As of today, Jersey City residents are less than a month from the Nov. 2 election to fill the unexpired term of the late Jersey City Mayor Glenn D. Cunningham, who passed away in May.
The frontrunners at the present time are Acting Mayor L. Harvey Smith, State Assemblyman Louis Manzo, City Councilman at Large Jerramiah Healy, Ward C City Councilman Steve Lipski, and former mayoral aide to Cunningham Willie Flood.
Former Police Chief Ronald Buonocore was also in the running but was attending a hearing last week to try to prove that he has been a resident of the city for at least a year.
Other candidates in the race include Hosam Mansour, Dwayne Baskerville, Isaiah Gadsden, Hilario Nunez Jr., Alfred Marc Pine, and Thomas Short.
Last week, several of the mayoral candidates took part in a debate held at the Loew’s Theater in Journal Square that saw as much drama off stage as onstage.Who’s up for a debate?
The first debate of the year took place Thursday, but was criticized by some candidates because of its organization.
The moderator and organizer, radio talk show host Pat O’Melia, is a Manzo supporter. In addition, O’Melia only invited the people he considered to be major candidates to the debate.
Noticeably absent from the debate was Acting Mayor L. Harvey Smith. His spokesman, Roger Jones, said the mayor was unaware that the debate was taking place and had other plans that evening pertaining to his campaign.
Smith also had concerns with the insurance paperwork for the use of the Loew’s theater, where the debate was held, and about the “partisan nature” of the event.
Candidate Al Pine, an attorney, also objected to the exclusion of the underdog candidates, and tried to get invited to the debate when he found out about it. However, he was unsuccessful. When he entered the room in the debate to interrupt, he was escorted out of the theater.
The debate was taped before a live audience for broadcast on Comcast Cable during the month of October. It was conducted in two hour-long parts to be broadcasted separately.
The first part of the debate featured mayoral candidates Willie Flood, Jerramiah Healy, Steve Lipski and Louis Manzo, while the second part featured all the candidates except Flood, who left to attend a fundraiser for her campaign.
The moderators for the evening were the writer of this article (Ricardo Kaulessar) and Earl Morgan of the Jersey Journal, both of whom prepared their own questions.
The format for the debate was that each candidate would be asked a question, have two minutes to respond, and the candidates were allowed a rebuttal.
A raucous crowd of 250 to 300 people made up of primarily Healy and Manzo supporters turned out for the debate.
Redevelopment?
The debate started with a question from the Jersey City Reporter about what the candidates plan to do about implementing a possible redevelopment plan in the Greenville section of the city when they are elected mayor.
Flood responded that if she were mayor of Jersey City, she would try to ensure that a Greenville redevelopment plan would include an emphasis on affordable housing.
Healy answered that he would seek to bring in ratables and use the city’s power of abatement to bring in developers to start redevelopment.
“There’s no need for any abatements on Jersey City’s Gold Coast,” he said, “but I do think that the power to abate, if used wisely, can bring investment and money and jobs to places where investment, money and jobs would otherwise not go. For instance, the south end of Ocean Avenue.”
Lipski said he has done his part in helping to redevelop Greenville as a member of the Jersey City Redevelopment Agency and as the creator of a charter school based in the old St. Paul Catholic School in the neighborhood.
Manzo said that his redevelopment plan would utilize money from the state and other available grant monies to clean up various areas of Greenville, which is home to many contaminated sites.
Over the first hour, questions concerning combating crime on city streets, a plan to redevelop all of Journal Square, and giving abatements to developers were posed.
But there were also some fireworks as Lipski criticized Manzo for his opposition to abatements by saying that information on Manzo’s election Web site “was scaring away developers.”
Manzo responded that abatements were leading to higher taxes that burdened homeowners.
Hour two
In the second hour, there were just three candidates who answered questions about pay-to-play legislation and reforming city governmental departments.
The pay-to-play issue referred to recent legislation that Gov. Jim McGreevey enacted. It prohibits state departments, agencies and authorities from entering into a contract that exceeds $17,500 with an individual or entity who has made a political contribution to gubernatorial candidates or to any state or county political party committee.
The three were asked if they would support legislation. Healy said that he would support pay-to-play legislation, but that there would have to be campaign reform.
Lipski said he would support the legislation on a local level but that the legislation needs to be broader, not just limited to government contracts.
Manzo said he would support the legislation and go further with legislation that would prohibit developers seeking abatements in any municipality in which they donated to campaigns. He said they would also be prohibited from making any campaign contributions.
The first hour of the debate will be televised on Comcast Cable Channel 64 on Oct. 7 at 9 p.m., Oct. 12 at 7:30 p.m. and on Oct. 14 at 9 p.m. The second hour of the debate will be televised later in the month, with the dates yet to be determined.