To end the custom of the county chairman giving party support after consulting with important elected officials and municipal chairs, Essex County Democrats will start hosting conventions to support candidates for the primary election.
These modifications come after office block voting was introduced in primary elections and county organization lines were abolished. The organization’s slogan will be allowed to appear on the ballot for convention winners.
The Democratic gubernatorial primary endorsement will be part of the first convention.
A pre-convention screening committee is part of Essex’s new procedure, and if a candidate receives 50% of the vote without a runoff, the committee will recommend them to the full convention. If not, no recommendation is given.
If no other candidate submits a letter of intent to challenge the incumbent, they can avoid screening and convention votes. LeRoy Jones, Jr., the county chairman, could then just give out the phrase.
Candidates cannot compete at the convention if they do not screen. Municipal chairs and advisory committee members, including Democratic mayors and elected state and local authorities, make up the screening committee, also known as the Steering Committee.
The first county executive election after a 1977 referendum that altered the structure of government was held in the spring of 1978, when a reformer splinter organization, Democrats United in Essex, hosted an open convention to support a candidate for the position.
Jeanne Graves, a co-chair of the Citizens for Charter Change movement and a former president of the Essex County League of Women Voters, and William Brach, the founder of the Brach Eichler law firm and a former East Orange councilman in the 1950s who assisted in leading the charter change movement, were two opponents of Assemblyman Peter Shapiro (D-South Orange) for support of the reformers. Shapiro’s support for the charter reform referendum increased Democratic County Chairman Harry Lerner’s animosity toward him.
More than 1,300 Democrats attended a Democrats United in Essex mini-convention in April, where Shapiro defeated Graves and Brach, who both dropped out of the campaign, with over 60% of the vote.
