Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto will face a serious choice if and when Gov. Christopher Christie steps down to run for president at some point prior to 2016.
Prieto will have to choose between feuding political factions for the Democratic nomination for governor – most likely between Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop and State Senate Pres. Steve Sweeney.
Although his power base is largely due to the strong support of State Senator and North Bergen Mayor Nicholas Sacco, a huge portion of southern New Jersey legislators support Sweeney, and if Prieto runs afoul of the senate president and chooses Fulop over Sweeney, he won’t have the votes to retain his Assembly speakership.
Some observers believe Prieto will back Sweeney over Fulop, despite the fact that Sacco largely supported Fulop behind the scenes in the Jersey City mayoral in 2013.
One sign of a possible union between Prieto and Sweeney was the Bayonne municipal election in June, during which Sweeney – apparently at the request of Prieto, Sacco and possibly U.S. Senator Robert Menendez – came into the fray on behalf of James Davis against then-Mayor Mark Smith.
The Davis election was likely about the MOTBY
Prieto’s request for Sweeney’s support was not out of love for Davis so much as the desire to restart residential development at the former Military Ocean Terminal. Although there are a lot of political reasons why Prieto, Sacco, and Menendez did not want Smith as mayor, the fundamental reason has to do with the development of MOTBY.
Recently, Fidelco – the proposed developer of a portion of MOTBY – settled an ongoing suit with the city. Under the Smith administration, Fidelco would have been allowed to build residential rentals on something less than half the property it has the rights to, clearing the way for a possible hotel development through the city on the other part of that property.
But with Gold Coast developers once more seeking new space to develop lucrative residential housing, this deal may not hold up.
At one time, Fidelco, with its strong political connections to Menendez, had proposed developing all 432 acres of MOTBY. This proved unrealistic and the city divided MOTBY into six development districts, selling one of these to Fidelco. The rest were to be sold to other entities.
But the downturn in the economy in 2008 sent the whole development into chaos. The city, under Smith, sold a huge portion of the property to the Port Authority, which put it out of reach for potential private development. This may have been the last straw for political forces with ties to residential development, and appears to be the reason why so many political heavyweights backed Davis over Smith, hoping to save the remaining acres for additional residential development.
Some believe that the hotel agreements that Smith brokered in his waning days may vanish in favor of luxury residential development instead.
Job market Bayonne
On a smaller scale, the Davis campaign has to contain a number of other issues, such as providing jobs to political supporters. Many of the internal conflicts underway have to do with supporters who think they deserve jobs for helping in the good fight that allowed Davis to unseat Smith.
This is a dilemma former Jersey City Mayor Glenn Cunningham faced when he won election in 2001. The need to supply jobs to supporters in that case led to a county-wide fight as Cunningham sought to get his own man in as county executive to tap the county for jobs.
Bayonne doesn’t have the option to seek jobs at a county level. And not all jobs are equal either, even if they pay well. Some of the Davis supporters are seeking to accrue the necessary years worked to qualify for municipal pensions. In this case, they need jobs in City Hall, and not in an associated agency such as the Bayonne Equal Opportunity Foundation – which also has provided jobs in the past.
This has become one of the true challenges of the Davis administration, and may be the reason the city is seeking to add on departments that were eliminated or combined during the Smith Administration.
This jockeying for jobs appears to be the central cause for reported conflicts in City Hall, where supporters from the Davis campaign are making demands. Unfortunately, this has led also to some dissatisfaction with newly-appointed business administrator Joe DeMarco, who has a reputation for austerity when it comes to providing political patronage. Some of those job seekers making demands are also the ones screaming loudest for DeMarco’s removal.
Al Sullivan may be reached at asullivan@hudsonreporter.com.