Will Rogers, the 1930s political commentator, once wrote that he had been born in a log cabin just like President Abraham Lincoln. All he needed to become president of the United States were the rest of the qualifications.
In some ways, Rep. Bob Menendez proved this week that he has the opposite problem. Although he is not nearly as tall as Lincoln, lacks the beard and top hat, and is a Democrat rather than a Republican, Menendez has a significant political future.
While some local anti-Menendez political figures may seek to downplay the congressman’s winning his seat as chairman of the Democratic Caucus, pointing to the one-vote margin of victory, the win pushes Menendez into a whole new political realm unimagined by most New Jersey politicians.
“He’s stepped out from just representing his own constituency to representing the whole Democratic Party,” one source said. This new position also allows Menendez to shed the dubious label of “the highest ranking Latino” in government that has haunted his career for years, to take on the greater distinction of being one of the most important elected officials in government.
Out of the Democratic Caucus flows the philosophy of the Democratic Party – something that is extremely critical at a time when the Republicans have taken control of the Federal Government.
In fact, the caucus chair, according to a source, is more important when the Democrats are in the minority then it would be if the Democrats had a majority. Menendez, as the number three ranking Democrat in the House of Representatives, will participate in policy meetings among the Democratic leadership. With no Democratic leadership in the White House or the Senate, Menendez becomes the voice the nation will most often hear articulating Democratic positions, and the face the public will likely come to associate most with national issues.
Long credited as one of the most articulate figures in New Jersey politics, Menendez positions himself for the next step as possible speaker of the House – third in the line of succession after the president and vice president.
Not bad for a boy never born in log cabin.
Primary unlikely?
Menendez’s victory has huge local implications, especially concerning County Executive Tom DeGise. Whereas Menendez’s backing previously had given DeGise the needed impetus to overcome opposition in the 2002 June Democratic Primary, the new caucus chair makes the possibility of someone challenging DeGise in the June 2003 primary less likely.
While a few names float among the flotsam and jetsam of the political rumor mill, such as Freeholder Bill O’Dea, Former Freeholder Lou Manzo and even former Jersey City Mayor Gerry McCann, none seems strong enough to overcome Menendez. O’Dea, a former critic of County Executive Robert Janiszewski who can now ride the crest of Janiszewski’s federal indictment on extortion, has significant strength on the West Side of Jersey City, but remains untested elsewhere. While McCann may have wider support in Jersey City, he also may face wider opposition from elsewhere in the county, particularly North Hudson. Manzo has already declared himself a candidate for Congress, an election that would require intervention of Biblical proportions for him to succeed.
One other name resurfaced as a possible primary challenger: Hudson County Sheriff Joe Cassidy.
Cassidy’s name floated to the surface last year as one among many being considered to challenge Bernard Hartnett in the June 2002 primary. At the time, Cassidy said he would proudly serve if asked. This week, when asked the same question, he looked incredulous. “Me?” he said with a startled laugh. “Well, you can put my name out there if it’ll help my officers get a new contract, but I’m not running in the primary.”
The sheriff officers’ contract was shunted aside during the change over in power, viewed by some as last-minute political maneuver by Hartnett to spike DeGise’s budget for 2003. Cassidy, however, said the contract had less to do with politics than providing equity for his officers.
Rumors of a Schundler return
Menendez’s victory in the House of Representatives cannot completely dispel possible dark clouds hanging over the DeGise Administration, which has an uncanny resemblance to that of former Jersey City Mayor Bret Schundler. Political considerations aside for the moment, many people DeGise has drafted to handle the scandal-ridden aftermath of the Janiszewski era still need to prove they can handle the heat of county-level government. DeGise said Laurie Cotter – a former Jersey City and Hoboken business administrator – will fill in as county administrator until the long-awaited return of former County Administrator Abe Antun, who may not return. This leaves Cotter to face an ever more independent and often cantankerous Board of Freeholders on her own. In the early part of the transition, Cotter has handled herself admirably. But then, she has yet to face the full wrath of freeholders like O’Dea or Brian Stack.
Bill Gaughan, currently a Jersey City Councilman and a close friend of DeGise, may be worth his weight in gold as far as his loyalty to DeGise goes, but he also comes to the county as a relative novice, operating as DeGise’s chief of staff rather than a fellow legislator. While DeGise has retained some holdovers from the previous administration such as David Drummeler – the winner of this year’s Hudson County Political Survivor Award – most of those DeGise is bringing on have municipal but not county experience.
More frightening to some Democrats, however, is the very real threat that Schundler will NOT run for governor as expected. Schundler has said he intended to run again for governor in 2004, but would step aside if another Republican candidate had a better shot at winning. Although Republican Douglas Forrester lost his bid for U.S. Senate, his name recognition around the state may have gone up, the way Christine Whitman’s did when she barely lost against Bill Bradley for the Senate in the early 1990s. If Forrester gets the Republican nod, Schundler may seek to run again for Jersey City mayor.
Although Jersey City Mayor Glenn Cunningham may not see himself as vulnerable, plenty of other Democrats do, with as many as five of the current Jersey City council members contemplating their own bid for the job. Schundler, who won under similar circumstances in the early 1990s, might seek a repeat performance, and could even slip back into the seat as the rest of the candidates split the vote opposing him. Some Democrats around the county fear that DeGise’s stacking of the county payroll with former Schundler people could cause a fundamental shift in control, and give a victorious Schundler power over Hudson County government as well as Jersey City.
Patronage jobs proposed to loyal Democrats throughout the municipalities might suddenly vanish, and with them a vast part of the Democratic dominance in Hudson County.
A hotel grows in Hoboken?
Opposition to some details of a new hotel in Hoboken are shedding light on a political faction that could oppose Mayor David Roberts in the spring Hoboken municipal council elections. Council members Tony Soares, Terry Castellano (cousin of former mayor Anthony Russo) and Carol Marsh won a symbolic victory over Roberts by getting the council to table the matter at a meeting on Monday.
Details of the proposed waterfront hotel had been approved already, but Roberts, in an effort to appease activists, backed a new plan that will scale down the total area of the development block. However, since the hotel will be taller, some feel more concessions need to be made. While it is hardly the sole reason why a split has formed between former political allies, the small victory could gain the momentum Soares wants. Soares said he sees the move as an effort to return the focus back to the reform-minded platform on which he and Roberts originally ran. Roberts, on the other hand, said the activists are making political hay of something he did in order to scale down development.