Six file to replace McIver in Newark's Central Ward

Six candidates have filed to run in a non-partisan November special election to fill the Newark Central Ward city council seat left vacant last fall when Democrat LaMonica McIver resigned to take her seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

This is the seat that launched the political career of 29-year-old Cory Booker, who ousted four-term incumbent George Branch in the Central Ward in 1998.

The real fight appears to be between activist Amina Bey, the executive director of the non-profit Newark Emergency Services for Families and a political ally of Mayor Ras Baraka, and former City Councilwoman Gayle Chaneyfield Jenkins, who ran against Baraka in 2018.

One of the candidates is a promising newcomer, Jhamar Youngblood, a former college basketball player who earned a postgraduate degree at Dartmouth, and helped Newark public schools develop mentoring software to help students during the pandemic.




https://newjerseyglobe.com/campaigns/six-file-to-replace-mciver-in-newarks-central-ward/