nothing is too big or to small to get this candidate elected.
By April 2024, Councilwoman and Mayoral Candidate Jenny Mundell had a campaign office on Washington Street, a growing campaign war chest—a chest that would crest at over $100,000 by election day in June—and the endorsement of our NJ11 Representative, Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill. Yes, for some reason, our Congresswoman stepped in to endorse one candidate over the other—the other being at that time, the current interim Mayor Ted Gamble—the guy supported by the independent thinker District Leaders as well the majority vote of his Council in January 2024.
Historical throwback: In November 2022, we, meaning Ted & Jenni Gamble and this writer included, campaigned, canvassed, worked social media and supported Rep Mikie Sherrill.
Returning back to this recent year, by April, 2024, Mayoral Candidate Mundell had the public support of Rep Mikie Sherrill. And it was not just one announcement. Rep Sherrill enjoyed ongoing participation in Mundell’s campaign.
The meat of this story: the electioneering at the early voting site at Watsessing
On June 1st, at an announced rally at the Mundell campaign HQ, after pumping up some egos, Rep Sherrill left the rally, but the rally goers in campaign gear headed down Washington Street, turned on Lackawanna Place, and then approached the polls at Watsessing. At this point, a flagrant violation of campaign regs occurred with our ASM Michael Venezia engaged with belligerence that he had the 1st amendment right to do so. For at least one hour, Venezia argued with poll workers and his crew insisted upon entering the voting area with their campaign shirts. One rally goer removed her shirt, voted in her bra, and took a selfie.
The GOP Mayoral Candidate, David Tucker, brought a complaint to the Assembly Ethics Committee. The complaint listed electioneering at a polling place and disorderly persons offense. On September 17, 2024, the Joint Legislative Committee on Ethical Standards of the Assembly dismissed this significant, well-documented case of electioneering at the Watsessing early voting poll on June 1st 2024. The Committee stated it was not in their jurisdiction to judge Venezia’s behavior.
The Committee did happen to mention that in spite of both Venezia and Tucker’s statements including calling local Bloomfield Police and the Essex County Sheriff to the scene, neither law enforcement agency had a record of the event—that’s what these law enforcement agencies stated to the Assembly Ethics Committee.
How did the Essex County Sheriff not have any record of this event? The complainants also stated at the hearing that several calls were made to Essex County regarding any video cam footage at Watsessing and it was stated that there is no such footage, and “if we did have it, you would not get it.” (Statement by Candidate Russ Mollica at September 17th assembly hearing.)
In summary, this violation of election law witnessed by many and set into a complaint at the Assembly Ethics Committee:
has yet to be covered in main-stream media;
was dismissed by the State Assembly Ethics as "not in their jurisdiction;
The Essex County Sheriff & Bloomfield PD came onto this scene on June 1st, yet both offices deny having any record.
From X formerly Twitter October 31, 2024
On October 31, 2024, we once again reached out calling for witness to the June 1st Watsessing Poll violations.
November, Election day
Finally, on November 5, 2024, the entitled candidate was elected and interim Mayor Ted Gamble was unceremoniously dismissed by email on November 18 by The County Power. That evening Assemblyman Michael Venezia swore in now the next Interim Mayor Jenny Mundell and Council Woman Monica Charris-Tabares.
What does the future hold for local Bloomfield Candidates?
The County Power won, but for June 2025, it remains to be seen if one or all three candidates—Venezia, Mundell, and Charris-Tabares—may be in an uncontested primary.
How many folks have the guts to get their petitions going early in 2025 for the June challenge?
How much money and force will The County Power spend and use this time?
And in the meantime, will witnesses attest to the June 1, 2024 electioneering at a polling place and disorderly persons conduct? Please reply to The Bloomfield Chronicles bloomfieldchronicles@gmail with tips and information.
Additional photos & info
Historical Society of Bloomfield | Photo Gallery | Town Improvement Association (TIA) Lantern Slides |
Washington St Campaign Headquarters
The County Power, partial list:
LeRoy Jones, Joseph N. DiVincenzo Jr.
Reference:
https://www.nj.gov/oag/dcj/agguide/2022_Law-Enforcement-Guidance-for-Elections.pdf
This entire situation has given me nothing but anger and frustration as every election cycle produced the same results for far too long. This last mayoral election was a slap in the face to all Bloomfield residents whether they know it or not. More people need to know and under what has been going on and that they must pay attention and demand better of their "elected" officials or this cycle will only continue.