Suzanne Mack and Omar Perez Pair Off in At-Large Council Race

By • Sep 13th, 2011 • Category: Blog, News, Politics

Late last month, Hudson County Clerk Barbara Netchert ruled that candidates would be allowed to bracket their names together in this November’s special election for two At-Large City Council seats. Netchert’s ruling came after a request by the two appointees to the seats, Kalimah Ahmad and Ray Velazquez, who are both running to keep their positions and are planning on bracketing their names together. Both Ahmad and Velazquez, who replaced Willie Flood and Mariano Vega on the council, are being backed by Mayor Healy.

Now comes the next two names to bracket off, longtime Board of Education trustee Suzanne Mack and former Healy aide and Downtown Democratic committeeman Omar Perez. (In 2010, Perez was on the short list circulating among City Hall gossips to be appointed to the Vega’s seat, though the post went to Velazquez instead.)

“We are excited to form the Making a Difference team today and look forward to meeting residents of Jersey City as we begin to campaign across the city,” Mack and Perez say in a statement.

With a crowded field vying for the two seats, we expect plenty of other candidates to pair off in the coming weeks. We’ll keep you posted.

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is the founding editor of the Jersey City Independent; he now works for a public-policy nonprofit in Trenton.
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  • Anonymous

    I have a question: when is the deadline for bracketing with another candidate? Since this is largely unprecedented in a special election, is the date for bracketing arbitrary? Is it today (when petitions need to be filed)? Or is it sometime before the ballots are printed and sent to voters? 
    Mack and Perez probably think the deadline for bracketing is today, or else they are announcing it now just to be safe. Given the fact that the Hudson County Clerk already screwed up the filing deadline, and has now changed the rules to suit the Healy ticket, shouldn’t this be set down in writing somewhere? Or is the clerk just playing this by ear?
    Having said that, this ticket is basically Healy-Lite. Although they will probably be endorsed by Fulop, because Mack pretty much falls in line with whatever Fulop says, and Fulop needs to burnish his credentials with the Latino community by backing a Latino,  these are two candidates who have pretty much done Healy’s bidding whenever he asked.
    Not sure how Perez helps Mack. He’s now the fourth Latino in this race. What a curious choice.
    I hope other candidates pair up and give voters a better choice than this.

    • http://www.jerseycityindependent.com Jon Whiten

      ohyeah – We just checked and today was the deadline for bracketing. We’ll have a full list of candidates, including who else might be bracketed, tomorrow.