State Assemblywoman Liz Muoio, a Democrat who represented parts of Mercer and Hunterdon counties since 2015, resigned her seat to join the Murphy administration, thus creating a vacancy that many Democrats want to fill.
Muoio, re-elected in November to her seat in the 15th Legislative district, was sworn in last week. But she submitted her resignation to the Assembly clerk on Friday to become acting state Treasurer until she gets confirmed by the Democrat-controlled state Senate. Her resignation took effect at the end of business Monday, according to an aide. She also left her job as the Mercer County director of economic development.
In political circles, the focus will be on choosing a replacement from a large pool of Democrats—mostly in Mercer County—who want to advance their political careers.
“I’m weighing my options, talking with people,” Mercer County Freeholder Samuel T. Frisby Sr. said Tuesday.
He is among the Democrats that include fellow Mercer County Freeholder Anthony S. Verrelli, West Windsor Councilwoman Ayesha Hamilton, Ewing Councilman David Schroth and Lambertville Mayor David DelVecchio, among others, who have expressed interest.
Former West Windsor Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh said Tuesday that he did not want to run for the seat, despite Mercer County Executive Brian Hughes saying last week that Hsueh wants it.
“To me, I’m not thinking about running,” he said, “but if somebody feels that I should be considered to run then I will be happy to talk and then think about it.”
The 15th district, spanning 10 towns in Mercer and Hunterdon counties, leans Democrat. The Democratic committees in both counties have little more than a month to choose Muoio’s replacement, with a special election in November to determine who would fill out the remainder of her two-year-term.
“I’m sure it’ll come to fruition sometime in the next fifteen to twenty days how this is really going to shake out,” Frisby said.
State Assemblyman Reed Gusciora, a Democrat who holds the other Assembly seat in the district, on Tuesday dismissed as “false” talk that he would be leaving office to become a judge. There had been discussion of that scenario happening before, when Republican Gov. Chris Christie was in office, but Guscoria said there are no judicial vacancies in Mercer County.
“I am stayin put,” he said in later quoting the poet Robert Frost. “I have many miles to go before I sleep.”