Putting to rest a rumor that lit up telephone lines throughout the county last week, Rep. Robert Menendez (D-13th Dist.) said he had not met with nor made an agreements with Jersey City Mayor Glenn Cunningham to end the political civil war currently plaguing the Hudson County Democrats.
“I made no deals, I did not meet with Mayor Cunningham, and I am supporting Tom DeGise for county executive and every freeholder candidate running in his ticket as well as the congressmen and senator on the line,” Menendez said.
Insiders from Menendez campaign have called it “the Rudy Garcia Doctrine,” referring to the 1999 dispute that ended Garcia’s term as mayor in 2000.
“Bob Menendez will show no mercy,” one source said. “After Rudy Garcia, Bob won’t tolerate betrayal.” No one representing anyone in Row A in the Democratic Primary, according to this source, is authorized to negotiate with the Cunningham camp.
“The only deal I’ve made is with the voters for providing them with clean, honest government with no back room dealings,” Menendez said, predicting that the DeGise team would have a big victory in June 4 primary.
Cunningham is supporting Bernard Hartnett for county executive and the slate of freeholder candidates running on Hartnett’s line. If Garcia is any example, Cunningham may face a political fate that made Rome’s sacking of Carthage look tame. In a list of talked about possible replacements for Cunningham, Jersey City Councilman Mariano Vega hinted strongly that his name should not be left out.
Political signs of the times?
Menendez’s welcome in Jersey City during the Cuban Day Parade on May 19, however, caused a bit of an uproar, according to Freeholder Bill O’Dea – who is a running against Peter Brennan in the 2nd Freeholder district in Jersey City.
“Mayor Cunningham is an incredible public speaker,” O’Dea said. “He knows how to stir up the crowd. I would not be surprised that Jersey City turns out strongly for his candidates.”
Hartnett heartily agreed and said he believed his team would strongly carry Jersey City, despite speculation otherwise. He also said he would likely carry Bayonne as well. Whether or not this will be enough to overcome the strong expected turnout against the Hartnett team in West New York, Union City and other communities in North Hudson remains to be seen.
Jersey City Department of Public Works officials did not return calls this week to determine if a rarely used ordinance against putting political posters on light poles was being selectively enforced against the Row A candidates supported by Menendez, while Row B posters have been left undisturbed. Councilman Jeremiah Healy was apparently the last known political candidate to have suffered the ordinance’s wrath.
An advertisement slated for the Jersey Journal this week proved that Menendez’s coalition of mayors opposing Hartnett’s Row B candidates is hardly above petty bickering. A source inside the Journal said claims made in the ad were still being hammered out.
“We can’t just let them say anything,” a source said.
In equal dispute was how the mayors were to be listed. The initial thought was to list them by their political clout. For example, who should be listed first: state Senator Nicholas Sacco or West New York’s Assembly Speaker and Mayor Albio Sires? The team decided to list the names alphabetically.
Old feud still fumes Hartnett made an appearance at the ribbon cutting to open the new overpass at Secaucus Road – a project developed by Menendez, Sacco and others.
“I was not invited, but I came anyway,” he said. “Although this project started before I became county executive, I thought I should be here.”
To the Menendez team’s credit, someone found Hartnett a scissors and allowed the county executive to take part in the ceremony.
In response to speculation in the May 19 Between the Lines, Hartnett said his motivation for lecturing the Hudson County Improvement Authority had nothing to do with any ongoing feud between Jay Boot and Dennis Enright over who gets bonding contracts.
“The timing of my veto of the resolution [on bonding for the West New York-Weehawken river walkway] had nothing to do with Jay Booth,” Hartnett said. “I had 10 days to veto and that’s what I did. And I will veto any resolution that I think has not be done correctly.”
Hartnett said he was motivated by the need to remind the HCIA about actions he took earlier this year in expanding the board.
“The idea was to have business conducted out in the open and not give special treatment to anyone,” he said.
Enright, however, seems to have won another victory in his feud this week after being handed a contract with the City of Hoboken.
“This is quite a change of fortune from Superbowl Sunday, when Jay Booth’s place was the political hotspot in the county,” said one source.
Free’s Hudson associations
Republican County Chairman Jose Arango said he believes the continuing feud in the Democratic party only makes his party’s position stronger in November – despite the allegations that recently caused Essex County Executive Jim Treffinger to withdraw from the Republican primary for U.S. Senate. Treffinger’s Executive offices were raided in April by the FBI as part of a growing inquiry concerning Gunite Corporation, a sewer construction contractor whose one-time chief executive, Jerry Free, claimed he had paid off numerous political figures throughout the state.
Speculation over the actions of Free, who has temporarily taken up residence in Florida, has continued this week as Free’s circle of influence becomes more evident.
While few local officials will admit whether or not they received a letter via the FBI, several have admitted association with Free during the last few years. Free – according to published accounts – has admitted bribing various officials around the state in order to obtain business for United Gunite, for which he was employed at the time. Reports also claim that for a time Free wore a recording device and that numerous people around the state had had conversations recorded. The letters issued by the U.S. Justice Department are not an indictment or even an accusation of guilt, yet few people seem willing to admit receiving them.
Free has been a regular visitor to Hudson County over the years and freely associated with local officials, some of who call him their friend.
“He’s a very good friend of mine,” said Freeholder Bill O’Dea, who also said he received no letter from the FBI.
Freeholder Maurice Fitzgibbons said he had worked with Free for more than a decade and had socialized with him.
“We’ve known each other for more than a decade. I met him during the Christopher Columbus celebrations in 1992,” he said. “When you know someone 10 years, you’re bound to have a lot of conversations with him.”
Free was known to throw lavish Fourth of July parties in a Hoboken eatery and then to invite public officials to join him.
Whereas former state senator from Nutley Carmen Orechio – who has strong connection to the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission, the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission and former Union City Mayor Bill Musto – seemed to find Free’s freewheeling ways a bit uncomfortable, most local officials found Free pleasant company.
Departing spokesman
Hoboken Mayor David Roberts’ spokesman, Michael Estevez, gave notice on Monday of his intent to resign. Estevez was Roberts’ campaign spokesman last year. He had no official comment on the reason for his leaving.
In other municipal news, there is still a question about the residency one of Mayor Brian Stack’s new Board of Education appointees in Union City. Alicia Morejon says that she has lived in Union City for more than a year, but as noted in a Union City Reporter cover story this week, her landlord thinks she moved in in September from out of town.