Two months before a critical special election to fill two Jersey City council seats, a new rumor has been generated out of the camp of Councilman Steve Fulop, suggesting that it might be possible for Fulop to support Jersey City Mayor Jerremiah Healy in 2013 for a run at the 33rd District state Senate seat against Brian Stack, if Healy drops his bid to run for mayor in 2013.
The logic is that Healy still needs a few years to get his state pension, and that he might be unwilling to gamble on reelection as mayor to achieve those additional years.
This is bound to aggravate state Stack, who currently holds the seat and who has more or less promised to support Fulop in the 2013 mayoral election.
Why this comes out today rather than closer to the mayoral and state Senate elections in 2013 has a lot to do with the current battle for two council seats in which Healy and Fulop are backing different candidates – and may be meant discourage Healy workers at a time when they are fighting to retain the seats.
The election for the two seats on Nov. 8 is expected to have a crowded field of candidates with no runoff. This means a simple majority of voters will allow any candidate to win.
Healy is supporting two candidates, Ray Velazquez and Kalimah Ahmad, who were appointed to the seats after two council people resigned.
The potential field of other candidates includes Suzanne Mack, Ward F Councilwoman Viola Richardson, Omar Dyer, Imitaz Dyed, Brian Lane, former Councilman Jamie Vasquez, Nabil Youseff, Ronaldo Lavaro, former mayoral candidate Dan Levin, John Carrol, Ramsey Olivencia, Adela Rohena. Albert Walkers Jr., Rev. Francis Schiller, Melissa Clark, Danielle Levin, and possibly former Councilman Junior Maldonado.
This will also be a curious election, because some of the candidates’ names are so similar that voters are bound to be confused, such as Dan Levin as opposed to Danielle Levin, and Velazaquez as opposed to Vasquez.
Cat lady of Hoboken?
Some people wondering who was standing near the Izod Center on Saturday night holding a cat in her arms, might have been surprised to learn that it was Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer. It wasn’t her cat she was holding; it belonged to one of the Hoboken residents evacuated there.
Perhaps Zimmer and her administration learned a hard lesson after the post-Christmas blizzard last December, as they were everywhere doing everything during Hurricane Irene.
Zimmer even sent vehicles to help evacuate people from the Housing Authority buildings. But because the political rhetoric has heated up bad feelings between people, many refused to leave.
Zimmer’s supporters have been complaining that no one from the Housing Authority bothered to tell people they needed to evacuate.
Last year, when he was running against then-Councilman Michael Lenz in the special election for the 4th Ward, Tim Occhipinti blasted Lenz on flooding. This year, Occhipinti was apparently out of town when the storm hit. Councilman Michael Russo, another opponent of Zimmer, remained in town, as did Councilwoman Beth Mason, who kept her political headquarters open throughout the storm, providing food and other services.
Zimmer, along with Council President Ravi Bhalla and Councilman Dave Mello, formed the core of an extremely effective relief effort. Even if they couldn’t stop the water from rising, they did everything possible to make residents more comfortable.
Hoboken Hospital bankruptcy looms
Zimmer and company have a serious problem with the sale of the Hoboken University Medical Center. If they don’t sell it, they won’t have the cash to keep its doors open. So the city was apparently rushing HHI, the hospital administration, to declare bankruptcy in order to get the sale done and dump the hospital taxpayers saved several years ago into private hands.
Behind the scenes, some people apparently came away with bruised arms when they resisted going into bankruptcy – since this would leave a lot of unpaid and unsecured creditors out in the cold. The hospital owes them an estimated $37 million, money that either the city of Hoboken or the new owners would have to pay if the bankruptcy didn’t go through.
Somewhere in all of this there will be a lawsuit. The question is, who will ultimately pay the price for the quick fix the city is taking?
For vendors who did business in good faith with the hospital at a time when the city pledged $52 million to guarantee its finances, it seems more than a little unfair that they should have to write off $37 million.
Secaucus Board of Ed vs. Town of Secaucus
School Board Trustee Tom Troyer is on the warpath again. About 10 years ago, he led resistance to then-Mayor Dennis Elwell when Elwell encouraged the board to hire Ron Manzo’s insurance firm. Since then, Elwell has been convicted of accepting cash from developer Solomon Dwek, using Manzo has a conduit.
Now, Troyer is reminding people of this history when opposing Mayor Michael Gonnelli’s suggestion that the board adopt an insurance carrier the town currently uses.
“I have serious concerns about this,” Troyer said.
Troyer and Gonnelli might have worked together in the distant past, since both had issues with Elwell, but this largely ended when Gonnelli ran for the 2nd Ward seat against an Elwell-backed candidate and Troyer leaped into the race in what many believed was an attempt to water down the opposition vote and allow the Elwell candidate to win. Troyer says this is not true, but the feeling persists.