Three’s company Candidates vie for nomination in 31st District Assembly, Senate

The three candidates are current Jersey City Mayor Glenn Cunningham, Jersey City Council President L. Harvey Smith, and Bayonne attorney Vincent Militello. The primary election will be held Wednesday, June 3 at polling places in both cities from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Glenn Cunningham

Glenn Cunningham is currently nearing the end of the second year of his first term as mayor of Jersey City. Cunningham is the first African-American to serve in that capacity. A native of Jersey City, Cunningham served on the Jersey City Council from 1981 to 1989, with one term as City Council President. Prior to his term on the City Council, Cunningham was a member of the Hudson County Board of Chosen Freeholders from 1975 to 1978.

After attending Snyder High School, Cunningham graduated from New Jersey City University with a political science degree and a minor in law enforcement. Cunningham enlisted in the United States Marine Corps in 1961, serving in Japan and at the Marine Corps base in Quantico, Va. After leaving the armed services, Cunningham joined the Jersey City Police Department, from which he retired in 1991 with the rank of captain. In that time, Cunningham served as director of public safety for Hudson County and was a Freeholder. In 1996, he was confirmed as United States Marshall for the District of New Jersey, a position he held until December of 2000. Cunningham is married to Sandra Bolden-Cunningham and lives in the Greenville section of Jersey City.

During his two terms on the City Council, Cunningham first represented Ward F, which covers the Bergen-Lafayette section of the city. In his second term, he was a councilman-at-large. Speaking of his time on the council, Cunningham made note of what he believes were some of his outstanding achievements during that period.

“I helped stop changes that were planned for rent control in Jersey City,” said Cunningham.

Cunningham also pointed to helping pass laws that changed Jersey City Medical Center into a non-profit organization, and helping create plans for the new Medical Center that is nearing construction in downtown Jersey City.

Cunningham also said he oversaw the development in the Newport section, noting that he had developers of the residential projects include at least 20 percent moderate income housing in their buildings.

As mayor, Cunningham said his administration has for the second year kept property taxes in the city from rising – although spending has been climbing. Cunningham credited the financial team in his administration for coming up with a solution to a large budget shortfall in the $344 million 2003 municipal budget. Much of the savings in the budget came from the sale of city-owned property to the Jersey City Board of Education and the refinancing of much of the city’s bonded debt.

“I want to be known as the history mayor,” said Cunningham, noting that his administration supported the preservation of the Sixth Street Railroad Embankments and the Whitlock Cordage Industrial Center.

Cunningham also cited his administration’s efforts to revitalize parks in the city.

“We will be very soon starting the renovation of Lafayette Park, which has been renamed Rev. Ercel Webb Park in the Lafayette section,” said Cunningham. “The city is also ready to fix Leonard Gordon Park off of John F. Kennedy Boulevard.”

Cunningham added that a number of smaller municipal parks are scheduled for renovation, the most recent of the completed restoration projects being Sgt. Anthony Park in the Heights.

In the area of municipal services, Cunningham said his administration has hired 50 new firefighters, including the first two women firefighters in the city’s history. Cunningham noted the city has also hired 60 new police officers and created a new Grants Office, which will get state and federal grants to fund various city programs.

Cunningham stated his belief that his bid for the state senate seat in the 31st district is an extension of his job as mayor of Jersey City.

“Right now, Jersey City’s voice is diminished and Bayonne’s is not effective,” said Cunningham, adding he would give fuller representation to both cities in Trenton.

One point Cunningham stressed would be bringing more funding to the Jersey City-Bayonne area, noting that Distressed Cities funding from the state to Jersey City had been reduced this year from $10 million to $2 million. A reduction in state aid has plagued Jersey City for several years in a row.

Cunningham said Jersey City was slighted by the state in favor of smaller cities and he would work to change that.

“In the Senate, I will be fighting for whatever is good for Jersey City and Bayonne,” said Cunningham.

One of Cunningham’s problems in Jersey City has been continual battles with the City Council over various issues. The strife goes back to the 2002 county executive race, when Cunningham supported a different candidate for the position than did most of the council. One of the councilmembers who sometimes opposes Cunningham, L. Harvey Smith, is also facing him in this state senate race.

L. Harvey Smith

Leonard Harvey Smith, 54, has been married to Gail Smith for 34 years. Although born in North Carolina, Smith grew up in Jersey City. He currently serves as president of the Jersey City Council, but spent nearly 30 years as an educator in the Jersey City school system. He also served on the Jersey City Redevelopment Agency.

He received a bachelor’s degree in health and physical education from Long Island University and has a master’s in psychology and counseling from New Jersey City University. He taught at Dickinson High School but is now a crisis counselor in the Jersey City school system.

“I have 29 years’ educational experience,” he said.

Although not born in Jersey City, Smith considers himself a lifelong resident of Jersey City and raised his four children here. He recalled a time when neighborhoods helped shape people’s lives, and when people didn’t need to lock their doors; neighbors looking after neighbors. It is a concept of a restored and booming Jersey City he said he still maintains.

Much of Smith’s vision of the world comes from the schools and his years of providing counseling against drug misuse, although his term on the council has brought him to realize the value of Urban Enterprise Zones and the redevelopment of brownfields (previously developed property that may need environmental cleanup).

“The neighborhood is the key to any redevelopment and for the quality of a city,” he said, noting that churches and schools in Jersey City are often at the center of many neighborhoods.

“Over the years, people got away from what made Jersey City a great place to live,” he said.

As a teacher, Smith said he often dealt with many of his students’ problems and it gave him a view of some of the issues people in the area face daily.

“God put me in a position to serve,” he said, “as a teacher I was preparing these children to become future citizens.”

As a council person, he continued to deal with the daily issues of residents, but the new position gave him additional resources, something a seat on the state senate would do as well.

One of his goals is to make certain that people in various neighborhoods have access to jobs, through development of a good educational system as well as access to the resources currently available. But he said in building neighborhoods, the institutions there must reflect the makeup of the people living there. So institutions like the fire and police departments have a similar racial and ethnic makeup as the community. This could involve adjusting testing criteria.

Smith sees himself as following in the footsteps of previous state senators in the 31st District such as Joe Charles and Ed O’Connor, and though he has no state government experience, Smith has served on various levels of municipal government and has “served with distinction” on a variety civic organizations.

“I have a hands-on approach,” he said. “I feel the need to be in touch with the people.”

For Smith, two central issues are education and taxes, and that his role as a state senator is to make certain the 31st District gets its fair share of taxes back from the state.

“People in Jersey City and Bayonne pay their taxes and see that money going elsewhere,” he said.

As a state senator, Smith said he would seek to make certain the 31st District’s educational system provides a full range of choices for its students, preparing them for college as well as professions.

In stressing his need to control crime, Smith said one key is an adequate drug rehabilitation program, something he says does not exist currently.

“This has been an issue since the 1970s,” he said. “As a senator, I would look at the tax structure and school financing. There has to be a better way of financing the schools than what exists now, and I have looked at funding in several other states and believe they can be implemented here.”

Another issue big issue in Jersey City and Bayonne is the growing needs of the elderly.

“Hudson County has the second largest senior citizen population of any county in the country,” he said.

Solving problems in the district must be done through consensus building, something his tenure on the City Council has taught him.

“While you have to be assertive, you can’t always treat issues as if you were engaging an enemy,” Smith said. “Sometimes politics is about finding common ground.”

Vincent J. Militello

Vincent J. Militello, 37, was born and raised in Bayonne, where after attending public elementary schools, he graduated from St. Peter’s Prep in Jersey City, and later Providence College in Rhode Island, and eventually law school at Seton Hall University.

Militello is the son of Vincent Militello, a Bayonne businessman and former long-serving president of Bayonne’s Chamber of Commerce, and Maryann Militello, a retired public school teacher.

Although he has not served any previous elected or appointed board, Militello believes his experience as a former Assistant Hudson County Prosecutor and U.S. Marine Corps captain have prepared him for the position of state senator. Militello served as an assistant prosecutor from 1996 to 2001, and previously served in the active service in the Marine Corps from 1988 to 1992.

“The first thing they teach you as a marine officer is how to get the job done, to think out of the box when confronting an issue,” he said. “You have to learn how to solve problems in your own way and often under a lot of stress.”

Between his undergraduate and legal studies, Militello served with distinction in the U.S. Marine Corps, achieving the rank of captain before being honorably discharged. During his service, Militello led a Marine infantry platoon in Japan and the Philippines while his comrades were engaged in equally difficult duty during Operation Desert Shield and Storm.

After law school, Militello dedicated himself again to public service. He joined the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office in 1996. Militello even had a brief involvement in international affairs when two American children were abducted by their grandfather and taken to Egypt. He negotiated for their safe return.

“Ever since I was a child, I have aspired to public service,” he said. “But I couldn’t serve in various offices because of my work with in the prosecutor’s office. This is my first opportunity, and when I heard rumors that Senator Charles was planning to retire, I decided to run.”

Militello said he is running as a Democrat because he believes his platform of overhauling New Jersey’s property tax system, education reform and economic stimulation will inspire the Democratic rank-and-file in Hudson County, who have endured too many campaigns where important issues took a back seat to personal attacks.

“I know the issues of young people and seniors, and I know I have the qualifications I need to be a full-time state senator,” Militello said.

Militello is running a campaign that emphasizes his role as an outsider, and his belief that he can help curb or cure the culture of patronage that has plagued Hudson County politics for nearly a century.

“It’s time for Hudson County’s politics-as-usual cycle to come to an end,” he said. “I’m not tied to a political machine. I get my money from the people, not from contractors doing business with the government.”

Militello disputes claims that he is a spoiler, a third candidate who climbed into the Senate race just to help one of the other two candidates get elected by stealing votes away from the other.

“I declared my candidacy last August, well before either of the others declared,” he said.

Although he is working as an associate with Edwards & Angell, Militello said he intends to become a full-time state senator, something in the tradition of the previous two men who served in that post. This will give him time to pay attention to some of the pressing needs of Bayonne and Jersey City, where residents pay some of the highest taxes in the country, have a failing education system and a diminishing number of quality jobs, he said.

“Basically my campaign is about kids and the economy,” he said. “I see our area Bayonne and Jersey City losing business. Look at Route 440 in Jersey City where store after store is empty.”

He also pointed property taxes that “hammer property owners” and auto insurance rates that are going through the roof. “We live in one of the most industrialized and densely populated counties in the country,” he said. “The one-size-fits-all solutions coming out of Trenton simply don’t work. I believe I am the only candidate who understands both the problems we are facing and has visionary solutions that will mean real progress.”

While he knows that one person won’t solve everything, he believes that by setting an example, he can change the culture of government here.

“There is no reason why I can’t take the lead in seeking a better education for our kids or redevelopment of brownfields,” he said. “I know that if I am elected I can work with others but I will always say what I think and do what I think is right.”