- Meanwhile, the race for Jersey City's next mayor is also quickly heating up as the campaigns head into the fall stretch, with the field getting a lot more crowded and competitive.

As of last week's filing deadline, seven candidates are officially in the mix to replace outgoing mayor Steve Fulop.

Each is building their war chest and defining their platforms, but there's still plenty of time for surprises as the campaign shapes up to be one of the most unpredictable in recent memory.

And dozens more candidates are also now certified to run in other city races.

Our senior political correspondent, David Cruz, is in the studio with me now to help break it all down.

So, David, we should note this is the first time in over a decade that Mayor Fulop's name is not going to be on the ballot.

Who is?

- Well, it's an interesting point, the Fulop's absence creates this vacuum that has attracted a lot of candidates.

I'll give you the seven candidates for mayor, just to name them all.

Not all of them are gonna be competitive, but you have Jim McGreevy, the former governor, Bill O'Day, who is a county commissioner, James Solomon, who is a city councilman in Jersey City now, Joyce Watermelon, oh, Watermelon, Joyce Watermelon, who is the president of the city council, and then Musab Ali, who used to be a Board of Ed member, Kalki Jane Rose, and Christina Freeman, who are two virtual unknowns.

But it gives you an idea of how many people are now interested in it.

But those top three, McGreevy, O'Day, and Solomon, are the ones who are mostly gonna be competitive.

We had a chance this week to talk to Solomon and O'Day about what the issues are in the race.

And they talked about affordability, which is always something, tax, local taxes, which is the other thing, and crime, which is always an issue in Jersey City.

But the thing that's driving the candidates and the politics of this has a lot to do with how much money has come into this race.

Four million dollars is the war chest that Jim McGreevy has and the others are going to need to raise at least a million dollars.

So we talked to O'Day about that.

And this is what he had to say.

Should it cost four million dollars to run for mayor of Jersey City?

Hell no.

Hell no.

And we can't let somebody buy an election.

They buy every billboard in town.

I mean, it's, you know, and where's the money coming from?

And why are so many people putting money in?

I don't think they're putting it in as the goodness of their heart, right?

What are their motives?

If you level the playing field on money, I'm not sure he comes in third.

But we'll have enough money and I think other candidates will have enough money.

And then once we get in a runoff, assuming there's a runoff, then I think the playing field gets level.

Yeah, it's a lot of money.

It's a lot of money on self-promotion.

You know, right now, behind us, we're giving out backpacks to kids.

We do that every year.

This is the 21st year we do it.

We take a lot of the dollars we raise both through the nonprofit that I started many years ago -- I didn't start it when I decided I wanted to run for mayor -- as well as through even my election funds and put it back into the community and things like backpacks and this year we have haircuts too.

So I think that's a huge difference when you look at the different candidates.

Who's been giving back to this community their entire life, who suddenly decided to not only just promote themselves, but give a little back while promoting themselves just because they want to be the man.

And I think that's a huge, huge difference and I believe the voters that know me know that and as we let the rest of the voters know it, I think we're going to be in great shape if not to win on the first ballot, be the leader going into a run.

And that's the narrative that's been forming around McGreevy by the other candidates who recognize that he's got not only the millions of dollars but also the support of all of the organization.

Yeah, everybody's been lining up behind him.

And I think he's got a little bit of ground to gain.

But he also talked about not only the money that's in this race that's mostly going to McGreevy, but also the idea of a runoff, which has become part of the strategy for all of these candidates.

Let's hear from Solomon.

Should it take $4 million to run for mayor of Jersey City?

It should not.

It's why we've proposed one of the best anti-corruption plans in the country for our race here for Jersey City Mayor, one of which, one of the components of which is a public financing plan.

We have seen in New York City what public financing can do.

One donation, a dollar donated is returned sixfold.

And we think that's the right thing for Jersey City to reduce the power of money in politics.

And right now, money has flown into the Jersey City Mayor's race in a way that I think is concerning.

You know, what we're proud of in our race is, you know, we have over 1,500 Jersey City donors and volunteers, by far the most of any campaign.

We are funded by the community.

Our primary opponent, the former governor, he's received $4 million for his race, the vast majority of which, over 90 percent, has come from outside of Jersey City.

It's come from Donald Trump's biggest donors.

It's come from directly from the Kushner family.

It's come from real estate developers with major business in Jersey City, all of which I think is concerning to and should be concerning to any voter.

Our plan is to win.

So, you know, obviously, we think a runoff is a likely but not guaranteed outcome.

So, you know, if we think we can win in November, we're going to push and try to do that and get above 50 percent.

But we think we are the candidate campaign by far best equipped to win in a runoff.

But we've got that core support over 1500 donors and volunteers.

Northern campaign has even half that.

And in a runoff, that type of grassroots organic energy is what makes the difference.

So we think we're equipped to win that runoff, but, you know, we're just going to keep fighting and working hard every day.

So Dems fighting words, as we like to say, in terms of how they're looking at this, it kind of reminds me a little bit of back when an unknown Phil Murphy got into the race with Steve Fullop and Steve Sweeney who then dropped out, but the money was just too insurmountable.

Is that a scenario we could see here or are we too far in it?

I think, you know, there's two ways to think of that.

The money could be insurmountable.

I mean, he is flooding the city with flyers and billboards and all of that stuff.

But he's been doing that for months now.

And I don't know how much attention has been paid to the last four months of Jim McGreevy overkill.

But money's still money.

And four million usually beats one million.

It sure does.

Very quickly, I want to ask you about the City Council members, or City Council seats and other municipal seats, because we have dozens of people.

What's the what here?

Why is everybody so excited about this?

Well, I mean, again, this really, in my opinion, is going to be a defining election for Jersey City because we've had these past 10, 12 years of boom in the city and the predictions for the economy are a little shakier now.

So we have 15 people running for at-large, three at-large seats.

You know, it's five per ward.

And then 30 running for the ward seats.

There are six of those.

We could see a totally different city council than we experience now, although most of them are running again.

There's just so many candidates.

And again, so much money, because even though you don't have four million, anybody can create a 501(c)(4) and get money from any developer, right, who wants to do a project in your city.

And they don't have to claim it until way after.

Still a lot of time, though, for them to make up that ground.

David Cruz, thanks so much for coming in to sit down.

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