Jenny Mundell to face David Tucker in Bloomfield mayor race after tumultuous primary

BLOOMFIELD — First Ward Council Member Jenny Mundell won Tuesday’s democratic mayoral primary over incumbent Ted Gamble following a bitter race to November’s ballot, during which any attempt to run on the issues rather than insults were dogged by preceding acrimony within the township's political playing field.

"I think there is a lot of emotion involved in this particular election," Mundell said last week. "We have not had a contested primary in Bloomfield in many years. It’s a big deal," adding, "There’s more attention on this one than there has been in the past, for better or worse."

As of Wednesday morning, she had outpolled Gamble by approximately 15 percentage points with ballots from 94% of districts reported, according to unofficial results from the Essex County Clerk’s Office. By late-afternoon, Gamble conceded, sealing Mundell's nomination and impending campaign against Republican David Tucker, who ran unopposed.

"I’m glad to see people are coming out and are interested," she said during the May 30 interview. "I also think people have an emotional response to it that’s not driven by what’s happening locally; there’s a tense national sentiment that trickles down a bit. People feel upset about politics these days."

While Mundell may have been right that the vicious divisions gripping federal races and policies ― both partisan and within the major parties themselves ― has effected local campaigns, Tuesday's contest was poised to flare tempers before it began.

The winner in November's special mayoral election will hold office for one year, finishing the term Michael Venezia vacated when he took his seat in the state legislature this past January. At the time, the township's governing body voted, 4-2, to appoint Gamble interim mayor over Mundell.

Prior reports described Gamble's appointment as a fraught showdown due to a vote by the Bloomfield Essex County Democratic Committee that furnished the governing body with three options, including Gamble and Mundell. While Mundell earned far more votes among committee members, the choice lied squarely with the Township Council. But a movement led by Venezia ― who also serves as the local democratic chair ― to appoint Mundell based on her popularity among party leaders created a rift along the dais.

Gamble denounced the assemblyman's effort to thumb the scale as procedural subterfuge, and implicated Mundell in the alleged plot. Venezia, in turn, accused Gamble of spreading "misinformation" and derided him as the "temporary mayor."

A sign of tumult

As this year's primary election cycle grew heated, the controversies continued, but whether the volley of allegations between Gamble and Mundell supporters bared truth, one name remained at the epicenter.

A May 3 Facebook post by Venezia featured two photos: In one, a “Jenny Mundell for Mayor” sign lies on the right-of-way alongside one of the township’s busiest thoroughfares. In the second, another sign flops languidly over the side of the curb.

“Residents with Mundell for Mayor signs are reporting being targeted by elected township officials telling them to take down their signs,” Venezia stated in the post, adding that “signs are also reported being torn down from businesses.”

The post sparked a furor, with some thanking Venezia for his warning, and other’s questioning what proof he had of the audacious claims that officials were involved in a devilish counter-campaign against Mundell.

Offered the chance to name the culprit or share evidence of the dirty-tricks campaign, Venezia declined.

“I will have a private conversation with the person but I’m not going to out them to the press,” Venezia said in late May, despite having publicized the alarming allegations himself.

Mundell seemed equally uneasy with the attention garnered by partisan provocations compared to her policy perspectives, and although she confirmed that about 10 voters contacted her about missing lawn signs, she had no interest in accusing any person or group: "I want to make that clear."

Two residents of the home on Winding Lane where Venezia's photos were snapped agreed the signs appeared to have been torn out with intent. “They’re really in there, especially when we first put them up,” said the family's son, who declined to be named.

But the resident's account differed from Venezia's. The son said he never told the assemblyman, nor any other official about the vandalism and put the signs back in the lawn himself, while Venezia claimed he was called by the father the Monday after the uprooted signs were discovered on the ground, and was at the home the next day with replacements.

Gamble categorically denied having anything to do with the alleged sign tampering. Both he and Venezia said campaign staffers on both sides had been advised at the outset not to touch the opponents’ placards, even if a homeowner requested they be swapped out.

“He just likes to create spin and a story out of lawn sings,” Gamble said of his predecessor, describing the accusations as “part of Venezia’s playbook,” an apparent reference to similar allegations raised by the assemblyman in 2016, when he was running for the democratic nomination in his second bid for mayor.

That controversy ignited when a resident agreed to swap out a sign promoting Venezia and replace it with one from then-Council Member Joe Lopez, who was challenging the incumbent. The mayor cried foul, accusing the opposition of stealing the sign as a “desperate” attempt at political subterfuge by a “desperate candidate,” according to coverage of the fracas published by The Observer.

Lopez quickly issued a rebuttal, including a statement by the resident that confirmed the change came at his own request, and Lopez confirmed he installed the new sign but declined to remove Venezia's sign himself, leaving it up to the homeowner, The Observer reported.

March to the polls

On Saturday, another imbroglio exploded when approximately 75 Mundell supporters walked en masse from the candidate's final campaign rally to an early voting site at the Watsessing Park Community Center. At the campaign's request, the voters were draped in T-shirts bearing the names of Mundell, Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-Montclair) and Monica Tabares, who appeared to win the democratic primary as she fights to retain her at-large council seat in November.

Accounts of what happened next differed in both details and intensity. Tucker and his running mate, Russell Mollica ― now the Republican nominee for Tabares' post ― were working the polling site as ballot challengers when the throng of Mundell supporters approached the community center.

Tucker and Mollica warned the crowd they would not be allowed to enter while donning the Mundell shirts, due to state law banning partisan campaign clothing inside polling sites. As rancor spread throughout the crowd, a poll worker from the Essex County Board of Elections came outside to explain no one was being turned away, but that they would have to remove their shirts or obscure the lettering before coming inside, according to Tucker.

Despite the clarification, Tucker said some in the group ― including Venezia ― held fast that they could enter wearing whatever they chose, leading to a standoff.

“We were nose to nose," Tucker said of Venezia, who allegedly yelled invectives in the Republican challenger's face and insisted it was his first amendment right to vote with the campaign garb on full display. “They just kept provoking everybody, riling them up,” he said.

Venezia did not respond to a request for comment on the incident.

Conversely, Natalie Lupiani, a volunteer on Mundell's campaign, confirmed the tête-à-tête between Tucker and Venezia, but laid the blame squarely with the Republicans, whom she said were abrasive with the group and over-stepped their charge as ballot challengers, which are only supposed to address issues through a poll worker, not with voters directly under state law.

"We were all wearing our campaign T-shirts because we were at a campaign meeting and it occurred to nobody that’s not allowed at the polling place," said Lupiani, who added that Tucker and Mollica's warning spread through the crowd "like a game of telephone" giving everyone the impression they were being denied their right to vote full-stop.

A separate Mundell volunteer, who declined to be named due to fear of harassment, said the blame fell on both camps, but that she "didn’t see any arguing nor [disrespect] on either side."

Looking to November

In a public statement conceding to Mundell, Gamble expressed satisfaction with his role in the township's first contested democratic mayoral primary since 2016, he described the choice as "a victory for democracy."

Remarking on the vitriol that enveloped the primary at times, Gamble opined that he and Mundell ran clean campaigns. "A lot of the accusations were driven by people surrounding the campaigns; I don’t think Councilwoman Mundell made any, nor did I," he said.

"I told people constantly, 'Do not be negative,'" Mundell said Wednesday night while reflecting on the primary election cycle. "It’s not about the other guy, it’s about what we're bringing to the table."

However, both had taken pot shots at one point or another. Mundell parroted Venezia's derisive title for Gamble calling him the "temporary chair," during her post-primary interview, noting she felt his concession statement included backhanded swipes at her expense.

Gamble accused Mundell's campaign of violating political sign statutes, but saved his most acid-tongued reproaches for Venezia, or at least in interviews with this outlet.

With the contest concluded, and yet another race set to begin as she faces off against Tucker in November, Mundell said of the political climate gripping her hometown and the country at-large, "It’s exhausting."

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Jenny Mundell to face David Tucker in Bloomfield mayor race