The Jersey City Democratic Committee decided to create a hedge against the yearly ups and downs of political turmoil by changing their by-laws to keep existing officers in place for two-year terms instead of the existing one-year terms. This will go into effect in June, 2009.
The vote was a scripted affair with members reading from documents printed out ahead of time. In one case, Tom Murphy, who was supposed to be involved in the political drama, did not show, so committee organizers scratched his name off the script and wrote someone else into his part.
The change means that the committee will have to hold a special meeting to replace a committee officer if he or she resigns, does not run for re-election, or – heaven forbid – loses his or her primary battle. The committee would likely also hold a special meeting to replace officers if voters decide to dump the majority of existing committeepeople, as happened this year in Guttenberg. But this could result in a bloody political battle.
This year’s reorganization renamed Joe Conte as chairman, a good choice according to several committeepeople who believe he did a lot for the Democrats over the last year.
Should Sandra Cunningham run for mayor?
Some close to state Sen. Sandra Cunningham are holding their breath. These insiders do not believe she should run to become mayor of Jersey City.
“She has more clout if she doesn’t run,” said one source close to her campaign. “It is the fear of what she could bring to a campaign that keeps the Hudson County Democratic Organization and others making deals with her. If she gets into the race, she just becomes another candidate and then has to prove she can get the votes out citywide.”
While Jersey City doesn’t elect its mayor and council until May, 2009, most observers agree that candidates must decide if they are running by July 1 of this year in order to begin seeking out slates of council candidates, raise money, and other issues.
Perhaps to keep her out of the race, incumbent Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy has been courting Cunningham, although the recent meeting between the two appears to have not produced concrete results.
While some disagree, Healy seems to be the frontrunner – provided he can keep Cunningham out of the election. He has enough money and the political organization that makes him difficult to beat.
If Cunningham enters the race, all bets are off.
Several political polls give Cunningham the edge because of her massive support in Ward F and Ward A. But some seasoned professionals believe that a well-run campaign against her, especially using surrogate candidates to cut her vote, make Cunningham vulnerable.
“Jersey City is more than just Ward F,” one of these observers said.
While the short list of possible mayoral candidates includes Cunningham, Healy, former Mayor L. Harvey Smith, Councilman Steve Fulop, and former state Assemblyman Louis Manzo, others could run as well.
With the summer just getting underway, we are also seeing a slate of names as possible council challengers including Jimmy King, Sean Connors, Michael Sottolano, Mary Spinello, and others.
Bayonne’s mayoral race heats up
Although the race for mayor in the special election in November currently has three candidates, this could change shortly.
In the special election to fill the seat vacated with the resignation of Mayor Joseph Doria last October, the victor needs to get only one vote more than anyone else to take the chair until the regularly scheduled election in May, 2010.
To date, retired Municipal Judge Patrick Conaghan, Police Director Mark Smith, and relatively unknown Yitzchak David have officially declared. Other candidates are expected to enter the race, but perhaps the most significantly rumored candidate is that of former Bayonne Mayor Richard Rutkowski.
While Rutkowski would neither confirm nor deny his intention to run, the word is on the street and people are stopping him frequently to encourage him to run.
This could shift the whole tenure of the race.
Even though Smith has distanced himself for the former administration, the Conaghan campaign has been trying to tie Smith to Doria, saddling Smith with all of the negative economic baggage Doria has been blamed for since his leaving office.
Rutkowski could get a number of votes by disaffected former Doria supporters who would be unwilling to vote for Conaghan.
Is committee battle a runup to Bayonne mayoral election?
Meanwhile, state Assemblyman and Bayonne Councilman Anthony Chiappone has his own battle with the Bayonne Democratic Committee, saying that he had been promised a number of seats on the committee, but was forced to fight for them during the June Democratic primary.
Chiappone’s committee candidates were beaten, but Chiappone said all was not lost.
“We forced them to spend money in committee fight that the Bayonne Democrats would use to back Smith in November,” said Chiappone, who is supporting Conaghan for mayor.
Chiappone also supported Rep. Rob Andrews in his effort to unseat U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg in the June primary. While Lautenberg trounced Andrews in most places in Hudson County, Andrews got 40 percent of the Bayonne vote.
“We promised to help him get 40 percent, and that’s what we did,” Chiappone said.
A dream ticket in Hoboken?
Lautenberg’s visit to a fundraiser for Hoboken Councilman Peter Cammarano last week may indicate a change in status for the young councilman.
The affair brought together a host of Hoboken’s political heavyweights, past and present, including former mayor Steve Cappiello, outgoing Freeholder Maurice Fitzgibbons and state Assemblyman Ruben Ramos.
Reports suggest that Cammarano may head a mayoral ticket next May, and that Fitzgibbons has had regular meetings with some reformers to try to build a coalition ticket. A dream ticket – according to one source – would have Cammarano as the mayoral candidate with Carol Marsh running for one of the at-large council seats. In exchange, the Cammarano people would supposedly allow Marsh to name one or more of the other council candidates.
An alternative rumor also puts Fitzgibbons on the Cammarano slate. Since Fitzgibbons’ core of support comes from Hoboken’s 3rd Ward, this would put him a head to head competition for votes with Councilman Michael Russo.
Fitzgibbons would not confirm this, but did point out that with him on such team, he could look out for the interests of old Hoboken residents.