EAST ORANGE – Having run afoul of Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop when his wife went to work for Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-3), Hudson County Freeholder and labor leader Gerry Balmir told InsiderNJ that he favors Jerry Walker as his replacement.

Walker is a former Seton Hall basketball star and local celebrity who ran for mayor four years ago and came in third behind winner Fulop and then-incumbent Mayor Jerry Healy.

Sources say Walker is in the mix for the seat along with Ward A activist Pamela Johnson and former Freeholder Jeff Dublin, whom Balmir defeated when he first ran three years ago.

“I think Jerry Walker is a very good candidate,” Balmir told InsiderNJ at the kickoff for East Orange mayoral candidate Ted Green, the local governing body’s sitting council president.

Balmir refused to criticize Mayor Fulop, but did speak broadly about the need for more people in local office who are true cheerleaders for their towns. Too many people – “all of us,” he said, focus on higher offices rather than serving constituencies of the present.