Brendan Gill Says He Will Bring His Coalition-Building Skills to Congress

With Mikie Sherrill resigning her Congressional seat to become NJ Governor, South Orange and Maplewood will help decide the crowded Democratic primary for NJ-11. Village Green is profiling candidates. Primary day is Feb. 5, but Mail-In Ballots started mailing out to voters on Dec. 22. Read more election coverage here.

 

For Brendan Gill, Essex County Commissioner at Large and Democratic candidate for NJ-11, it’s all about relationships.

Since his days as a college student attending Seton Hall University, Gill has been active in New Jersey politics, organizing for the late former Congressman Bill Pascrell who represented sections of South Orange and Maplewood in NJ-8 before redistricting.

“He was a baby back then when I first knew him,” said Leslie Pogany, owner of Bunny’s Sports Bar in South Orange. She remembers college-aged Gill hanging signs and setting up a campaign event at Bunny’s for Pascrell’s campaign back in 1996.

Now things have come full circle: This past December, Bunny’s was the site of a Brendan Gill for Congress campaign event. Gill is one of 11 Democratic hopefuls vying for Gov.-Elect Mikie Sherrill’s former NJ-11 seat. He is seen as one of the top candidates, with substantial funding and a mountain of endorsements from unions, elected officials, the Essex County Democratic Committee (the district also includes part of Morris and Passaic counties, where the Democratic committees have endorsed other candidates) and, most recently, all five members of the Maplewood Township Committee.

Rejecting the Machine Candidate Label

Gill’s campaign announcement on November 6, 2025 came along with the immediate endorsement of more than 60 local party and elected officials. On December 2, the Essex County Democratic Committee held its endorsement convention one day after the filing deadline, in a move that was seen as favoring Gill and that led to a contentious vote. The surfeit of endorsements and the convention have led some to label him the “machine” candidate.

It’s a label Gill rejects.

“I think it’s really unfortunate for them to label the broad coalition that’s supporting this campaign in that way. I am proud to have the support of multiple community, nonprofit and elected leaders in this district. And one of my roles, in addition to serving at the local level, I lead one of the most progressive organizations in the state of New Jersey, the Montclair Democratic Party.”

“In what I’m going to call the ‘independent state of Montclair’, to think that anyone would tell anyone what they’re going to do, it’s actually laughable,” said Gill. “And I think it’s unfortunate that my opponents have tried to demean the people that are supporting me by using language like that.”

Gill added, “I’m proud to have the support of nonprofit and community leaders like Melissa Walker, who runs one of the largest nonprofit arts education groups in the state. I’m proud to have the support of people like Debra Kagan, who serves as the executive director of the New Jersey Bike & Walk Coalition. I’m proud to have the support of Anne Mernin, who runs Toni’s Kitchen and runs a food pantry that services many of the communities that are in the 11th Congressional district. I’m proud to have the support of State Senator Britnee Timberlake, who is one of the most progressive champions we have in the state Senate. Senator Theresa Ruiz, the highest ranking Latina to ever serve in state government. I’m proud to have the support of the first African American woman elected mayor in the history of Montclair in Renee Baskerville. I’m proud to have the support of the first woman mayor ever elected in the history of Bloomfield Township in Jenny Mundell. I’m proud to have the support of Carmen Morales, who is the first Puerto Rican assemblywoman to ever represent the 34th legislative district.”

“These are not machine politicians, and they shouldn’t be labeled that way,” said Gill.

“These are people who, whether they’re elected leaders or nonprofit leaders, have their own public service record. And I’m proud to have their support. And I think when we use that language, when people label this campaign as a machine candidate, they overlook the coalition building, the hands-on engagement that has defined my work and the human relationships.”

“And I will continue to prioritize that both as a candidate and as a potential member of Congress — union members, teachers, parents, community members. They poured their time into making New Jersey a better place. I am lucky and honored to be able to build on that.”

“Finally, I would say that we as Democrats have to be unified. We have a five-alarm fire and existential crisis to our democracy right now that requires us to be unified and to build large coalitions to beat back what is coming out of Washington. I don’t have a lot of time for people who right now want to put people into boxes, who want to use certain kind of tests that exclude people from our movement to help restore and protect our democracy.”

Gill has  repeatedly highlighted the number of women leaders supporting him — an important distinction for the campaign following criticism when party leaders briefly sought to replace his wife Alixon Collazos-Gill on the NJ 27th Assembly district ballot with him in 2023.

“These women are leaders in every sense of the word — people who show up, who fight for their communities, and who know what it takes to make real progress,” said Gill in a press release announcing the endorsement of 50 women leaders back in December. “I’m honored to have their trust. Their partnership inspires me and reminds me why this race matters: because everyone across NJ-11 deserves a representative who is accessible and accountable, someone who listens to women, learns from women, and leads alongside them.”

Raised on Equity

“I think my people focus is really based on my personal story,” Gill told Village Green. “I’m the son of a 53-year public school educator in a township of Montclair. He was a part of the movement when he moved to Montclair that helped to create the magnet schools, which helped to integrate the Montclair Public Schools and to help integrate our community.”

“I was able to see at a very young age what community service was all about, in terms of how you could impact, and make progress in your local community. You can think globally and act locally and make a big difference. And community and public service was something that I learned very early on, and admired my dad for his role in the community. I also admired the fact that it was never about him. It was about the children that he worked with, the community that he worked with.”

“When my parents purchased the home that they still live in to this day, it took them 14 different banks in order to find a lender who would give them a mortgage. Many of the reasons for that was because there was an African American family who lived next to the home that my dad was seeking to buy. At the 14th bank, which eventually ended up issuing a mortgage, the person actually told him, ‘Mr. Gill, you do not want to buy this home.’ He did buy that home. He did raise his family, my mom and dad raised us in that home.”

“I was aware of those types of issues that existed, which gave me a great social education.” Gill noted that Montclair is very similar in its diversity to South Orange and Maplewood “both racially and socioeconomically.”

Power in a Union

Gill said he parents formed his worldview in other ways, including his support for organized labor.

“I think that all then can be tied to what a union-supported middle class upbringing afforded me and my own family, to live my own version of the American Dream and what it’s meant to so many as a pathway into the middle class, as a pathway into home ownership, as a pathway into creating educational opportunities.”

“All of those things stem from what organized labor stands for. I’m proud to have that many endorsements in this race, because … the titles come and go, and they don’t really matter, but what matters is do people who make up those unions understand that if you’re out there and have an opportunity to work on the issues that help them, that they care about, that you’re doing something about it. And I have a track record.”

Gill said his unions endorsements “represent people that have had the opportunity to work with me, who I’ve been able to deliver on the issues that they care about, and they’re excited about the promise of what I can deliver in the future.”

South Orange & Maplewood Fire Department Consolidation

Gill supported South Orange Council Member Deborah Davis Ford when she challenged South Orange Mayor Sheena Collum in the 2019 election to lead South Orange — with consolidation of the Maplewood and South Orange fire departments as the central issue. The NJ Firemen’s Benevolent Association opposed the move and backed Davis Ford who worked with Gill as Clerk of the County Commissioners board.

The election got contentious, with Maplewood Mayor Vic De Luca — Collum’s Maplewood partner in leading the consolidation — at one posting to social media that “Decisions about providing fire and emergency response services are far too important to be made by campaign sound bites and fear tactics.”

Gill said that it has all worked out for the best.

“I’ve been a strong supporter of organized labor, and what I’m most excited about now that that process has been completed is that both the men and women and the leadership that make up the local fire department, now regional fire department, and the community members have landed in a place where everyone feels like they are working together and can move forward. I know it was a controversial issue within the community. But ultimately, even though, we had a different opinion on what the pathways forward are, I think both sides would tell you that ultimately we were helpful in coming to the consensus.”

“Now that it’s been completed, so many of the issues that I think were raised during that process, the public safety nature of it, first and foremost, secondly, the protection of the community. And then of course, a department that respects the ability to collectively bargain, which I think ultimately we all support, meaning the people that represent these communities. I don’t think anyone’s against that.”

What does a County Commissioner do?

While Gill is known by many in political spheres (besides working for Pascrell, he ran Gov. Phil Murphy’s successful 2017 campaign, and served as a senior advisor to U.S. Senators Cory Booker and Frank Lautenberg, and Congressmen Steve Rothman), many residents in South Orange and Maplewood are unfamiliar with the work of the Essex County Commissioners, outside of news stories covering the perks and benefits (now reduced) of the job.

Gill explained the role.

“The County Commissioner board is the legislative body of County government. It’s a nine member board. I’ve had the honor to be a member of it since 2012, elected for the first time in 2011,” said Gill. “In my first term for those — they’re three-year terms — I actually represented a district. There are five districts and four at-large commissioners. For the first term, that I was in a district seat. I did not represent South Orange and Maplewood directly. I represented District 5, which was Montclair, Bloomfield, Belleville, Glen Ridge, and Nutley. But then in 2014, I ran countywide and have been representing South Orange in Maplewood ever since. I have worked closely with the leaders of both community and elected officials, in South Orange and Maplewood ever since that time on a variety of issues.”

Gill continued, “Infrastructure and transportation have been a particular focus with the projects that we have done, both on South Orange Avenue and on all of our county corridors. In terms of intersection and curb replacements, as a matter of fact, just recently, we completed a project on Valley and Center Street [in Orange] that we have been advocating for.”

Gill said he was proud to be endorsed in this campaign by the Executive Director of the New Jersey Bike & Walk Coalition Debra Kagan. “I know that is a big issue obviously in Maplewood and South Orange, and I’ve been a big proponent and advocate for the County to adopt policies and to push them into more bike and walking friendly execution on all of our public works projects.”

Gill said he also had experience locally working with the leadership of SOMA Action on voting access, security and rights. “The leadership of SOMA Action at the time brought to me the idea following the 2020 election that we needed to move the County to paper ballots. We worked closely for over half a year to move the County and to move the Board of Elections to paper ballots, which is the most secure way to vote. And the reason we were able to do that was because of the leadership of SOMA Action and because of the collaboration that we had in working on that issue.”

“The issue of ballot placement, the issue of the line. These are all things that I have been a part of and have worked on extensively.”

[Editor’s Note: SOMA Action is not endorsing a candidate in the NJ-11 primary.]

Immigration

Gill said he has taken on his own party on an issue that is important to many Democratic voters in South Orange and Maplewood — opposing the County’s relationship with a contractor for a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Newark — a contract that was ended in 2021.

“I was part of the movement to actually eliminate the contract with the County,” said Gill. “So when I had the ability and the power to do something, I did. I stood up to our County Executive, and when I say stood up, meaning that I work with our County Executive on a lot of various issues. But I use this to illustrate that I’ve also have a track record of standing up against my own party when I think we’re taking positions that are wrong.”

Gill added, “I was against those contracts, never supported it, did not vote for it, and also was very vocal in encouraging the County, not only the County, but the Federal government and the state to eliminate those subcontracts.”

Gill noted, “It just wasn’t me. There was a coalition of people that also advocated for that.”

Gill has also been speaking out against the contract that ICE has with the GEO Group to run the Delaney Hall detention center in Newark.

“We need to do everything we can to try to close that facility. We need to make sure that we have our federal representatives getting access.” Meanwhile, he said that he worked to set up with a pro bono legal service for the families and people that are currently being detained in that facility. “We led that effort, we got it funded. It was staffed by attorneys from Seton Hall and Rutgers Law School. We also worked at that time to create an independent review board, I worked with the ACLU on the ordinance that we eventually adopted that created that board.”

“As a member of Congress, I would absolutely continue to work with the various organizations that I have worked with in the past — Make the Road to New Jersey, the Immigration Justice Alliance. I would continue to be a strong advocate for Immigration Trust Act, which is currently languishing in the state legislature.” Ultimately, said Gill, it’s important to continue to “speak out against this issue, to make sure that people receive due process, to make sure that policies are in place that people are being treated humanely” as well as close the facility.

Getting to work in Washington

Gill said that his ability to “do multiple things, understand, have the relationships, and follow up” make him best suited to take on the hot button issues in New Jersey and Washington, D.C.

“We have an affordability crisis right now in our state,” said Gill. “People are dealing right with the issue of healthcare. They’re dealing with an infrastructure system that’s not working. They’re dealing with vast changes in income inequality, tax equity or the lack of it, high energy and electric bills.

“We have a pressing crisis right now in this region that needs someone to understand what it means for the district and how to utilize this office to help work on those issues and to help fight on those issues and to help solve those issues.”

“At the same time, we have an existential crisis in Washington where we have a President or authoritarian leader that needs to be stopped. That’s the baseline. MAGA Republicans and the President are destroying our democratic institutions. So we need people that also understand and have some Washington experience because we’ve got to take that fight on, on day one. But the best way to be able to take that fight on is with a broad coalition of people that you know and have worked with in the district that you represent. And that’s the differentiator for me and for my candidacy, is that I’m bringing all of that experience to this position. Hopefully my candidacy will be evaluated in that way.”

“And I think ultimately that’s how we will help both, not only fight back, but restore some of the damage that’s been done to our democratic institutions. It’s not just restoring them to where they were. Because Trump, although a big factor and a cause, is not the only root cause of why we’re in this position. Many of the issues in terms of our governance structure, how the House of Representatives functions, the corrosive nature of money in the political process, these are all issues too, right. That have contributed to where we are as well. So we’re going to have to have some real conversations. And not only conversations, but action.”

SOMA endorsements

Although Gill “bleeds Montclair blue,” he has some long-term relationships in Maplewood and South Orange.

Former South Orange Council Member Deborah Davis Ford has know Gill for more than 10 years through her work as Clerk to the Essex County Commissioners.

“He’s a proven public servant,” said Davis Ford regarding Gill. “It’s his family culture. I saw him firsthand. I saw the character that he has, his commitment to family, his commitment to
the community, and what is different to me about Brendan is he’s not just a photo ops guy. He listens and when he listens and people bring to an issue or concern, he’s present, and then he acts.”

As an example, Davis Ford referenced the ordinance that Gill created for the legal fund for ICE detainees. “It was funded. So you can pass a lot of laws and issues that may take financial resources, but if you don’t fund it, there’s nothing worse than an unfunded mandate. And so that was funded and this particular ordinance gave oversight not just to that, but also to the the county prisons in general.”

Davis Ford also lauded Gill’s commitment to organized labor.

“Both my parents benefited from labor unions, especially as Black people, where that was probably one of the few ways that they got opportunities and were protected.”

Larry Hirsch, the Acting President of AFGE Local 913, a Democratic State Committeeman and am Co-Chair of the South Orange Democratic Committee, published a letter endorsing Gill in December.

In an interview, Hirsch told Village Green, “I found someone who takes interesting people and he took it personal interest when I was starting to work out here in politics, and I appreciated that. So I got to know him. Now that I know him, as someone who is involved in the labor movement, cares about working people, … and then someone who has the governmental experience, who has worked with Senator Cory Booker, worked with Gov. Phil Murphy, knows Congress, has spoken up on different issues, standing up to ICE, working for environmental causes, someone who’s always there — I feel he’s the most well rounded, best qualified person to represent.”

Hirsch said that there are other good people running, but “when it comes to someone who really connects with people, I think it is important. We need someone strong in there.”

The endorsement of Gill by the five members of the the Maplewood Township Committee took some by surprise, especially after Mayor Vic De Luca had told Village Green, in a profile on Dean Dafis, ““The Essex County Democrats are lining up behind one of their own. That’s Brendan Gill. So Dean is an insurgent candidate. He’s running against a machine.”

Dafis has since dropped out of the primary and endorsed Gill along with the other Township Committee members (former Mayor Nancy Adams has supported Gill all along, while Deputy Mayor Malia Herman, De Luca and Jane Collins-Colding were supporting Dafis).

De Luca’s turnabout could be attributable to his long relationship with Gill. In a text exchange with Village Green, he mentioned that he has known Gill for 30 years and stumped with him for Pascrell.

The endorsement from the five TC members read in part: “Maplewood will not be forgotten with Brendan Gill in Washington. Brendan understands how government works and, more importantly, how to make it work for people. He is battle tested, trusted, and ready to lead on day one. He has delivered real results for Maplewood and Essex County, earning the trust of voters time and again through steady, effective leadership.”

In his standalone statement endorsing Gill, Dafis wrote: “Since suspending my own campaign in this critical election, I’ve given serious thought about who I would endorse and why. Considering what’s at stake, knowing what it takes in government to deliver results for our constituents, and looking to continue uplifting my LGBTQIA+ community, I’m proud to throw my support to my fellow Essex elected leader and longstanding partner in public service, Brendan Gill. We’ve worked closely to advance progressive policies in Essex County that put working families first, and Brendan has always stood with us. He’s the type of pragmatic and strategic leader this moment demands, and he possesses the experience, progressive values, and steady judgment to meet the moment. We can count on him to deliver for us.”