Those Essex suburbs (including Milburn, Montclair, and a few others) wanted to secede from Essex County (County seat, Newark)a decade ago. Several of these municipalities (Montclair, not Milburn where the Short Hills mall is located) are heavily Democratic and with a high minority population. But great majorities in each locality had had it with a county dominated by Newark and wanted out of Essex County, to join Morris County, one of the heaviest Republican counties in the State of NJ.
Yup. I live in Morris. Essex dwellers don’t want to pay taxes for schools in Newark, Irvington, East Orange, and Orange, ...but they vote in lock step. They are starting to come here because of our schools and neighborhoods and ruining our neck of the woods.