The field for the late Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson)’s congressional seat could grow still larger, with Assemblyman Clinton Calabrese (D-Cliffside Park) strongly considering a campaign, the New Jersey Globe has learned.

Calabrese, a 38-year-old assemblyman who comes from a formidable political family in Cliffside Park, spent time discussing his options yesterday with party leaders in the 9th congressional district and will likely make a decision today. Calabrese did not respond to a request for comment from the Globe.

Pascrell died just two days ago, but because state law requires a new Democratic nominee for the November general election be in place by August 29, Democrats in his district are having to move exceedingly fast in the race to succeed him. Passaic, Bergen, and Hudson Democratic county committeemembers are set to meet for a convention next week, likely either on August 27 or August 29.

Three candidates – State Sen. Nellie Pou (D-North Haledon), Assemblywoman Shavonda Sumter (D-North Haledon), and Assemblyman Benjie Wimberly (D-Paterson), all of whom represent the same Paterson-based legislative district – have already said they’ll run.

Two other notable names, Bergen County Commissioner Tracy Silna Zur (D-Franklin Lakes) and Paterson Mayor André Sayegh, are looking at the race as well. Zur and Calabrese are emerging as the two main prospective candidates from Bergen County, which makes up a little under half of the seat; they’re also the only two potential white contenders in the plurality-Hispanic seat.

It remains to be seen how Bergen County Democratic committeemembers, who are likely to make up the largest county bloc at the eventual convention, will approach the race. They could support a Bergen candidate like Zur or Calabrese and attempt to win a county-on-county showdown; they could go along with Passaic County Democratic Chairman John Currie in supporting Sumter; or they could back a different Passaic candidate like Wimberly or Pou.

Whoever wins the convention will immediately advance to the general election; there’s no time to schedule a special election that would involve Democratic primary voters weighing in. In November, the new nominee will face Republican nominee Billy Prempeh, who lost to Pascrell 55%-44% in 2022.

3-minute read

Financial contributions to presidential campaigns poured in during July from New Jersey donors, new Federal Election Commission reports show.

The mid-August filings from the presidential candidates’ principal campaign committees show the total they raised from the Garden State this election cycle rose from $13.7 million to nearly $18 million during a tumultuous month that saw one candidate suffer an attempted assassination and another bow out to support his vice president. Both events respectively lit a fire under Republicans and Democrats.

Republicans, who had outraised Democrats by $8.1 million to $4.8 million through June, saw Trump’s campaign padded by nearly $880,000 from New Jersey donors in July, according to federal campaign finance data. Democrats, meanwhile, saw individual contributions out of New Jersey for their candidates rise by nearly $3.4 million. About $2.8 million of that total came between July 21, the day Biden dropped out, and the end of the month, records show.

Going into July, the Biden and Harris campaigns had combined to raise $4.7 million in individual contributions from New Jerseyans, while Trump had raised another $4 million. However, the GOP held an overall lead to start the month, as former Gov. Chris Christie and Nikki Haley, the former governor of South Carolina, combined to collect more than $3.1 million in contributions from New Jersey donors for their 2024 presidential campaigns, records show. The Vivek Ramaswamy, Tim Scott and Ron DeSantis campaigns also collected six figures from New Jersey donors.

The glut of July donations to Harris narrowed the gap considerably, though Republicans still held a total fundraising advantage of roughly $875,000 from Garden State donors to start August.

Retired donors go red

Federal Election Commission reports for the Trump campaign through July show the former president and GOP nominee has dominated in racking up small repeat contributions from New Jersey donors. One Roselle donor donated to Trump more than 1,100 times from July 2023 through July 2024, records show. Those contributions ranged from 59 cents to $70.27.

While that donor was self-described as a self-employed former account manager, repeat retired donors have been a driving force behind contributions to the GOP from New Jersey, records show.

Haley, who lasted the longest in the battle against Trump for the Republican nomination, took in nearly 10,500 separate donations totaling almost $1.3 million. More than half of those donations, roughly 5,600, came from donors self-classifying as “retired,” records show.

Haley’s donations from retirees outnumbered those for Harris and Biden combined through July by nearly 2-to-1 — it was 3-to-1 through June — but they still paled in comparison with Trump’s. By the end of July, retirees had made more than 67,000 individual donations to Trump’s campaign, including more than 1,800 from a single Bound Brook donor, records show. Retiree donations represented roughly two-thirds of New Jersey-based donations to the Trump campaign and more than one-third of all donations directly to presidential campaigns in the state through July.

The Biden and now Harris campaign, meanwhile, picked up roughly 23,000 separate donations from New Jerseyans self-described as “not employed,” records show. Fewer than 500 direct donations to Trump’s campaign came from people fitting that description. That total includes more than 100 donations from Trump’s regular Roselle donor.

NJ donors to presidential campaigns show trends

Other trends in the most recent campaign filings show that Harris and Biden have outpaced Trump in total donations from self-reported professors, lawyers and attorneys in New Jersey. Residents in general contracting, plumbing and some other aspects of the construction industry have conversely donated to Trump in larger numbers.

For the 2020 election, presidential campaigns directly raised more than $43.4 million from New Jersey contributors, with nearly $30.6 million of that total going to Democratic campaigns, federal records show. Biden’s campaign received almost $19.2 million from those Garden State donations, while Trump’s campaign raised $12.8 million. The totals through July for the two official Democratic and Republican nominees are $11.1 million and $7.9 million, respectively, below what was raised in New Jersey through the entire 2020 election cycle, records show.

During his run for the presidency this cycle, Newark-born Christie raised nearly $1.9 million in his home state from fewer than 1,900 direct individual donations to his campaign. The state-based contributions represented more than a quarter of his nationwide total. Christie’s fundraising in New Jersey benefited from large donations, though DeSantis had received the most donations of $5,000 or more in the Garden State through July, records show.

TRENTON, N.J. – The New Jersey state attorney general is changing the state’s use-of-force policy after two fatal police shootings of people experiencing mental health crises.

Attorney General Matthew Platkin says this is the first statewide policy of its kind and will require all police departments in New Jersey to coordinate with mental health professionals when they’re responding to a call for a barricaded person, a situation he says overwhelmingly involves people experiencing an emotional crisis and is the most likely call to end in an injury.

The policy will also require all New Jersey police departments to train their tactical teams in crisis negotiation and deploy them with what Platkin calls “less lethal force,” such as tasers and shields.

The state will also expand its “Arrive Together” program, which pairs police with mental health professionals to all departments for when they respond the type of barricaded calls involving someone having a mental health crisis.

Platkin said the changes will take effect as early as October.

Policy change comes following deadly shootings of Andrew Washington, Victoria Lee

In 2023, Jersey City Police officers shot and killed Andrew Washington, and just last month, Fort Lee Police shot and killed Victoria Lee. Both Washington and Lee had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and their families told 911 they were in the midst of a mental crisis.

Neither the Jersey City nor the Fort Lee police departments were enrolled in the Arrive Together program prior to those shootings.

“Do you think if those departments were already involved in the Arrive Together program that Victoria Lee, Andrew Washington might be alive today?” CBS News New York’s Ali Bauman asked Platkin.

“I can’t comment on those cases. But what I can say, learning from our experience overseeing fatal police encounters … We know that when you take a clinical and more enlightened approach, when you don’t ask law enforcement to do everything … We can save lives. We can produce better outcomes. We can produce environments that are safer for the individual who’s suffering and safer for the officers responding,” Platkin said.

Washington’s family has filed a lawsuit against the Jersey City Police Department.

Family of Victoria Lee calls for accountability for deadly shooting

Lee’s family released a new statement Thursday, calling for accountability for the July 28 shooting.