In a decisive rejection of political redemption, Jersey City voters have turned their backs on former Governor Jim McGreevey’s two-decade quest for a second chance, electing City Councilman James Solomon as their next mayor in a runoff election that became a referendum on the city’s future.
The race pitted a 41-year-old councilman against a 68-year-old former governor, framing a stark generational choice. McGreevey, who resigned the governorship in 2004 amid patronage, sex and extortion scandals, campaigned as a rehabilitated figure, a “champion of second chances” who would apply his experience to the nuts and bolts of city governance.
His opponent, James Solomon, presented himself as the vanguard of a new, transparent political era, drawing comparisons to New York City’s mayor-elect and vowing to break the grip of machine politics and developers.
Solomon, who first won his council seat in 2017, secured victory after emerging from a crowded seven-candidate general election with a four-percentage-point lead over McGreevey.
In that November 4 vote, Solomon received 29% to McGreevey’s 25%, forcing the December 2 runoff. The councilman consolidated his advantage by winning the endorsements of three of his former rivals, including third-place finisher Bill O’Dea and fourth-place finisher Mussab Ali.
The campaign centered on the city’s most urgent crisis: affordability. Both candidates pledged to create more affordable housing, but their approaches revealed a fundamental philosophical divide.
Solomon promised to “take on developers,” audit corporate tax breaks, and push for aggressive rent caps.
McGreevey argued for a market-inclusive approach, criticizing the viability of Solomon’s deeply affordable units and championing a model that sets aside 20% of new housing for affordable-rate stock.
McGreevey’s campaign was endorsed by Ocean County Republican Party Chair George Gilmore, former Jersey City Mayor Gerald McCann, Governor Phil Murphy, and billionaire real-estate developer and disbarred attorney Charles Kushner, who was appointed the United States ambassador to France and Monaco earlier this year by President Donald Trump.
Republican Chris Christie, who chaired Trump’s first transition team, said Kushner committed “one of the most loathsome, disgusting crimes” he prosecuted. On December 23, 2020, Trump issued a full and unconditional pardon to Kushner, his daughter’s father-in-law, citing his record of “reform” and “charity”.
This clash of visions was underscored by a dramatic spending disparity.
McGreevey’s campaign outspent Solomon’s by nearly two-to-one, with a war chest of approximately $2.5 million against Solomon’s $1.3 million.
McGreevey’s campaign accepted the maximum allowable contributions from Kushner and his wife.
The money reflected a broader split in support: McGreevey was backed by the political establishment, police unions, and the Hudson County Democratic Organization.
Yet, for all his spending and his poignant personal narrative, he could not escape the indelible facts of his downfall: the admission of an affair with a male aide, Golan Cipel, whom he had appointed to a sensitive $110,000-a-year homeland security post despite the aide having no relevant experience, especially glaring in the shadow of 9/11.
F.B.I. agents investigated whether Rajesh “Roger” Chugh raised hundreds of thousands for McGreevey’s campaigns by threatening to block building permits for Woodbridge business owners. Democratic officials warned McGreevey about Chugh’s conduct, yet he was later given a $10,000-a-month party consultant role and an $85,000 state job.
Democratic fundraiser David D’Amiano was sentenced to two years in prison for using a secret code word to extort $40,000 from a landowner, in a case that directly implicated McGreevey.
D’Amiano, a longtime friend of McGreevey, arranged a secretly recorded meeting with Mark Halper, a Middlesex County landowner cooperating with investigators, where the governor used the code word “Machiavelli,” a pre-arranged signal confirming that a large cash donation would buy political favor in a state land dispute.
Kushner, top McGreevey donor, was charged with trying to derail a federal investigation of his finances by hiring prostitutes to seduce witnesses, including his brother-in-law.
Those acts, a fusion of personal betrayal and public malfeasance, were the specter that haunted his campaign.
Solomon, despite his years in municipal office, successfully positioned himself as the insurgent outsider, attracting support from U.S. Senator Andy Kim and framing the election as a choice between a “corrupt machine playbook” and needed change.
Solomon’s victory follows a national pattern of former governors failing in bids for local office, most recently former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s loss in the New York City mayoral race.
It signals that in Jersey City—a Democratic stronghold where Kamala Harris won 73% of the 2024 presidential vote—the electorate’s appetite for progressive action on housing and skepticism of old-guard politics ultimately outweighed the appeal of experienced, if tarnished, leadership.
The city has spoken, choosing a promise of what could be over a story of what once was.