Sherrill is betting voters want more of the same, where challengers offer change

For voters who believed the election of former federal prosecutor and Navy helicopter pilot Gov. Rebecca “Mikie” Sherrill would break the grip of New Jersey’s notoriously insular political machinery, the first year of her administration has delivered a bitter lesson in the staying power of the status quo.

With less than two weeks before the June 2 Democratic primary, Sherrill has deployed her political capital not to clear a path for insurgent challengers demanding transparency and affordability, but to shield three slates of establishment-backed candidates who represent the very apparatus of county boss rule.

In New Brunswick, Bloomfield and Piscataway, the governor has drawn a clear line: She is for the party regulars, the longtime incumbents and the lobbyist-anointed candidates.

Sherrill, who was a hawkish Blue Dog conservative in Congress, is uniformly against the community organizers, working-family advocates, and progressive outsiders who have spent years documenting what machine politics actually delivers: higher taxes, opaque contracts and, too often, federal indictments.

In New Brunswick, Sherrill endorsed Mayor Jim Cahill for reelection. Cahill has held the mayor’s office since 1991 — 35 years. He already has defeated challenger Charlie Kratovil, a community organizer and investigative journalist, in two previous general elections, though Kratovil narrowed the margin each time.

This year, the two Democrats are facing off in the primary itself, a testament to Kratovil’s growing strength. Sherrill chose Cahill, praising their “ongoing partnership to invest in the community’s growth.”

The community Kratovil describes is one where residents are priced out, where the city’s enormous tax-exempt institutional footprint shifts burdens onto working families, and where a mayor who has served for more than three decades has had ample time to address those problems.

Kratovil, a Rutgers graduate and award-winning journalist, helped win a referendum that gave New Brunswick residents the power to elect their school board for the first time in a century. He stopped a polluting power plant. He blocked a data center that neighbors opposed. He has been named a Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Champion for Justice. His running mates, Doris Elliott and Yeni Mendez Romero, are City Council candidates on the Power to the People slate.

Sherrill endorsed the mayor who has occupied City Hall since President George H.W. Bush was in office.

Bloomfield is where the contrast becomes almost theatrical. Sherrill is backing the county organization’s preferred candidates: incumbents Rosalee Gonzalez in the 1st Ward and Sarah Cruz in the 3rd Ward, along with Jason Martinez for an open 2nd Ward seat.

The insider slate is backed by Assemblyman Michael Venezia, Bloomfield Democratic municipal chairman, and Mayor Jenny Mundell. Cruz is Venezia’s chief of staff. Martinez once worked as an aide to Venezia. They are, in the plainest sense, insiders.

Opposing them are Stefanie Santiago, Greg Babula and Stef Bootwala, endorsed by U.S. Sen. Andy Kim, Rep. Analilia Mejia and state Sen. Britnee Timberlake. Santiago, a mental health clinician, called the endorsement from Kim, Mejia and Timberlake “a loud testament of our character and commitment to establishing a real democratic political apparatus in Bloomfield.”

The three progressive candidates have pledged transparent and accountable leadership. Sherrill called the machine-backed slate “an exciting team that represents the innovation and rich diversity of Bloomfield.”

Then there is the money.

The three establishment candidates in Bloomfield raised $121,165.70 as of May 21. Contributions came from government jobholders and government contractors. One contributor, Antonio “Tony” Teixeira, gave $500.

Teixeira is the former chief of staff to a New Jersey Senate president and a former chairman of the Elizabeth Democratic Committee. In 2023, he was sentenced to eight months of home confinement for conspiracy to defraud campaigns and political action committees.

Teixeira conspired with Sean Caddle, a political consultant serving 24 years in federal prison for hiring two men to stab a longtime associate to death and set fire to his apartment.

That is not hyperbole. That is the public record of the U.S. District Court in Newark.

Teixeira pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy and tax evasion after receiving more than $100,000 in inflated invoices and cash kickbacks. His contribution helped fund the slate Sherrill supports.

In Piscataway, Sherrill endorsed four incumbents: Michele Lombardi, Sharon Carmichael, Frank Uhrin and Dennis Espinosa. They have raised more than $107,000, mostly from government employees and public contractors. Their challengers, backed by the Working Families Party and the Piscataway Progressive Democratic Organization, have raised less than $10,000.

The progressive slate includes Shantell Cherry, Elizabeth “Betsy” Aumack, Viola Stone, and Rashaad Couloote. They say the incumbents have refused to address ICE activity, vilified teachers, and continued approving warehouses and data centers despite clear resident opposition.

The Middlesex County Democratic Organization, which backs the incumbents, is chaired by Kevin McCabe, a partner and lobbyist at River Crossing Strategy Group. He also serves as a commissioner for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Under his leadership, the Middlesex County Democratic Organization raised more contractor cash than any other county party in the state, collecting $697,000 from public contractors in 2024 alone.

As The New Jersey Democrat reported, the party collected $398,000 in the first three months of 2025, about one-fifth of all money raised by Democratic county committees statewide. McCabe did not return requests for comment from multiple outlets.

Sherrill’s own financial trajectory has drawn scrutiny. Her net worth is estimated at between $9.4 million and $15.35 million, a substantial increase since she entered Congress in 2019, when her net worth was estimated at between $733,000 and $4.3 million.

Much of that growth stems from her husband’s salary and bonuses at UBS, which exceeded $2.6 million annually, and from joint investments, including a Washington townhouse purchased for $1.5 million.

In 2021, Sherrill paid a $400 fee for STOCK Act violations after missing a 45-day deadline to disclose her husband’s stock trades. She has said she does not own individual stocks.

The governor’s defenders note that she won a competitive primary and a general election and owes nothing to the insurgents challenging her preferred candidates. But the question is not one of obligation. It is one of direction.

Sherrill campaigned as a reformer, a clean-government candidate who would bring accountability to Trenton. Yet in three contested Democratic primaries, she has chosen the side of a 35-year mayor, a lobbyist-led county organization, and a slate funded by a man who pleaded guilty to conspiring with a convicted murderer.

Voters in New Brunswick, Bloomfield, and Piscataway will decide on June 2. They face a clear choice between the machinery of the past and organizers who have spent years documenting what that machinery costs.

Sherrill has made her preference unmistakable. She is betting that more of the same is enough. The challengers are betting that voters have finally had their fill.