Five months after the Maurice County Democrats dealt with cases of their occasional support for a life activist for district commissioner, party leaders will have to decide whether to support a life Democrat for Alderman in Dover. .
Marcos Tapia Sr. lost his Democratic re-election bid in 2021 by six votes after Gov. Phil Murphy refused to support him because of his position for life. The other three incumbent leaders, backed by Murphy, won.
Today, Tapia announced that he will seek a return to the two-year council of elders, challenging incumbent President Carlos Valencia, who served two terms, in the primaries of the Democratic Chamber 4. He is running for Dover Forward with King Ruiz, a CWA member who will occupy the member of the council of the 3rd Chamber Edward Correa, the municipal chairman of the Democratic Party of Dover.
Now the chairman of the County Democratic Party, Maurice Chip Robinson, will have to decide whether to give the organization to Tapia and Ruiz – or just one of them.
The primaries are also putting MP Mickey Cheryl (D-Moncler) in a potentially difficult spot now that Democratic Dover has moved from Congress from the 7th to the 11th in Congress. Like Murphy, Cheryl would have to decide if she was ready to support Tapia.
Last October, key Democratic leaders and Morris County activists withdrew their support for A.J. County Commissioner-designate. Oliver learning that he was an “activist against choice”. Faced with an application for revocation, Oliver later resigned as chairman of the Municipal Party of the Democratic Party of Morristown.
Oliver’s candidacy put the Maurice Democrats, who were on a wave of optimism after Joe Biden became the first Democrat in 56 years to head the county, in chaos.
Now the party must deal with the next primaries.
“Marcos and I plan to focus on the problems and trust the voters to make a decision,” Ruiz said. “Our community is still being treated for separation during the last mayoral election, and we have no plans to repair those wounds.”
Ruiz is a member of the CWA. Tapia is a member of 32B SEIU.
For years, local politics has been in turmoil.
While Dover is 68.3% Hispanic, the city had a white mayor, a white majority on the Alderman council and a white majority on the Democratic District Committee until 2018, when Korea topped the rebel list and, with Robinson’s support, expelled the Aldermen. and counties. committee members in alliance with Mayor James P. Dodd.
A year later, Dodd ran for re-election as an independent and was defeated by Democrat Carolyn Blackman, who became the city’s first black mayor. Dodd’s allies lost the rest of their senior positions.
But the new Spanish-speaking majority quickly split, and some of the 2018 and 2019 coalitions merged with the former Dodd contingent.
