It is hard to find Mayor Glenn Cunningham at a Jersey City event where his wife isn’t.
Whether it’s a ceremonious groundbreaking or a funeral mass, Sandra Cunningham has assumed the role of a public figure with relative ease, always bringing a tone of enthusiasm and hope to an event.
Being in the spotlight seems to come natural for Mrs. Cunningham. At one time, she had opted for a different type of spotlight. After graduating from Bloomfield College with an English degree, the Newark-raised woman decided to enroll in the New York Academy Theater of Arts with hopes of becoming an actress.
Initially having some minor success, Cunningham was up for a part in an off-Broadway musical. Her chances of getting the part became very slim when she realized that she would have to sing. “I can dance, but I can’t sing,” she said.
The director agreed. A few more similar disappointments – combined with the time-consuming commute back and forth to Newark – prompted her to change career paths. “I decided to try something a little more stable,” she said.
Several jobs followed, all having the common thread of being community-related. During that time, she worked for American Red Cross, for the county executive of Essex, and for the Essex County Bar Association. Although her role in the Essex County Bar Association was a public relations position, she held the position long enough to learn about what a bar association does and how it works. Her knowledge landed her a career opportunity that put her in a prestigious position, and, more importantly, in Jersey City.
Since 1988, she has been the director of the Hudson County Bar Association, a non-profit organization that serves as a liaison between professional legal services and the community at large. With more than 1,000 members, the organization provides its members with seminars on various legal issues as well as crash-courses for new lawyers that help them get up to speed. In addition, her office assists Hudson County residents seeking legal counsel. “The average citizen is intimidated by the lawyer,” Cunningham said. She added that her job was to help citizens overcome that fear and find the legal counsel that is best suited for them.
When Cunningham took the position in 1988, the organization had 300 members and no salaried staff. In an effort to expand the organization’s membership and deliver basic legal information to the general public, Cunningham came up with the idea of having a cable access show dedicated to legal issues. Calling it “Legalities,” she created an informational program about legal issues and the services available in Hudson County.
During her tenure, membership has more than tripled. As a result, her title has taken on the added role of coordinating events for the expanding membership base in addition to recruiting more members. She conducts this business in her office, located in the historic Brennan Courthouse on Newark Avenue.
Because of her work on cable access, she was asked to interview random voters as well as the candidates in the 1989 election. For Glenn Cunningham, who had just completed a term as council president, it was his first mayoral election.
Sandra Cunningham arrived at Casino in the Park to find Glenn enthusiastic about the race and surrounded by his supporters. This was not officially the first time they had met. As Mrs. Cunningham recalls, he once promised her that he would get a handful of lawyers to join the Hudson County Bar Association after a brief conversation. Mrs. Cunningham followed up on that promise and made repeated calls to his office for the next several weeks with no luck.
But something clicked that night at Casino In The Park. Cunningham lost the election that year but remained active in city life and county politics. The two would occasionally run into each other afterward. However, nothing romantic happened until Sept. 16, 1990, when Cunningham decided to ask her out to a lunch date. It was his birthday.
They dated for the next eight years, and might have dated for eight more if Sandra Cunningham didn’t suggest a novel idea.
On Jan 7, 1998, they were married in a private ceremony in the Bermuda Island of Nassau. Citing a mutual passion for Civil War History, genealogy, and old movies, Mrs. Cunningham said that their marriage is held together through a variety of common interests. “We used to take weekend trips to Gettysburg,” Mrs. Cunningham said. “Lying on the beach is boring.”
And when Glenn Cunningham threw his hat in the ring for mayor this year, Sandra gladly joined him on the campaign trail. Aside from being on the phone all day as the campaign scheduler, Mrs. Cunningham appeared with her husband at many functions. “I’ve never been so tired,” she said. “But it was a great, great experience.”
In her mind, Glenn Cunningham’s victory was an event that she never doubted would occur.
Even though the campaign is over, the action has not stopped. Throughout the week, the couple appears at various functions together. “This is just something else that we’ve been sharing,” she said.
In addition to shaking hands and addressing different groups, Mrs. Cunningham now sits on the Library Board of Trustees and the Jersey City Museum Board.
She has some independent projects in the works as well. First, she is interested in creating a “woman’s action group” that would encourage more women in Jersey City to get involved in the political process.
Secondly, Mrs. Cunningham wants to use her experience producing “Legalities” for another purpose. She wants to take a camera to different sections of Jersey City and record various neighborhood activities, such as how residents in the Heights have decorated the walls and streets with art. “We only hear about the negative things,” she said. “We want to her some good things as well.”