Tomorrow, well-liked Jersey City Councilwoman Denise Ridley will declare her intention to run for reelection to a third term with mayoral candidate James Solomon.
This is a significant win for Solomon, the downtown city councilman who will run in the nonpartisan municipal election in November against former governor James E. McGreevey, Hudson County Commissioner Bill O. Dea, Council President Joyce Watterman, and former school board president Mussab Ali.
Leading by 20 points in the initial election and then winning 67% of the runoff for the seat of departing Councilman Frank Gajewski, Ridley was elected to her seat in 2017 as a member of Mayor Steve Fulop’s slate. In 2021, she defeated former Jersey City teacher’s union head Kristen Zadroga-Hart by a vote of 65%.
Ridley will run against Pamela Johnson, head of the Anti-Violence Coalition of Hudson County, and Brandi Warren, director of the New Jersey City University Center for Teacher Preparation, in an attempt to retain her Ward A seat. Johnson is on O Dea’s slate, while Warren is running alongside McGreevey.
