Garcia-Bledsoe-Johnson Unity Slate Powers to Victory in Newark School Board Election
At the edge of a return to local control and local oversight of a billion dollar budget and their own powers to bring in a superintendent, Newarkers tonight voted Josephine Garcia, Reginald Bledsoe and Flo Johnson onto the Newark School Board.
After decades of state-control and an advisory capacity-only school board, Newark will resume local governance of the 35,000-student school district as early as the fall. Garcia, Bledsoe and Johnson will be part of that new history, voters deemed in a rain-dreary but competitive contest.
The worry all day for charter schools advocate Johnson was her poor ballot drawing, which posted her 15th in a field of 15 contestants. Team members Bledsoe (hand-picked by the political team of Mayor Ras Baraka) and Garcia (hand-picked by the political team of North Ward Councilman Anibal Ramos) posted five and six on the ballot, making them easily identifiable and accessible to voters.
Ultimately, through some late palpitations, Johnson prevailed for the third spot and the gang headed over to Don Pepe’s for post-election festivities.
The full unofficial results from the office of Essex County Clerk Chris Durkin:
| 78/108 72.22% |
| Under Votes | 2019 | |
| Over Votes | 0 | |
| Vote Count | Percent | |
| NP – Swapan BASU | 547 | 3.57% |
| NP – Philip C. SEELINGER | 866 | 5.66% |
| NP – Jimmie WHITE | 436 | 2.85% |
| NP – Sharon SMITH | 331 | 2.16% |
| NP – Josephine C. GARCIA | 2,878 | 18.80% |
| NP – Reginald BLEDSOE | 2,656 | 17.35% |
| NP – Denise COLE | 759 | 4.96% |
| NP – Charles LOVE | 1,188 | 7.76% |
| NP – Patricia J. BRADFORD | 1,057 | 6.90% |
| NP – Deborah TERRELL | 1,113 | 7.27% |
| NP – Sheila MONTAGUE | 554 | 3.62% |
| NP – EZDehar ABU HATAB | 230 | 1.50% |
| NP – Jameel IBRAHIM | 135 | 0.88% |
| NP – Ryan TALMADGE | 363 | 2.37% |
| NP – Flohisha JOHNSON | 2,178 | 14.23% |
| Write-In | 20 | 0.13% |
| Total | 15,311 | 100.00% |
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