Cities tend to get most of the attention in politics and elections simply by virtue of their larger populations. As such, suburbs tend to be overlooked, but their political power, as a whole, is crucial if a candidate wants any kind of mandate to govern. Suburbs are also not homogenous voting blocs, to be taken for granted one way or another. Both the Ciattarelli and Sherrill campaigns know this and have been making strides to win over their visions for leadership with the state's smaller towns.

Readers may have heard the phrase “it’ll be a turnout election” for the governorship. Of course, every election is a “turnout election”—assuming, though, that opinions and views have become so hardened, and that defections are not largely anticipated, then victory is decided by whichever side of the aisle is the most motivated and energized. In New Jersey, Democrats still have the advantage over Republicans in terms of registered voters, but independents are a huge, critical bloc that both sides court to carry them over the finish line.

Former assemblyman Giacchino “Jack” Ciattarelli, 63, has been campaigning for governor for essentially 9 years now. He has name recognition and the full support of his party, including the endorsement of the president.

Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill, 53, a Democrat and navy veteran from Congressional District 11, came into her position by flipping her district from Republican to Democrat in 2018 and has sought to define herself as an independent within the party.

As far as being a turn-out election, Joe Biden performed very well across New Jersey, including in Passaic County where the suburbs run Republican and the more urban, demographically diverse cities run Democratic. As such, Democrats dominate county-level government, even though many suburbs are red. Unlike Biden, however, Kamala Harris fared poorly even in the Democrat-heavy Passaic County. Only three of the sixteen municipalities delivered a majority for her in 2024, whereas in 2020, only four of the sixteen municipalities went for Trump.

Jack Ciattarelli seeks to capitalize on the Republican gains made in the last election, but without a national race, the dynamic is not the same. New Jersey and Virginia are being eyed carefully across the country as barometers of national sentiment—the mid-term before the mid-term. But as far as Passaic County municipalities are concerned, how much of a local perspective is applicable to voters heading to the polls for governor? How would a Passaic County suburb be affected by a Sherrill or Ciattarelli governorship?

InsiderNJ spoke with Mayor Randy George, Republican mayor of North Haledon since 1999, about his take on the implications of the governor’s race for his borough. North Haledon, politically, votes about two-thirds Republican and one-third Democrat each presidential election. Governors and presidents come and go, but Mayor George has been re-elected for more than a generation. “Keep them happy, and they vote for you,” he said.

Could Passaic County be a bellwether for the election to come? Mayor George said, “The Republican leadership is giving us the message that if Jack wins in Passaic County, he wins the governorship. He didn't win it last time, and he only lost by a few points. If you look at the overall condition of the state, it's a blue state, and I don't think it's serving the public's interest. I think they're serving their own interest, an example being on affordable housing.”

Mayor George is hopeful that a Ciattarelli administration might back off from state mandates, especially on affordable housing requirements, and the mayor defended the autonomy and character of the borough. Democrats, he felt, “are trying to change the look of small towns. I believe they would like North Haledon, Haledon, Prospect Park, and Hawthorne to become one town like it was years ago, Manchester Township.”

Before the era of “boroughitis” in the late 19th and early 20th Century, Manchester Township was created when Passaic County was established in 1837. Over time, boroughs broke away from Manchester Township, creating Totowa and Hawthorne in 1898, North Haledon and Prospect Park in 1901, and the remains of Manchester Township became the Borough of Haledon in 1908. If Manchester Township still existed today, it would be a municipality with about 53,000 residents, or roughly equal to Wayne.

The power of home rule is very strong in New Jersey, and the resurrection of Manchester Township seems unlikely. But the mayor’s concerns are based, in part, on a real strategy to lower municipal costs through inter-municipal services agreements. The Sherrill campaign has floated the idea of potentially mandating shared services arrangements among certain municipalities as a cost-saving measure to address New Jersey’s affordability concern. Sherrill’s campaign chairman, State Senator Vin Gopal, had told InsiderNJ, “These are areas where we could protect employees and, at the same time, mandate the sharing of healthcare, waste management, snow removal, IT, landscaping, and so many other services, trying to make sure we can get taxes lower for a lot of people. There's no reason that every town needs to have a municipal court, or a lot of these services that we have right now, which are expensive to operate. I think we can make a lot of changes in this area. I've had some very good conversations with the NJEA and other public employee unions, and they understand that. I believe we could do it humanely and responsibly.”

Mayor George is, like scores of mayors in New Jersey, worried about state mandates for affordable housing requirements. North Haledon is already built up and a predominantly quiet town of single-structure houses in orderly neighborhoods.

“North Haledon held the line because of me,” George said, “because I work with everybody. I work with fair share housing, which I do not care for. They come into towns like bullies, they're suing 300 towns. We did everything we were supposed to do. I didn't stop the developments. Seventy people in town wanted the development not to happen on Belmont Ave, and I told them it was happening.”

The mayor said that he was glad the development was able to maintain an appearance that didn’t seem like it was overcrowding, set back a bit, and he abhors structures that come right up to the sidewalks.

“If you go to other towns you're like, what the heck? In Ridgewood, by the old Lincoln Mercury. When you open the door on the first floor, you hit a pedestrian. Is that good planning? Look at Little Falls and Totowa. Every time I drive through Totowa, I see another development on the road. They're not even renting, and yet they just keep building. I'm not for that.”

But even the feisty mayor picks and chooses his battles when it comes to state mandates. Towns have engaged in legal skirmishes for years, and without success. “The mayor of Montvale got towns to go with him to sue, and they came to us, and I said, ‘no,, you're not going to win.’ I can read the newspaper, and I have 24 articles of 24 towns that sued—and lost. They all lose. So, now they sued, they lost, they appealed, but they lost. Now they're going to the federal government. All they're doing is wasting money. I don't believe the federal government or New Jersey want any more suburbs. I think they want to get rid of the suburbs and fill them up with housing.”

There are competing forces that municipalities have to contend with. The population of the state of New Jersey continues to grow, housing is both prohibitively expensive and scarce. New developments and mandates are typically unpopular with established residents. Local governments have to be creative while trying not to overburden their own residents, lamenting their taxes and inevitable increases. When developers tend to build concentrated housing like condos or apartments instead of single-family or two-family homes as in the past, can a small Passaic County suburb preserve its character into the future?

“You can't make the money that the developers want to make [with single family houses.],” the mayor said. “I get it. But if you go through Hawthorne, you'll find little pockets of townhouses and condos right in residential areas. I'm not for that. I put all our housing on Belmont Ave in our business district on a county road. I kept it from sprawling into neighborhoods. It's been hard to do that, but we've been successful.”

Mayor George acknowledged that these actions are not always popular, but if he believes it is the right thing to do, then he will do so. Serving in office for some 26 years now, the majority of the residents would certainly seem to be content with his leadership. “If you don't like me, that's okay. I don't care. It's not going to stop me from doing what I'm doing,” George said. “There were 70 people who came to that development and argued that we shouldn't do it. My job is to help 9,000 residents. If I have to hurt 70 to help the 9,000, consider yourself hurt, because I had to get that done and approved before the fourth round COLA rules came out. We didn't have a choice. I had a gun to my head, so we got it done, I had to look out for 9,000 people, and I put another development on a county road in the business district.”

Would a Jack Ciattarelli administration take some of that burden off of suburban mayors? “Time will tell,” Mayor George said, hoping that civil discussion and greater respect will return to our civic discourse. As the town’ chief, he says his main focus is on delivering for the residents. “I try to get along. I work with the county commissioners, I work with Mikie Sherrill, I work with Nellie Pou.”

Congresswoman Pou is, in fact, a resident of North Haledon.

“Nellie Pou's helping me,” George said, “he is trying to get money to improve the water system in North Haledon. I don't care what party she is. I need my representative to help me get money to help my townspeople.”

If Republicans are looking for a partisan cheerleader in Mayor George, might be disappointed. He is a firm realist and a long-time veteran of his office. “I believe Jack Ciattarelli is the best choice. If he became governor, could he become just like the rest of them? Sure, it could always happen. The Republican leadership says if he wins Passaic County, he'll be the governor. North Haledon is a red town. The people historically have voted Republican for a long time. I try not to be partisan here, but above me, I have to be partisan because I need to get someone elected who's going to get me the money I need or is going to tone down things like COLA. We all agree that there should be some affordable housing, but it shouldn't be on the backs of, or to the detriment of the local municipalities.”