WHO’S UP

Jeff Van Drew

The CD2 Democratic candidate swept all the county party conventions to position himself with an 8-0 edge heading into the teeth of the primary season against retired school teacher Tanzie Youngblood.

Hirsh Singh

The CD2 Republican candidate didn’t do quite as well as Van Drew, but he mustered four county lines (Ocean, Burlington, Camden and Atlantic) in his quest to gut through the primary to succeed U.S. Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R-2).

Tom Malinowski

The CD7 candidate won the last of the Democratic Party lines this week when he notched Somerset. Running in hopes of knocking of U.S. Rep. Leonard Lance (R-7) in the general, the former assistant secretary of state under John Kerry now owns Essex, Union, Hunterdon, Morris, Warren and Somerset.

Josh Welle

The CD4 Democrat in search of a general election showdown with U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-4) handled primary rival Jim Keady again this week, this time in Mercer as he fulfilled a clean sweep of the pieces of those three counties that compose the 4th District.

Pedro Mejia 

No one knows who the guy is and barely anyone cares. The only pre-requisite for a Hudson Assembly person is that he-she present a low maintenance detail to whatever senator occupies that particular district, in this case Nick Sacco in the 32nd.  Mejia, by the way, made history when the Hudson County Democratic Organization (HCDO) tapped him to supplant Sports and Expo dude (and former Assemblyman) Vincent Prieto as the first Dominican to serve in the New Jersey Legislature.

Liz Gilbert

Ok, she didn’t get Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-3) there, but the new executive director of the state party committee – who’s close to the Governor – managed to engineer the lumping of Governor Phil Murphy, Democratic State Party Chairman John Currie, Vice Chair Lizette Delgado Polanco, Speaker Craig Coughlin (D-19), and Senators Bob Menendez and Cory Booker at the East Brunswick meeting of the party committee this week, which apparently turned into a Menendez lovefest.

Andre Sayegh

Running for the mayoralty for the third time, the perennially animated Paterson personage landed the backing this week of Al Abdel-Aziz – the man who ran against him in the 2016 Ward 6 council contest.

WHO’S DOWN

Frank Gilliam

There’s no end, it seems, to the bleeding in Atlantic City – at least for now. As first reported by InsiderNJ investigative reporter Alex Zdan, a multi-pronged investigation threatens to utterly upend the mayor.

Dave Pringle

Unable to ever gain traction, the institutionally grounded and knowledgeable environmentalist this week pulled the plug on his CD7 Democratic Primary bid.

Phil Murphy

The Governor of New Jersey celebrated a win last week when the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey approved a pay raise for 10,000 airport workers. But a tongue lashing by the NJ Sierra Club on account of Murphy’s budget decision to divert $136 million in Clean Energy Funds to NJ Transit bespoke of base trouble, never a good early sign.

Jay Webber

This was not the best week to date for the CD11 Republican candidate who hopes to succeed U.S. Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-11). First, he incurred the wrath of fellow Republicans (yes, we know, they’re both tied to Al Barlas and Peter Murphy, who back Webber rival Tony Ghee). But he also faced the prospect of a third candidate – from Governor Chris Christie’s hometown of Mendham – jumping in the contest. If the third candidate with the unpronounceable name gets in and pumps money at Webber in Morris, Ghee fans hope that will give the Essex/Passaic-backed candidate a GOP Primary edge.

James Toto and John Zarych

The blue collar Somers Point Councilman aborted his CD2 bid at the Atlantic County GOP Convention and threw his support to Singh.  Attorney Zarych likewise ended his effort to try to become the next LoBiondo.

Peter Jacob and Goutam Jois

The people power candidate in CD7 from Springfield who lost to Lance in 2016 and the newcomer Summit attorney respectively got blown out by Malinowski at Wednesday night’s Somerset County Democratic Convention in Manville. The pair of Malinowski opponents emerge from the wreckage of the convention season with zero organizational lines between them.