Former Morristown Mayor Donald Cresitello’s bid to run again as an Independent has been quashed by a judge, who said the candidate’s arguments that he lives here, and not at the Shore, are “devoid of any evidence.”
Cresitello said Friday he will file another appeal.
State law requires candidates to live where they are seeking office for at least one year prior to the election.
Although Cresitello registered to vote in Morristown on Nov. 1, 2020, “the record is devoid of any evidence establishing Cresitello’s residency in Morristown in the relevant time period,” Superior Court Assignment Judge Stuart Minkowitz said in a 12-page opinion released on Friday.
Cresitello’s candidacy had been contested by the Morris County Democratic Committee, a protest upheld by Morris County Clerk Ann Grossi, a Republican.
Cresitello, who owns a home in Manasquan and ran for council there in 2019, said he differs with the judge.
“He’s wrong on every count. So is the county clerk,” said Cresitello.
Grossi said Friday she was pleased by the decision. “People always have to be upfront about elections, where they are, where they live, what they’re doing… It’s important to the system, because it makes the system work equitably and fairly.”
Morris Democratic Chairman Chip Robinson said Minkowitz’s decision was not surprising.
“The judge agrees with us that (Cresitello) is not a Morristown resident,” Robinson said.
“I wish him the best but Morristown deserves to have a mayor who lives in Morristown,” said Mayor Tim Dougherty, who is seeing a fourth term.
Cresitello reiterated his determination to challenge Dougherty, who unseated him in the 2009 Democratic primary.
“In my opinion, there are activities in Morristown I don’t feel are legal, and somebody needs to do something about that. I don’t like that the mayor is running unopposed,” said Cresitello.
In his appeal of his disqualification by Grossi, Cresitello cited EZ Pass records and local restaurant receipts, and said he had been staying with Morristown friends and at his local business while searching for more permanent accommodations.
At a virtual hearing this week before Judge Minkowitz, Cresitello’s lawyer, Alan Zakin, said his client’s socializing with friends at Morristown bars was further proof of his intention to live here.
Zakin even compared Cresitello’s bunking with friends — “couch surfing,” an opposing lawyer called it–with Richard Kreimer’s sleeping on park benches in the 1990s. The attorney contended park benches were accepted as the homeless man’s residence when he sued Morristown’s library and police.
That argument was not addressed by the judge. He rejected Cresitello’s pitch in its entirety.
Election laws are meant to be construed liberally, in the interests of public participation in our democracy, Minkowitz acknowledged. But he cited a state Supreme Court decision asserting “procedural guardrails” are necessary “to prevent election fraud and to facilitate administration of the electoral process.”
Cresitello’s statements that he split his time between Manasquan on weekends, and Morristown on weekdays at his New Street business and his friend’s Mill Street home, indicate his living arrangements were “transient and temporary, and not evidence of an ordinary and permanent domicile,” wrote Minkowitz.
“Indeed, if the Court were to accept such a standard to establish residency, then conceivably any full-time employee of an employer located in Morristown could claim residency. Clearly, such a proposition would lead to an absurd result and defeat the legislative intent to ensure a minimum of one year residency to become eligible.”
State law defines a residence, for election purposes, as “a place of abode, which has not been adopted for any mere special or temporary purpose,” the judge emphasized.
Cresitello’s business address “falls woefully short of the legal definition of residency,” Minkowitz added, noting a 2015 municipal court ruling that Cresitello’s business could not double as a residence under zoning law.
And as of last month, Cresitello’s driver’s license still listed a Manasquan address, the judge pointed out.
That’s irrelevant, Cresitello said on Friday, and so is the number of a candidate’s residences. The governor has several, he said, and so does he.
“You can live on a park bench if you choose to,” Cresitello said. “You can live in a hotel and claim it as your domicile. Lots of people do. No law says you can’t go from place to place to place, as long as you register.”
Home for him right now is a Morristown house at 140 Madison Ave., said the 75-year-old contractor, whose 32 years as an elected official in town included two stints as mayor.
This story has been updated with comments from Mayor Tim Dougherty.
