On Holloway's third attempt in court to be affirmed as a mayoral candidate, she will be running as the third candidate in the election, opposing current Mayor Jerramiah Healy and attorney Alfred Marc Pine.
Meanwhile, a candidate forum was held last week, and nearly every candidate running for City Council ward seats appeared.
There are 31 candidates running for City Council, including five candidates in Ward A; six in Ward B; three in Ward C; two in Ward D; two in Ward E; seven in Ward F, and four for at-large seats.Holloway gets her way - finally!
Holloway, a former Ward F councilwoman, had been disqualified from the ballot by Jersey City City Clerk Robert Byrne on April 28 after a challenge from an attorney for Healy claiming that there were a number of faulty petitions submitted by Holloway among her valid petitions.
Under further investigation by the City Clerk, 36 of 1,228 of Holloway's petitions were disqualified, leaving her five short of the minimum required to be placed on the ballot.
But this past Tuesday, by a 7-0 decision, the NJ Supreme Court ordered not only that Holloway be placed back on the ballot, but that absentee ballots that were already printed without her name must be reprinted. The court had found that the objections by Healy's attorney on March 28 that led to the City Clerk disqualifying Holloway from the ballot in the first place were done after the deadline for filing objections, as per state statute.
Holloway could be reached for comment on the decision.
But Holloway's attorney, Karen DeSoto, who found out about the Supreme Court decision by phone late Tuesday afternoon, said that she was happy that Holloway was placed back on the ballot.
"I feel relieved. The people of Jersey City should make the choice, not the courts. I hope this will show that petitions can no longer be used as a weapon," said DeSoto.
Healy, when asked last week about the court's decision, said that "he was a little bit surprised" but accepted the court's decision. How many candidates can you fit in a forum?
Getting two candidates running for political office to participate in any forum can be a difficult endeavor, but arranging for 18 candidates to occupy the same room is an almost Herculean task.
But that's what the Tenant Affairs Board of the Jersey City Housing Authority accomplished on Monday night when they organized a forum held at the Curries Woods Revitalization Center.
There were five candidates for Ward A; five for Ward B; one for Ward C; one for Ward D; one for Ward E and five for Ward F attending.
Candidates were asked what they would do in office to improve security within the housing complexes, and how they would increase recreation for the city's youth, especially those residing in public housing.
The forum also allowed the candidates to present themselves and their platforms to an audience of over 50 people.
But the forum, which mostly ran smoothly, also had some minor tiffs.
One started innocently enough. Ward B candidate Paul Catsandonis, while answering a question on how to improve security in the housing complexes, mentioned that he hadn't personally known late Jersey City Mayor Glenn D. Cunningham. That led to shouts of disapproval from the crowd and several candidates either making fun of Catsandonis' statement or trying to score points with the crowd by praising the late mayor and boasting of their relationship with Cunningham.
And then there was current Ward F Councilwoman Viola Richardson. During the forum, Richardson's past record as a councilwoman came under attack by two of her Ward F contenders, Crystal Jones and Rev. Ronnie-Calvin Clark, who said she didn't accomplish enough during her term. Then, during the closing comments of the forum, Richardson, in defending her record, offended Jones by saying to the audience, "You have [my] one opponent who's pregnant and the other...." Jones is eight months pregnant. Before Richardson could finish, she elicited angry responses from Jones and some in the audience who shouted her down.
Audience comments on the forum were mixed.
Stella Burgen, head of the Tenant Council at the city's Holland Gardens housing complex, said that she was impressed with the organization of the forum and with a number of the candidates, including Steven Fulop, running for the seat in Ward E where Burgen lives.
Leonard Joseph, who resides in Ward F, said he wished for more information from the forum, calling it a "coffee klatch without the coffee," but understanding that only so much could be done with so many candidates participating.
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