By filing for her candidacy as the next at-large councilwoman, Crystal Feliciano plans to draw on her family's faith-based upbringing to aid the city's residents.

The Campaign

Several Mercer County Democratic leaders, including the county clerk, were attending a raucous campaign kickoff at the luxurious and exclusive The Lobby Club on East State Street in Trenton on Tuesday night when she announced her candidacy for Trenton's legislative body in 2022.

Feliciano asked the group, "Whom will I send?" referencing the Bible verse. "Here I am. Send me. … Trenton needs hope and reassurance. They feel we're stuck in an endless cycle of chaos, broken promises." In addition, she said that they can and can rise to the occasion.

Trenton, native and aunt of at-large councilor Jerell Blakeley (who was not around in the ceremony), has joined an ever-growing field of candidates running for the two at-large council seats currently vacant due to Blakeley and Santiago Rodriguez's resignations.

Michael Ranallo of the West Ward and Kadja Manuel, a military veteran and LGBTQ champion, filed their candidacy.

The Strategy

The citizens of the town had grown weary of waiting their turn to speak at the current crop's long sessions, and Feliciano vowed to bring order to the town's dysfunctional governance and push for the resumption of public dialogue.

Part of Feliciano's back-to-the-basics strategy, which enticed new development to Trenton, encouraged residents to acquire their own homes and rehabilitate the streets, she also cracked down on "slumlords" who, she believed, were not maintaining their end of the bargain.

As a result of the numerous hats Feliciano wears throughout town, she is well-known.

Although she works full-time at Trenton Water Works as an assistant to the mayor, she is also an unpaid reporter for the hyperlocal news site Peterson's Breaking News, which previously focused on police matters.

Sheilah Coley, then the police director, had an interview in which Feliciano failed to disclose her position with The Weekly Standard while posing as a journalist.

On Tuesday night, Peterson's Breaking News was there to live-stream her presentation, and she also faced the identical predicament. With a minimum of 46,000 Facebook followers, the blog has also been effusively promoting her campaign literature.

Lance Lopez spoke to the people during Crystal Feliciano's campaign kickoff event, announcing her candidacy for Trenton City council at Large. Lopez holds her campaign, and she does it well.

However, when questioned whether he felt that continuing to pretend to be an independent journalist while openly endorsing Feliciano's campaign was problematic, she refused to answer.

Only after The Trentonian exposed Feliciano's two roles last year did Feliciano say she had no problem with the arrangement.

"What I will tell you is this: a media advisory has been issued out to all media outlets, including Peterson's Breaking Trenton News," she told The Trentonian. She added that they were present. They would post advertising in the classifieds section of the newspaper that she would pay for. She further said that Peterson's being there is not a concern for her.

While slamming this administration, Feliciano recalled when Trenton was a secure place to work, play, and live and lamented that state of affairs.

She went on to mention that now, as Trenton approaches the record 40 homicides set last year under Coley, children and older folks who sit on their porches in the dark for fresh air are doing so at their danger.

It is the third-highest number in city history; if the subsequent six months are exceptionally bad, the city may beat its depressing record from the previous year. In Feliciano's words, it was like playing Russian roulette on a daily basis.

The Roots

Having lived on Spring Street and in the Colonial Gardens flats, she proudly bragged about her roots in her birthplace. She recalled getting cheesesteaks from a neighborhood bodega on Sanhican Drive and getting her hair cut at Nick's barbershop.

Feliciano's mother lived by the philosophy of being home before the road lights turned on, which she absorbed from her mother's words. She was a "second mother" to 1 of Feliciano's students, a 2020 Trenton Central High School graduate named Darrin Clark.

Feliciano's campaign manager, Lance Lopez, a former PBA president and correctional officer, said he was wary of seeing the council do nothing and stagnate for the past three years.

The resonant voice of Feliciano will help break through the city's politicking and Gusciora-council tension.

John Kennedy's famous slogan, doing what you can do for "your county," was referenced by campaign manager Gary Lawery, a Gusciora assistant, and Feliciano will be a dedicated and sincere public servant in the same vein as JFK.

Feliciano has rejected ideas to run on a slate with Gusciora, who has been chastised by the legislative body led by Kathy McBride, despite the very fact that Lawery is on her campaign team.