PARSIPPANY — One Republican offers the experience he says is needed to run Morris County’s biggest town. Another offers a youthful perspective that he says will break a pattern of overtaxation and overdevelopment.
Both have sniped, shouted and hurled public accusations for nearly four years, since they took office together in 2022. As their conflict escalated, members of the township school board and the county GOP Committee have taken sides — and then switched.
Their inevitable showdown will arrive with the primary election on Tuesday, June 10, when voters in the town of almost 60,000 people will choose either incumbent James Barberio or Councilman Justin Musella. The winner gets the Republican nomination for the county’s only full-time mayor’s office and a faceoff with Democratic candidate Pulkit Desai.
Parsippany Mayor James Barberio speaks at a campaign stop in Lake Intervale a week before the primary election. With him are council running mates, from left, Jigar Shah and Frank Neglia.
While supporters of both Republicans continue to sound off on social media, the Barberio and Musella tickets are still knocking on doors to engage voters. Each has expressed confidence in victory, though no public polls have been released.
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Dark skies over Parsippany campaign
On May 28, more than 100 Musella supporters braved heavy rains to gather under a gazebo for a rally at Veterans Memorial Park.
The 33-year-old thanked his enthusiastic, rain-soaked followers.
“You know, it’s becoming a theme, where no matter the weather, no matter the event, we can produce a crowd,” he said. “Ultimately, our movement is fueled by people like you. Ordinary people who are sick and tired of being sick and tired when they look at Town Hall and see the decisions that are being made.”
“We have 13 days to go before we turn the page in our history,” Musella continued. “And I truly believe we have the wind beneath our sails. But the only way we get across the finish line is if each of us helps to move the ball forward.”
Parsippany Councilman Justin Musella introduces the candidates for council – John Bielen and Casey Parikh – running on his ticket to unseat Mayor James Barberio in the Republican primary.
On June 2, Barberio campaigned in Lake Intervale, one of the smaller neighborhoods in town. His running mates, township council candidates Frank Neglia and Jigar Shah, had been seen on multiple occasions canvassing the community.
Barberio, 64, leaned on his familiarity with the many individual neighborhoods in Parsippany, and their familiarity with him.
“Most of you already know me here,” said the mayor, who is seeking his fourth non-consecutive term. “And I know you have a lot of questions.”
Development dominates debate
Much of the discussion was about New Jersey’s affordable housing mandate and its impact on Parsippany, where thousands of residential units are already under construction, with more to come.
Like many incumbents in North Jersey, Barberio argued he was powerless to fight the mandate in the courts. He said he has focused instead on killing two birds with one proverbial stone: demolishing vacant office properties no longer generating good tax payments and replacing them with housing that will satisfy the mandate.
Barberio took the issue all the way back to 2015, when the council approved a shopping center for the last parcel of undeveloped land in the Waterview office park adjoining the Intervale area. Barberio said that unpopular deal allowed his 2017 mayoral opponent, Democrat Michael Soriano, to win the Intervale districts by a wide margin, helping him to defeat Barberio, a two-term incumbent at the time.
Parsippany Mayor James Barberio formally announces his campaign for re-election at the Knoll East Bar and Grill on Feb. 12, 2025, also naming Jigar Shah, left, and Frank Neglia as council candidate on his ticket.
“It freaked everybody out in this area, which I understand,” he said. “But I also knew that what was coming next over there wasn’t going to be good.” He referred to the developer’s threat to build 666 units of affordable housing if the shopping center was not approved.
Barberio flipped the script in 2021, defeating Soriano and regaining an office he had aspired to since high school. That recollection sent him back to his early days as a young council candidate, when he lived in Lake Hiawatha after growing up in Lake Parsippany.
“I thought that because I grew up in the Lake Parsippany area, everyone was going to vote for me there, and not to worry about it,” he recalled. “I won every district in Lake Hiawatha, but I got killed in Lake Parsippany. I won by eight votes. I got too overconfident, but I learned a lesson. Every vote counts.”
Barberio’s years of campaign experience, he indicated, are evidence of his many years in office.
“We’re going to have a lot of issues going forward when it comes to affordable housing, we truly are,” he said. “You need a mayor that’s experienced.”
Referring to Musella, he added, “You have a young kid — not a bad kid, but [he] doesn’t have the experience to handle a town like Parsippany.”
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A race of flip-flops
The race has seen prominent supporters change sides in recent months.
Several Board of Education members initially signaled support for Musella. They were angered by tax breaks known as PILOTs — payments in lieu of taxes — that allegedly shortchanged the school district. Then-board president Andrew Choffo introduced Musella at his campaign kickoff last June, which was also attended by state Sen. Jon Bramnick, who’s seeking the GOP nod for governor.
An incensed Barberio promised an audit of Board of Education finances last September, though he recently stated that review was “on hold.”
Musella also had early support from Morris County Republican Committee Chair Laura Ali, who withheld an endorsement of Barberio in 2021 when he ran in a rematch with Soriano. This time around, Ali again refused to back Barberio, branding him “the highest paid and least qualified mayor in Morris County.”
But in January, Ali switched sides and got behind the mayor. She said she wanted to end the feud and gear up for a competitive general election in November.
“The 2025 election cycle poses significant challenges, and I strongly believe a united front is essential for ensuring Republican success,” Ali wrote in a letter to both mayoral candidates.
She offered to back Musella for council if he withdrew from the mayor’s race. Musella said no.
Parsippany Councilman Justin Musella speaks at a campaign rally in Veteran’s Memorial Park prior to the primary election, where he is running to unseat Mayor James Barberio. With him, from left, are council running mates Casey Parikh and John Bielen.
“Our campaign to end the cycle of corruption, over-taxation and taxpayer-funded overdevelopment in Parsippany, once and for all, cannot be intimidated,” the challenger declared.
Musella first ran for a council seat in the 2021 primary with the county committee-endorsed Louis Valori for mayor. Valori lost, but Musella secured a council nomination and joined Frank Neglia on a Barberio slate that swept into office that November.
Neglia is back on the Barberio ticket this year along with fellow council candidate Shah. Shah is Barberio’s longtime liaison to the Parsippany Indian community.
Musella is running with Casey Parikh, a longtime Planning Board member and chairman, and John Bielen.
Ali wasn’t the only turnaround. Choffo surprised many when he switched sides and backed Barberio at the mayor’s campaign announcement in February. Weeks later, Barberio announced he had reached an agreement with the school board on how to share the PILOT revenue and ensure the district receives its expected funds.
Another controversy arose over the past week when Barberio announced in a campaign video that he had reached an agreement for a memorandum of understanding between Town Hall and the school board on revenue sharing, negotiated with Choffo. Within hours, current board President Alison Cogan issued a statement saying no agreement had been signed and that the mayor’s pronouncement was “inaccurate.”
Parsippany Board of Education President Andrew Choffo speaks during Councilman Justin Musella’s campaign kickoff event in June to challenge Mayor James Barberio in the GOP mayoral primary. Choffo would later switch sides and endorse Barberio.
Barberio responded by insisting he and Choffo had come to terms and blamed the board for not acting on “this historic agreement that would greatly benefit our students, teachers, and school system.”
Current board member Tim Berrios and former board member Suzy Vega-Golderer remain vocal supporters of Musella’s. Both were at his rainy rally in the park.
Censure fails
The campaign also included a failed attempt by the township council in March to censure Musella for allegedly using his elected position to get his wife out of a speeding ticket in 2023. Musella’s supporters pointed to the timing of the censure, calling it politically motivated.
After a public backlash — the censure vote was moved to Parsippany Hills High School to accommodate an overflow crowd — the council voted down the proposal unanimously.
Other controversies along the campaign trail, amped up by furious partisan debates on local websites and social media, included an accusation that a DPW worker had stolen campaign lawn signs, and the doxxing of the worker allegedly involved. More recently came complaints of illegal ballot harvesting.
Yet both candidates, in a May debate, pledged to support the primary winner in November.
An over-capacity crowd shut down a March 2025 Parsippany Council meeting during which a vote was expected on a resolution to censure Councilman Justin Musella.
Democratic ticket set
With no competition in the primary, the Democratic ticket is already focused on November.
Leading the ticket is Desai, president of the Lake Parsippany Property Owner’s Association. Running with him are council candidates Matt Kavanagh and Diya Patel. Republicans currently hold a 4-1 edge on the council.
While Republicans have long held majority status on the Parsippany Council, the major parties have shared the mayor’s office over the years. Barberio, currently in his third non-consecutive term, is the only Parsippany Republican to win the mayor’s office in more than 30 years, and only one of two GOP candidates elected to the office in nearly half a century.
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How to vote in the NJ primary
Polls on primary day will be open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.
The early-voting period lasted from June 3 and through June 8.
May 20 was the deadline to register for the primary. Applications for mail-in ballots had to be received by 3 p.m. June 9. Mail-in ballots must be received by the Post Office by June 10.
County clerks must certify election results by June 23.
The 2025 general election takes place on Tuesday, Nov. 4. The voter registration deadline is Oct. 14.
This article originally appeared on Morristown Daily Record: Morris County primary: Feisty Parsippany mayor race heads to finish