Dave Pringle, the environmental activist Democrat running for Congress in the 7th District, wants the Union County Democratic Party to schedule a public meeting to make clear the process by which its municipal chairs in the 7th District plan to pick a nominee.

Union County Democrats are on wartime footing, according to sources, with a rivalry mostly defined by Senators Joe Cryan and Nick Scutari arguably bottlenecking the process for the rest of the district.

A late entrant in the CD7 contest, Pringle said he wants answers in the aftermath of an InsiderNJ report.

“I read with sadness yesterday that our friend Jerry Green, the Union County Democratic Party Chairman is ill and has been unable to be involved in party business. I pray for his quick recovery. We’ve worked together for two decades,” the candidate said in a statement.

“It’s critical that Union County Democrats play an important role in electing a Democrat to Congress to defeat Donald Trump and his Congressional ally Leonard Lance,” he added. “It’s particularly critical that Union County play a forceful role in the selection of a candidate against Lance. Six of the seven candidates in the Democratic primary are from Union County.

“I am certain that each of my colleagues on the campaign trail wish only to be treated fairly in the candidate selection process. Some of the issues cited in yesterday’s news reports raise questions as to whether a fair and open process is ongoing,” Pringle said. “For those reasons, I urge a public meeting of the entire Union County Democratic Committee so that all of the candidates, Democratic Party leaders and the public can hear how the candidate selection process is working and can have their questions answered. I hope my fellow candidates will join me in this request. I believe it’s critical that the meeting include the public. As I’ve campaigned throughout the district, I see hundreds of new faces at Democratic events — drawn to our party with the hope and resolve that we’ll defeat Trumpism.

“As a progressive activist for 25 years, I’ve always supported openness and transparency in politics. Our party needs to be both a capital D Democratic Party and a small d democratic party,” he added. “I ask all of the Democratic officials throughout Union County to join me in supporting an open, transparent meeting within the next two weeks to answer questions about our party.”