Newark, New Jersey: A candidate for New Jersey governor has opened another office in Essex County.
Phil Murphy, who is running as a Democrat in the 2017 election, just opened an Essex County campaign office last week at 744 Broad Street in Downtown Newark, between Commerce Street and Clinton Street. The space, located on the first floor of the National Newark Building, was previously occupied by Verizon Wireless and FedEx Kinko's.
Murphy, a resident of Middletown, Monmouth County, was endorsed last week outside of the Essex County Courthouse by several local officials, including Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, Congressman Donald Payne, Jr., Maplewood Mayor Vic DeLuca, Assemblywoman Mila Jasey, and Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo, Jr.
New Jersey State Senate President Stephen Sweeney announced last week that he would not run for governor after telling Essex County Place in July at the Democratic National Convention that "I think you've got a handful of candidates who are going to run and we'll see what happens".
State Senator Raymond Lesniak, who told Essex County Place over the summer that "if I enter the race, I expect to win", announced that he was filing paperwork to enter on Friday, according to WHYY. Senator Lesniak has already begun tweeting about the race, posting yesterday that "the leadership thought it better to support Murphy with his tens of millions of campaign funds and support from the political establishment".
Murphy for Governor already has a presence in Newark with its campaign headquarters at the Gateway Center.
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