James Solomon has been elected mayor of Jersey City, the Associated Press projects.
Solomon, a progressive Jersey City councilman, defeated Jim McGreevey, who resigned as New Jersey governor back in 2004 after admitting to having an affair with a male staff member.
The race was called less than an hour after the polls closed.
Seven candidates originally ran on Nov. 4, but none of them were able to receive 50% of the vote, so a runoff election was held.
McGreevey concedes, says he doesn’t plan to run again
Solomon declared victory in front of his supporters Tuesday night.
“I believe in the people of Jersey City, and today that belief has been rewarded,” he said. “And we sent a message to the entire state of New Jersey that the people of Jersey City cannot be bought.”
He released a lengthy statement reading, in part, “Together, we’re going to build a more affordable Jersey City, where everyone has a chance to thrive and where the people are put first, not developers and special interests. My promise to Jersey City is simple: I will be a mayor for you.”
In front of his own supporters, McGreevey graciously accepted defeat.
“I want to say from my heart, I congratulate Councilman, now Mayor-elect, James Solomon,” McGreevey said.
When asked if he planned to run for office again, McGreevey smiled, shook his head and said, “No.”
Affordability was a key focus in Jersey City mayoral runoff election
The candidates were out in Jersey City neighborhoods on a rainy Tuesday to get voters to the polls.
McGreevey and Solomon are both Democrats, but party affiliations didn’t appear on ballots. That’s why they focused on a winning message that’s worked in other races — affordability.
“We are going to get tough on developers and force them to build housing you can afford,” Solomon said. “The second is capping rent increases and making sure if you’re in an apartment you can’t afford, you’re not going have the rent jacked up 15% in a year.”
“I want affordable housing, so when you’re going to build market-rate housing, 20% over that is going to be affordable housing,” McGreevey said, “and it’s not going to be separate, it’s going to part of the same building.”
Voters who made it to the polls told CBS News New York’s Christine Sloan they did so because they had serious issues they were concerned about.
“Just in, I think, 2022 alone, our taxes shot up by, like, 20, 30%,” Jersey City resident Mike Liu said.
“I don’t think anything is really that affordable anymore,” Jersey City resident Nisrit Osman said. “I think everybody in the house needs to be working to support one household.”
Jersey City mayoral candidates on the attack
Solomon painted McGreevey as a candidate backed by the political machine and developers. McGreevey called it a distraction, saying Solomon is the one in city government.
“Property taxes under James Solomon has gone through the roof, the highest property tax increases in the state,” McGreevey said.
“The people who have made Jersey City unaffordable are the developers and the machine bosses, and the developers and the machine bosses are backing Jim McGreevey,” Solomon said.
Both agreed on one thing — that the city needs safer streets and more police officers.