voters in District 27 have been scratching their heads at the ballot swap outs that have been happening in the last few weeks first longtime Senator and former Governor dick Cody announced he'd stepped down after defeating Senator Nia Gill in a primary Face-Off then assembly candidate Alex and collazo's gill who won the Primary in June announced she was stepping away and would be replaced by her husband Essex County Commissioner Brendan Gill only to then announce last night she's back in he's out I'm joined right now by Leroy Jones chair of the democratic State committee to help us understand this back and forth ballot Shuffle chairman Jones great to have you with us tonight you know what first looked like backroom politics really overriding the will of the people have to have to ask now feels like a power grab between a husband and wife what in the world is going on in District 27. so let's dispel the notion of backroom politics because uh you know that that is not the case here you know this was a you know very transparent and open process uh it was the process that you know was uh was was governed by Statute and it was followed uh you know by the letter of the law to the statute okay I'm going to push back on that because voters in District 27 voted in the primary for Senator Dick Cody after he won that primary ousting Nia Gill he then stepped away it essentially all but hands the the nomination over to assemblyman John McKeon does that that's not quite accurate so um so what drove Senator Cody uh you know to out of the election cycle uh you know that's between uh you know Senator Cody and his family uh but the reality of it was just that by the timing of that but timing of that chairman to happen after the primary was this an attempt an effort to oust Nia Gill including the redistricting of the map that pitted them against each other and now he stepped down right after the primary it does assure that assemblyman John McKeon will likely have that seat so uh redistricting was uh settled uh last year uh the uh the election in the primary between Senator Cody and and Senator Gill took place in June of this year uh you know Senator Cody won that election uh you know as uh you know as uh the uh the Democratic nominee uh we fast forward to uh to August and uh Senator Cody uh you know decided and that's a question for Senator Cody to uh to take himself out of uh the election process uh that created a vacation that vacancy uh led the uh the county Committee in the 27th that's legislative district which is comprised of Essex County and Passaic County to convene the members of the county committee as prescribed by a statute that was done Senator McKeon was nominated it was unanimous and uh and that concluded that process certainly not what voters went to the polls voting for but let's talk about the Gill situation we have Brendan Gill stepping in after voters after his wife won the Primary he says he's going to now Run for the seat just a few days later she says hold on I'm back in I couldn't see any reason why I would step down what is happening with the gills that is uh you know a question that you know is between uh you know Mr and Mrs Gill um you know the uh the process uh you know led to a uh a vacancy when instead of when uh soon to be Senator hopefully uh McKeon uh you know stepped down from his uh his assembly uh nomination as the Democratic nominee that created a vacancy and that vacancy was filled by Statute that took place last night it was a very transparent process I would have welcomed uh you know you to be there uh you know with your uh with your uh with your video crew to uh you know have monitored it I think uh you know it was Dev it was a democracy at its best uh you know it proved the uh you know the importance and the meaningfulness of being a County Community Committee Member in that particular space and uh you know today we have a complete slate that's ready to go uh to do battle in the general election of 2023. chairman there's a a lot of criticism that it is the county leaders who end up deciding so much of what happens in the political sphere from the party line down here in New Jersey and Democrats have consistently said that they are for increasing voters rights uh voters access to their elected officials whom they want to put forward does this process that just played out reflect that effort is this how elections should go in New Jersey well uh I think uh you know I've I've stated uh you know on numerous occasions the statute is uh what we are governed by and uh you know the uh the the statute was uh you know as adhered to by the letter of the law uh and I said uh as I said if you were there you would have saw uh you know the transparency of that you know saw how democracy works and you would have saw how vacancies are uh filled by virtue of uh the statues that uh exist here in the state of New Jersey all right Leroy Jones chair of the democratic State committee here in New Jersey thank you thank you for having me