Carolyn Blackman, the mayor of Dover, only got two votes from the party when she tried to get a second term. In June, the Democratic municipal chairman and former alderman, Edward Correa, easily won the organization line.
By a vote of 12 to 5, Correa won the organization line for mayor over Sandra Wittner, who was on the Board of Aldermen. James P. Dodd, who had been mayor of New York City for four terms, did not run for the organization line.
Dodd skipped the Democratic primary and ran as an independent in 2019 to become the town’s first Black mayor. Blackman beat Dodd by 50 votes.
After the vote, she told the New Jersey Globe that she would stay in the race and run with Ward 2 Alderman Judith Rugg.
Blackman said, “I’m going to file.” “If I win, I will work with any alderman who wins.”
Wittner and Dodd have said they want to run for mayor of a town in Morris County that is 68% Hispanic in the Democratic primary.
Correa’s list of candidates for Aldermen also won at the convention. Jessica Cruz won in Ward 1, Cindy Isaza won in Ward 2, Michael Scarneo won in Ward 3, and Carlos Valencia, who was already in office, won in Ward 4.
Wittner will run with T.C. McCourt and Jennifer Podesta in Ward 1, with Isiah Strickland in Ward 2, and with T.C. McCourt again in Ward 3. At the convention, Valencia did not have any opponents. Tonight, members of the county committee only cast one vote for mayor, alderman, and county committee.
Also, Correa’s list of candidates for the county committee will be on the organization line.
Dodd was mayor for 16 years, and in 2018, a group of rebels led by Correa took over the local Democratic organization. With the help of the Morris County Democratic organization, the Dover First group won 19 of the 25 county committee seats that Dodd allies had held before.
Correa, who was running for re-election as a Ward 3 alderman, had also lost the line from Morris County Democratic Chairman Chip Robinson. Karol Ruiz beat him in the Democratic primary by only 34 votes.
Valencia, another Correa ally who opposed the line, lost the Ward 4 primary by 33 votes to Marcos Tapia Aguilar, Sr. Aguilar was an alderman for two years before he lost the Democratic primary in 2021. Because he was pro-life, Governor Phil Murphy did not back him in that race. The other three incumbents that Murphy backed won their races.
Last year, Correa quit in April because of Robinson’s decision to take away the organization line from him.
In 1997, Dodd beat Republican 4th ward alderman R. Keith Titus in a three-way race by 67 votes, 43% to 32%. After Republican Javier Mar stepped down as mayor in 2003, he was elected with 62% of the vote. In 2013, he was one of a large number of Democratic mayors who backed Republican Gov. Chris Christie for re-election.
McCourt, who was like the Todd Caliguire of the Democrats in Morris County, lost his second bid to become an alderman. In 2019, he ran as an independent on Dodd’s ticket. In 2021 and 2022, he lost his bids to be a Morris County commissioner, and this year, he thought about running for mayor. He ran as a Republican for county supervisor in Virginia in 2011 under the name Thomas C. Robinson.
McCourt said at the time, “I think of myself as more of a Conservative than a Republican, and Indira Gandhi, Lech Walesa, Fred Thompson, Sarah Palin, and Margaret Thatcher are my political heroes.”
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