A recent news story quoted County Executive Tom DeGise as saying that people don’t get fired from county jobs because of politics. Instead, political forces within the department make it uncomfortable enough for a person to quit on his or her own.
Eyebrows went up throughout the county, especially among those who previously believed they were victims of harassment but could never prove it.
“This explains a lot,” said one Secaucus resident, who said he shifted jobs in the county because he saw political hacks being hired to positions above his in the resident’s department.
Patronage – which is giving out contracts or jobs for political support – appears to be as widespread in Hudson County today as ever in the past, just not as open.
Under legendary political bosses such as Frank Hague or John V. Kenny, every job had a price. To get a government job, a person had to pay a fee, and then still kick back some of the salary. Each promotion also required a payment.
County Executive Robert Janiszewski was said to have modernized the system by issuing towns and political figures quotas to be raised through ticket sales. Employees, municipal mayors and other elected officials were required to raise a certain amount of cash, often by selling tickets to county and municipal workers for fundraising events. Under Janiszewski, political events became tests of loyalty. He also increased the number of high-profile events. Janiszewski held birthday parties, boat rides, and other such contrivances, requiring party members to contribute to all. To keep your job or curry favor for a promotion, you had to raise money.
Janiszewski’s fundraising efforts soon caught the notice of national leadership, and it is partly due to this that he served as co-chair for Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential effort in New Jersey.
One county worker who is also an active supporter of the Democrats for Hudson County (a political group that is opposing the longtime Hudson County Democratic Party), says that nothing has changed from the Janiszewski days.
Several county workers filed complaints last week with the Hudson County Sheriff’s office saying they had been harassed at work, and that members of the Hudson County Democratic Organization had been pressuring workers to purchase tickets to fundraisers to support candidates running under the HCDO line. In one case, one county worker claimed his job was threatened.
“I was asked if I liked my job,” the worker said.
The concept that government employment might hinge on which particular faction wins the June primary says a lot about how fractured the Democratic Party is in Hudson County these days, and the level of desperation incumbents must feel as they press to raise money to wage a war that strongly resembles the American Civil War.
“This is a primary where friend is turned against friend,” said one political observer. “This isn’t political any more. This is personal. We are seeing personal animosities being fought out in the absence of strong leadership.”
With the Democrats for Hudson County waging a strong campaign to unseat DeGise and wrestle control of the party out of the hands of the HCDO, money has become premium as the HCDO goes on the offensive.
State Sen. and North Bergen Mayor Nicholas Sacco apparently has opened his financial war chest and is doling out cash to the state legislative races of Sandy Cunningham in the 31st District and Sal Vega in the 33rd.
Vega, adopting a fighting tactic from Gen. George Patton, has decided to take his political campaign into the heart of enemy territory – Union City. In this, Vega hopes to divert some of Union City Mayor Brian Stack’s resources.
Stack supporters see worker intimidation and the Vega invasion as signs of desperation. They see it as signs that DeGise, Vega and even Cunningham see the tide turning against them, and are trying every new and old trick to try to reverse the trend.
The HCDO, however, views the whole battlefield in starkly different terms. They claim that Stack and Richard Turner are trying to seize control of the Democratic Party, even though the HCDO is backed by 10 of the 12 mayors in Hudson County, and that in truth, the HCDO has become a more inclusive party, embracing reform, while Stack and Turner have taken on the mantle of old party bosses.
As in most cases, the truth lies somewhere in the middle of the two camps. The HCDO seems to be made up of strangely brokered coalitions of people who support each other for their own personal ends. Many predict that once the primary is over, the HCDO will scatter into warring parties.
Some signs of this are evident already. Cunningham and her runningmate, former Jersey City Council President L. Harvey Smith, barely talk to each other at public events.
Cunningham, although allied with Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy, is endorsing Hillary Clinton for president in next year’s primary. Healy is endorsing Barack Obama.
Sacco appears to be making a power move on the Hudson County Freeholder Board that will put him at odds with Healy for control.
Even the DeGise advertisements that have him strolling Hudson County streets with Cunningham seem out of touch with reality, considering the angry words Cunningham’s husband, Glenn Cunningham, had for DeGise in the past.
One political observer said this primary really doesn’t have two distinct factions, but groups of desperate people clinging to one side or the other long enough to maintain their grip on power, with both sides willing to do just about anything.