Peter Yacobellis Launches Bid For Montclair Mayor In 2024

MONTCLAIR, NJ — Peter Yacobellis has officially thrown in his hat for the 2024 mayoral race in Montclair.

Yacobellis – a self-identified “Millennial” who would be the town’s first openly gay mayor – currently serves as an at-large town council member. He was elected in 2020, nailing down 5,472 votes, which he says is the highest total of any candidate for local office in the town’s history.

The 2020 municipal race also saw the election of the town’s current mayor, Sean Spiller. Read More: Montclair Election Results (Spiller Is Mayor, See Council Winners)

Now, Yacobellis is hoping that momentum continues in 2024. He plans to form a slate of other candidates and launch a full-fledged campaign in the fall (watch his campaign launch video below).

“I’m especially excited to continue to engage with the community in every forum possible, as I’ve been doing since early 2020,” Yacobellis said. “From figuring out how to support the school system to protecting affordability to ending crashes on our streets, we have a lot of work to do.”

According to Yacobellis, Montclair’s municipal elections never approach the turnout seen during federal ones.

“Yet, the municipal government has incredible power over daily life in town from the water coming out of your faucet to ensuring we can respond to an emergency in your home,” he said. “It can no longer be a sleepy May election.”

If elected, Yacobellis said he plans to mobilize the existing talent in Montclair, including a Service Corps that would connect people with time and talent to give, with the people and organizations who need the support, including the local government.

“The difference between a Montclair that controls its destiny or just coasts along being forced to change by external forces, is how we activate the talent that we already have in our workforce and in our community,” Yacobellis said.

The councilman’s campaign team provided the following biography information in a news release:

“Born in Queens and raised on Long Island, Peter is the great-grandson of Sicilian immigrants who came to America in the early 20th century and put roots down in New York City. He’s the son of a teacher and a truck driver and grew up in a union household. A recipient of a public education, he was the first in his family to go to college and obtain a four-year degree. Moving to New Jersey in 2005, he settled in Montclair with his fiancé Benjamin in 2017.

“Peter has had a long and storied professional career, working across small and large enterprises and in both the public and private sectors. Starting with an internship in the Office of then-U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton, Yacobellis went on to work for soon-to-be-Ambassador Sean Patrick Maloney, U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, New York Governor David Paterson, and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo in various capacities. On the private side, he has had every position from stock clerk to Chief of Staff to C-Suite executives at places like American Express.

“Discharged from the U.S. Air Force basic training in 1998 under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and later serving as a rescue worker at ground zero after the September 11th attacks, he has always responded to calls to serve and has drawn significant inspiration from those traumatizing experiences. Earlier in 1998, he was also a victim of a conversion therapy attempt by members of his extended family and their church in Seaville, NJ. Working as an LGBTQ+ community liaison for several prominent New York elected officials over the years and with a stint as Finance Director for Garden State Equality in Montclair in 2007 and 2008; Yacobellis played a big role in helping both New Jersey and New York achieve marriage equality. With his lived experience as inspiration, Yacobellis was one of the organizers of the 2009 Equality March on Washington, which resulted in the eventual reversal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and the Matthew Shephard Hate Crimes law being enacted. He now serves as Executive Director of Out Montclair, which provides year-round community building and educational opportunities for the LGBTQIA+ community in the greater Montclair area and head of Montclair Pride, now the largest Pride festival in New Jersey.

“As a Council Member, Peter has served on the Township’s Economic and Municipal Services Committees and has been the driving force behind a litany of enacted progressive policies from rent stabilization to accessory dwelling units to native species procurement to cannabis legalization to gender neutral restroom requirements, all while ensuring the Township maintains its AAA credit rating and responded to crisis after crisis.”

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