Edward “NJ Weedman” Forchion today ended his independent bid for governor, terminating a 90-minute court hearing that concentrated on the process he used to gather electronic signatures on his nominating petitions.
“I can’t compete with the power of the Democratic Party,” Forchion told Administrative Law Judge Jeffrey Rabin. “I’m about to smoke some weed.”
Raj Parikh, the counsel to the Democratic State Committee, said that Forchion “failed to obtain the signatures of 800 qualified voters” required under state election law using the procedures for gathering electronic signatures outlined by the state Division of Elections.
Parikh had been prepared to through Forchion’s signatures one at a time until he had disqualified 37 of them – many where signatures didn’t match for information was incomplete.
Forchion had brought a witness, Shadi Hermina, a technology professional who had developed the online petition form.
But Forchion abruptly ended the virtual hearing, saying he’d had enough and would instead mount a write-in campaign to unseat Gov. Phil Murphy.
“The Democratic Party has everything lined up,” he alleged. “They pick the judges.”