Secaucus Resident Schillari Loses To Bayonne Mayor In Quest To Be Hudson County Sheriff

SECAUCUS, NJ — The big news just keeps coming out of Secaucus:

Secaucus resident and current Hudson County Sheriff Frank Schillari suffered a major defeat Tuesday, when he failed to be re-elected as the Democratic nominee for Hudson County Sheriff.

Bayonne Mayor Jimmy Davis won the Democratic primary for sheriff, and he will be the Democrat who runs for sheriff in November. Given that Hudson County has a vast majority of registered Democrats, Davis will likely win the election in November.

While results have not been certified, Davis got 53 percent of the vote Tuesday night (32,588 votes) to 45 percent for Schillari (28,093 votes). See vote results here.

This was a stunning defeat, as Schillari, 78, has been the Hudson County Sheriff for the past 15 years. He was first elected sheriff in 2010. Many people in Secaucus, including Mayor Mike Gonnelli, supported Schillari.

Neither Schillari nor Gonnelli publicly commented yet on the loss.

This May, the city of Bayonne settled for $500,000 to resolve a lawsuit filed by a former Bayonne town employee in 2019; the woman alleged Bayonne City Hall was “a sexually charged hostile work environment and a culture of sex within the workplace." That's why the Schillari team accused Davis of inappropriate treatment of women in mass robotexts sent out to all Hudson County residents in the days leading up to Tuesday's primary.

The bitter fight between Davis and Schillari was also part of the split in the Hudson County Democratic Party this year:

First, Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop (who ran for governor and also lost the primary Tuesday to Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill) had a major falling out with the Hudson County Democratic Organization. That caused a new splinter group to form, "Democrats for Change," which backed both Fulop and Schillari on Tuesday.

Both Fulop and Schillari lost Tuesday.

The Hudson County Democratic Organization supported Davis. Davis, 62, was a Bayonne police officer and a detective with the Hudson County Prosecutor’s office before he became the mayor of Bayonne.

The Republican running for Hudson County Sheriff is Elvis Alvarez. He received 7,288 votes in Tuesday's primary.