Jersey City mayoral run-off between ex-NJ Gov. Jim McGreevey and James Solomon eerily similar to NYC mayor’s race

The tight Jersey City mayoral run-off pitting sex-scandal-scarred former New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey and liberal local pol James Solomon is eerily echoing New York City’s stunning showdown last month.

In one corner is the Democratic Jersey City-born ex-gov who has been out of politics for more than 20 years after he was forced to resign in disgrace thanks to a gay-sex saga.

McGreevey, 68, came out of political retirement to try to become Jersey City’s next mayor and is now taking on Solomon, a 41-year-old spirited, two-term downtown Dem councilman, in Tuesday’s election run-off to oversee the state’s second biggest city.

Both candidates have made “affordability” the key issue of their campaigns — focusing on affordable housing and skyrocketing property taxes — as they head into the run-off.

The similarities between the two Jersey City men and issues compared to the mayoral Big Apple, economy-driven match-up featuring progressive upstart Zohran Mamdani and ex-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo are aplenty.

Cuomo resurfaced to run for public office after a sex-harassment scandal drove him from the governor’s office in 2021. He has denied any wrongdoing over the allegations.

Resurrected pol McGreevey also has promised he can deliver based on his past political experience and pledged fiscal responsibility, as did Cuomo.

Solomon, as with Mamdani, has meanwhile painted himself as the non-establish candidate who rallied his base by promising to take on developers who’ve reshaped the city’s skyline and capping rents.

“Excuse my French, but New York City’s gotta get its s–t together,” Solomon said about the housing crisis across the Hudson River that’s pushed renters out of even pricier New York City and into Jersey City.

“We’ve built a ton of housing. But we are basically sucking up the demand that New York City has failed to build housing.”

Jersey City’s housing stock has exploded over the past decade as other major cities now find themselves in a housing shortage. But most of Jersey City’s new projects have been for luxury homes along the city’s pricey waterfront and downtown neighborhoods.

McGreevey and Solomon share a similar plan that would require new major projects to build a minimum of 20% affordable housing units.

But McGreevey has slammed Solomon’s plan to cap some affordable units’ rent at $1,000, which he believes is not financially feasible because the requirements would have to be subsidized “in perpetuity.’’

The ex-gov has said that will ultimately cost the city and its taxpayers billions of dollars.

Solomon for his part has also attacked McGreevey’s campaign for accepting money from developers who he alleges have received “sweetheart deals” from government officials for too long without helping working families.

“The same corrupt political bosses are backing [McGreevey’s] campaign,” Solomon alleged.

The councilman added that the former governor is still “practicing a politics from 20 years ago” — tactics that made the city “significantly” less affordable.

Property taxes in Jersey City have meanwhile seen some of the biggest increases in the country in the past few years, which is largely a result of the city’s struggling school system’s lack of state funding.
McGreevey has argued that the city government needs to be doing “fewer things well” to help cut costs for residents.

He has promised no increase in the municipal portion of the property tax levy in his administration’s first year.

As for President Trump’s national immigration enforcement coming to Jersey City, one of  the most diverse areas in the country, where nearly 40% of its residents were born in a foreign country, McGreevey and Solomon each said that they’d do everything within their legal means to protect and educate locals.

Both have promised to keep Jersey City a “sanctuary city” in the face of threats and lawsuits from the Trump administration.

Throughout his campaign, Solomon, who has served on the City Council since 2017, painted himself as an outsider among Hudson County’s powerful Democratic political machine.

McGreevey has been out of the political limelight since he resigned from the governorship in in 2004 and was forced to come out as gay after it was revealed he had an extramarital affair with a male aide.

But the residents of Jersey City have been welcoming in his return, he said.

“I mean, people … understand it was to a large extent sort of, you know, grappling with my own personal reality,” he said about the scandal.

“I have found people in Jersey City to be incredibly embracing, compassionate, thoughtful. So it had impacted [my campaign]  much less than I would have thought,” he said.

Neither candidate reached the 50% threshold needed to win outright Nov. 4, forcing a runoff.
Solomon secured 29.2% of the votes, narrowly ahead of McGreevey at 25.1% and Hudson County Commissioner Bill O’Dea with 21.5%.

O’Dea and most of the other mayoral candidates who previously appeared on the ballot have backed Solomon, who’s also received endorsements from New Jersey Sen. James Kim.

McGreevey has plowed ahead with the support of outgoing Democratic governor Phil Murphy and the city’s police union. The former governor, who also once served as the mayor of Woodbridge, said his “experience” is what voters can expect from him.

“I mean, you know, no disrespect, but James has never managed anything,” he said.