Jersey City residents turned out Tuesday for a runoff that felt like a reckoning. In the end, they delivered a stinging rebuke to Jim McGreevey, the former New Jersey governor whose scandal-forced exit two decades ago still casts a long shadow over his bid for local redemption. Instead, they chose James Solomon, the 41-year-old city councilman who ran on a platform of reining in unchecked development and easing the squeeze on working families.
The race wasn’t close. Solomon captured about 68 percent of the vote to McGreevey’s 31 percent, according to results from the Hudson County Clerk’s Office. That’s a landslide in a city where politics often simmers with backroom deals and family names carry weight. Solomon’s margin echoed the frustration bubbling up in neighborhoods from the Heights to the waterfront, where skyrocketing rents and property taxes have priced out longtime residents.
This isn’t just another local upset—it’s the second time in as many months that voters in a major East Coast city have swatted down a disgraced ex-governor’s grab for a second act. Just weeks earlier, across the Hudson in New York City, Zohran Mamdani, a 34-year-old democratic socialist, trounced Andrew Cuomo in the mayoral race. Cuomo, who stepped down as New York’s governor in 2021 amid a cascade of sexual harassment allegations, had hoped to pivot to City Hall as an independent after losing the Democratic primary. Mamdani took 51 percent to Cuomo’s 41 percent, with turnout hitting levels not seen since 1969, fueled largely by young voters fed up with the old guard.
McGreevey’s fall mirrors that script almost too neatly. Elected governor in 2001, he resigned three years later in a nationally televised confession: “I am a gay American,” he said, admitting to an extramarital affair with a male aide he’d appointed to a high-paying state job. The fallout was brutal—divorce, a messy custody battle, and years out of the spotlight. Since then, McGreevey has rebuilt a quieter life, serving as executive director of a nonprofit helping ex-offenders and veterans reintegrate. He cast himself in the campaign as a “champion of second chances.”
But Jersey City, New Jersey’s second-largest city with its mosaic of immigrant communities and booming skyline, wasn’t buying the narrative. McGreevey, now 68, moved to the city about a decade ago and jumped into the race early, courting endorsements from Hudson County Democrats like State Sen. Brian Stack and former Senate President Stephen Sweeney. He framed his run as a return to steady leadership, promising to tackle the affordability crisis without upending the growth that’s turned Jersey City into a commuter’s haven just minutes from Manhattan.
Solomon, by contrast, positioned himself as the antidote to that very machine. A Jersey City native who once worked in the offices of ex-Boston Mayor Tom Menino and current U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, he won his council seat in 2017 representing Ward E, the downtown district packed with luxury condos and tech startups. His pitch? Get tough on developers who’ve flooded the market with high-end units while affordable housing lags.
“We are going to get tough on developers and force them to build housing you can afford,” Solomon said during the campaign. He railed against property tax hikes—up 20 to 30 percent in some spots under outgoing Mayor Steven Fulop—and vowed to prioritize families over special interests.
The general election in November set the stage, with seven candidates scrambling in the nonpartisan field. Solomon edged out McGreevey with 29 percent to 25 percent, forcing the December rematch when no one cleared 50 percent. The other contenders, including Hudson County Commissioner Bill O’Dea and former school board president Mussab Ali, threw their support behind Solomon in the runoff, tipping the scales further.
Fulop, the three-term incumbent who’s decamping to lead a New York business group after his own failed run for governor, leaves behind a city transformed but strained. Jersey City’s population has swelled past 300,000, drawing waves of newcomers with its skyline of glass towers and PATH trains to Wall Street. Yet that boom has bred resentment: Median rents hover around $2,800 a month, and the average home price tops $600,000. Residents like Mike Liu, a local tech worker, griped about the pace. “Just in 2022 alone, our taxes shot up by, like, 20, 30 percent,” Liu told reporters.
Solomon’s win signals a shift in a place long ruled by bosses like the infamous Frank Hague, whose machine gripped the city for decades. Progressives here, emboldened by national figures like Sen. Andy Kim—who endorsed Solomon—see it as proof that voters crave fresh faces over recycled scandals. McGreevey’s backers, including some county heavyweights, watched their influence wane as the race exposed fault lines in the local Democrat Party. Even whispers of old-school ballot tricks, like the now-defunct “county line” that once funneled votes to party picks, couldn’t save him.
In his concession, McGreevey struck a gracious note. “I want to say, from my heart, I congratulate Councilman—now Mayor-elect—James Solomon,” he told supporters at a subdued watch party. Solomon, meanwhile, wasted no time. “Together, we’re going to build a more affordable Jersey City, where everyone has a chance to thrive and where the people are put first, not developers and special interests,” he declared to cheers. “My promise to Jersey City is simple: I will be a mayor for you.”
As Solomon prepares to take office in January, questions linger about how he’ll deliver. Jersey City’s $700 million budget demands balance—courting investment without selling out to the high-rises that define its horizon. With a council that’s seen its share of turnover, he’ll need allies to push through zoning reforms or tax relief. And in a state where Gov. Phil Murphy’s tenure ends next month—paving the way for incoming Gov. Mikie Sherrill—the ripple effects could reach Trenton.
For now, though, this feels like a voter verdict on accountability. Twice in quick succession, in Jersey City and New York, the public has drawn a line: Past missteps don’t earn automatic forgiveness, no matter the apologies or the nonprofit gigs that follow.
Like New York City across the way, Jersey City is poised for a rude awakening when Marxist policies fail the people.
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