Moriarty will seek Madden’s seat in the Senate; Mosquera will not seek re-election to the National Assembly
South Jersey Democrats have tapped nine-term Assemblyman Paul Moriarty as the organization’s nominee for an open state Senate seat in a South Jersey district, while his running mate, Gabriela Mosquera, will not seek re-election to a seventh term in her fourth district seat, the New Jersey Globe has confirmed.
Democrats plan to lead Monroe School Board Member Cody Miller, Rowan College Foundation Principal, and Gloucester Township Councilor Dan Hutchison for the two open seats in the state Assembly in the 4th district.
Moriarty, 66, wants to succeed Fred Madden (D-Washington Township), who announced this month that he will not run again after 20 years in the state Senate.
He began calling local authorities in Gloucester and Camden counties for help before the March 27 filing deadline.
If the 4th District Democratic slate succeeds in the primary, it would mean a net loss of one woman and one Hispanic from the local legislative delegation.
The departure of Moriarty and Mosquera from the Assembly brings the total number of legislative retirements to 25, although several of them are seeking another position.
Gloucester County Commissioner Nick DeSilvio and former Washington Township Councilman Chris DelBorrello will face off in a Republican primary for Madden’s Senate seat. DeSilvio has lines in Camden and Gloucester, while DelBorrello has the line in the Atlantic, where about 7% of Republicans live.
The 4th District has become decidedly more Republican in the legislative redistricting, removing Democratic strongholds like Lindenwold and adding one of Camden County’s few Republican towns, Waterford.
Under the old map, Gov. Phil Murphy won the 4th District two years ago by two percentage points, but cities on the new map gave GOP gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli a victory of five dots. In the 2020 presidential election, Joe Biden won the new 4th Precinct by seven points.
According to these new lines, the Democratic candidates for the Senate in 2021 accumulated 50.6% of the votes against 49.4% for the Republicans – a margin of about a thousand votes. This happened despite the state GOP offering no assistance to Pakradooni.
After nearly two decades as a top consumer investigative reporter for a CBS network affiliate in Philadelphia, KYW-TV Channel 3, Moriarty entered politics in 2004 as an elected candidate for mayor of Washington Township, the largest city in the 4th district. He was elected to the state assembly in 2005 after Democrat Robert Smith (D-Washington) decided not to seek a fourth term.
Moriarty had faced tough races, including in 2009 when Republican Domenick DeCicco (R-Franklin) flipped an open seat; he got 2,653 votes ahead of DeCicco’s running mate, former Gloucester Township councilor and NAACP board member Eugene Lawrence.
He chaired the Assembly’s Consumer Affairs Committee for nearly fourteen years.
Moriarty faced a recall election as mayor, but organizers were unable to garner enough petition signatures to force the issue on the ballot. He also faced a high-profile drunk driving arrest in 2012; the charges were dropped, the arresting officer faced criminal misconduct charges – he was acquitted – and the two years were swallowed up in federal and state prosecutions.
For the Assembly, DeSilvio teamed up with Michael Clark, a 24-year-old businessman and athletic director of Solid Rock Christian School in Berlin, and Denise Gonzalez, a United States Marine Corps veteran and also a member of IBEW Local 351; she ran against Moriarty and Mosquera in 2021 and lost by around 4,000 votes.
DelBorrello is running with former Buena Council President Matthew Walker and newcomer Lisa Rayca of Sewell.
Miller, 33, served as a Monroe alderman from 2015-2020 and was elected to the school board in 2022. He served on Rowan’s board of trustees until taking a full-time position at the head of their foundation.
Hutchison, 55, started out as a Republican, winning 25% of the vote in a bid to oust Representative Rob Andrews (D-Haddon Height) in 2004. He was elected to the Gloucester Township Council in an election non-partisan in 2006. municipal election; after the township moved to partisan elections, Hutchison switched parties and was re-elected four times as a Democrat.
DeSilvio, 59, is a member of Local 351 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. He spent nine years as a naval nuclear operator and served six years as a member of the Franklin Township school board. He became involved in local government as an advocate for his daughter, a child with special needs.
He ran unsuccessfully for county commissioner in 2020, losing by 1,944 votes, or about half a percent. DeDilvio was the top voter in his 2021 bid for county commissioner, beating longtime incumbent Robert Damminger by 3,296 votes.
DelBorrello, now a resident of Gloucester Township, served as a Washington Township alderman from 2010 to 2014. He did not seek re-election.
