Both candidates vying for Jersey City mayor outlined how they will support the city’s LGBTQ community as well as their strategy on how they will lead the state’s second-largest city. Former Gov. Jim McGreevey and current Councilman James Solomon both spoke ahead of the Dec. 2 runoff election about how they have helped and will continue to help the queer community, about their plans to make the city affordable for everyone and how they will tackle issues such as crime.
Jersey City Runoff election is Dec. 2
“I think that being gay and running for mayor, you have a sense of compassion and sensitivity to persons, which is so critically important in a city like Jersey City, which has a diverse and dynamic population,” said McGreevey, who famously came out in 2004 as “a gay American” as he resigned from office because of a sex scandal. After coming out as the nation’s first openly gay governor, McGreevey went on to write a memoir detailing the melding of his once double life and his quest for redemption. The former governor’s journey also took him to divinity school, where he was inspired to start an organization in 2014 that helps marginalized members of society, including the LGBTQ community.
The organization McGreevey founded is the New Jersey Reentry Corporation, which works through various programs to help formerly incarcerated individuals, people recovering from substance use disorder and mental illness, and military servicemembers returning from combat reenter society. He is the organization’s executive director and chairman. “I mean from my experience working with reentry, among the most marginalized and victimized communities in our national and state prison system is the LGBTQ community,” McGreevey said, adding that queer people in jails and prisons “are so brutalized.”
Although Solomon is not gay, he pointed to a “track record of substantive accomplishments” he helped achieve for the community as councilman and noted he has been “always showing up for the community whenever asked and needed. I am very honored to have the support of a number of the LGBTQ leaders of the city in this race,” including four of the original founders of Jersey City Pride, the support of Harmonica Sunbeam, “the best drag queen in the tri-state area, and a number of other awesome community leaders.”
Solomon said he wants everyone to feel comfortable, safe and welcome in the city and gave as an example of one of the ways he has helped do this was through the passage of a bill to make all single-stall restrooms in the city gender-neutral. He called it a “small thing, but I think a very important one.”
The councilman also said that when Hudson Pride has faced funding cuts from Trump or his different attacks on the trans community, the city has always been supportive. He also noted that he was among those who called for the resignation of an aide to Mayor Steven Fulop after the aide donated to and refused to condemn the anti-LGBTQ Tennessee campaign of his sister, Valentina Gomez.
McGreevey, who has been endorsed by the Garden State Equality Action Fund and the LGBTQ+ Victory Fund, sees access to healthcare, housing, and job training among the biggest challenges for the community.
“We all have the same needs: a safe home, food, a job of purpose, and the basic human need of love,” McGreevey told LGBTQ Nation in an article profiling his organization. “By raising awareness, we can reduce the stigma and discrimination, and create more inclusive and compassionate communities.”
Speaking more broadly than issues affecting only the queer community is making Jersey City affordable, including housing, rent, and property taxes. And to Solomon, who can make the city affordable is the fundamental question. “I think you have to have a new approach, and you can’t go backwards and rely on the old, failed ideas of the past. So for me, that’s the kind of core of this election,” Solomon said.
McGreevey said he decided to run for mayor because every day of his life working with veterans and former prisoners, he realized that none of them could afford to live anywhere in Jersey City. “My perspective was that knowing my work ethic and my commitment, I could easily work to improve the scope of city services,” McGreevey said, adding that while Solomon has been in office the city has had the highest property taxes in the state and the highest rent increases in the nation.
However, Solomon said he has been fighting to make the city more affordable and was proud to pass the first law in the state banning the use of A.I. algorithms “to illegally jack up the rent that was being done by some of the biggest landlords in Jersey City.” He said real estate developers, corporate landlords, and political bosses were making the city unaffordable each and every day.
Why voters, he said, should choose him over the former governor is twofold. “One is that I think we have better ideas. We’ve got a plan to require 20 percent affordable housing, with some genuinely affordable rents, $1,000 and under.
“The second is that I’m independent from those forces that have made Jersey City expensive, so independent from the developers, independent from the political bosses. I don’t take money from developers, and I’ve always been independent. And by contrast, the former governor’s campaign is backed by both those forces. He’s taken nearly $1 million from developers to fund his campaign, and he has the backing of most of the machine bosses across the state of New Jersey,” Solomon said.
McGreevey countered, saying his experience as mayor of Woodbridge Township for 10 years, his work as a state assemblyman and senator, in addition to being governor are what make him more qualified. “The first argument would be core competency,” McGreevey said. “I mean the gentleman I’m running against, Councilman Solomon, has never held a managerial position…”
Overseeing a $700 million budget with 3,000 employees, he said, requires a managerial skill set. The second argument, he continued, would be the ability to identify and secure federal and state grants and programming. And third, he said, would be having fiscal prudence while maximizing the municipality’s obligations with safe and clean streets, community policing, supporting the school district, and building affordable housing. “All of those challenges require some level of understanding of municipal finance, debt service, bonding, and cash flow,” he said.
But to Solomon, his experience “fighting and beating developers and the political machine” is among the most important experience he has. In addition to the algorithm bill, he said, the city passed a measure that requires developers to pay into the city’s affordable housing trust fund whenever they build luxury housing.
“The other thing is I’d say is look, I don’t have some of the experience the former governor has, but I think that’s a good thing. You know, unfortunately, he has a track record of pretty serious corruption,” including close associates going to jail over pay-to-play investigations, he said. “I think at the end of the day you want someone with a track record of serving the community with good ethics and always putting people first and I think I have that track record and that experience.”
McGreevey’s opponents throughout the campaign have brought up the scandals of his past, saying those should disqualify him. However, the former governor has said that delivering for the residents of Jersey City, not his mistakes, is what matters now. “I have made mistakes, and I own them. Twenty years ago, I fell short of the standards I expected of myself and of public service,” McGreevey said in a statement issued during his campaign. “I have never hidden from those mistakes, nor made excuses. I took responsibility, rebuilt my life, and devoted myself to helping others rebuild theirs.”
One of the ways McGreevey said he has helped others rebuild their lives is by providing skilled training in lines of work like phlebotomy, forklift driving, HVAC, and general electricity, for example, so they can compete in the marketplace. “It’s about second chances,” he said. “It’s about new beginnings. It’s about realizing the unfulfilled promise of each of us.”
McGreevey said among the first things he’d do in office would be to look at getting Jersey City’s fiscal house in order by conducting a “comprehensive forensic audit” to evaluate the city’s financial risks. “That would be number one. Number two is bolstering community policing,” he said, noting that while homicides have declined, other crimes such as burglary, robbery, and sexual assault are up.
Solomon’s plan to combat crime includes the hiring of 100 new police officers, making officers more visible in the community, and getting rid of “fixed-post” positions where officers are not allowed to move from the corner they’re on. He said he also wants to bring back the city’s award ceremonies it used to have to reward officers “who do great work,” and he also acknowledged the need to hold officers who fall short accountable. Additionally, he said it’s important to invest in the broader community and provide opportunities to young people.
McGreevey is 68 years old, was born in Jersey City, and grew up in Carteret. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Columbia University in New York, a law degree from Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C., a master’s degree in education from Harvard University in Boston, and a master’s degree in divinity from the General Theological Seminary in New York. He has been divorced twice and has two daughters, one from each marriage.
The former governor, who would be Jersey City’s first openly gay mayor if elected, said he knew he was gay since he was 5 or 6, but did understand what that meant. “But clearly, living in the closet is not a healthy place so, you know, the act of coming out was freeing. It was liberating, but it was also intensely challenging.” In his memoir, McGreevey expressed those challenges after hearing stories from young and old people from across the country who talked about their pain, anxiety and loneliness surrounding their sexuality.
“I wanted to write the book as an opportunity to express the possibilities of moving forward without offering, and this is important, any advice or direction because I think it’s a journey that’s unique to every person. So I wanted to be respectful and to honor that uniqueness, but also to share openly and honestly my story,” he said.
Solomon is 41 years old and was born and raised in Millburn. He received an undergraduate degree in public policy analysis from Pomona College in Claremont, California. He spent some time in the Midwest, including Chicago, where he realized he loved cities, became interested in how city governments ran, and decided he wanted to focus on that as a career. He has a master’s degree in public policy from the Harvard Kennedy School in Boston and worked as an aide to that city’s mayor before moving to Jersey City with his girlfriend, who is now his wife, in 2013.
Shortly after the move, he was diagnosed with lymphoma and has been in remission for nine years. The diagnosis gave him some “intense clarity” that life is short, and he decided that he wanted to spend the time he had focusing on his family and on public service. He ran for the city council and was elected in 2017. It was his first time holding public office. He and his wife have three daughters.
Solomon has been an adjunct professor at three schools of higher learning in the city: New Jersey City University, Hudson County Community College, and Saint Peter’s University. He teaches primarily political science.
