Despite the Goldman Sachs connection, Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop and New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy were never friends.

Still, Fulop last night inadvertently helped old rival Murphy become governor again.

Fulop rescheduled his city’s May nonpartisan election to give himself the option of running for governor in the 2017 Democratic Primary, moving the contest to November to get it out of his hair. He presumably had the expectation that he would dismantle his rivals, Steve Sweeney and Phil Murphy, in the party primary, but just in case, have the option of running for mayor again if he failed.

It would have been hard to run for reelection in a complex city like Jersey City in May when everyone knew he was eyeballing the June Primary for governor.

Fuop was running for governor, then he and Murphy had a conversation and Fulop was no longer running for governor.

Four years later, Fulop – never a natural Murphy fan – ran for reelection to his third term in a contested election.

It was never competitive, but Hudson tries to find ways to make elections dramatic to entertain itself, and Fulop’s contest proved no exception.

The contest drove turnout in the state’s second largest town, which contains big Democratic Party pluralities.

All the usual crumb bums engaged, like it was a battle for humanity’s destiny.

In the end, Democrat Fulop received 26,450 votes and his rival, Lewis Spears – also a Dem – received 12,667.

39,270.

Murphy – troubled locally by his refusal to sign legislation banning development in Liberty State Park – would end up squeaking out a win for governor over Republican Jack Ciattarelli by about 24,000 votes.

Who says Fulop and Murphy aren’t friends?

From InsiderNJ columnist al Sullivan:

The good news for Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop is that his ticket won more council seats in the 2021 election than his ticket did in 2017 – providing his Ward C councilman, Richard Boggiano can win a runoff election against – progressive candidate Jason Bing on Dec. 7.

Boggiano, who has faced runoffs in the past, said he feels confident that he will ultimately retain his seat on the council. This would be good news for Fulop since it would increase the number of council seats aligned with him.

Fulop candidates won outright in three wards, A, B and D, and swept all three at-large seats.

Yousef Saleh’s victory in Ward D is significant because Fulop picked up a seat formerly held by his opponent Michael Yun, who tragically died of COVID in 2020.

While Fulop won a third term, though with a lower percentage than he did in 2017, 66 percent this year, as opposed to 78 percent in 2017.