Frank Raia has been spotted meeting around Hoboken with City Council people loyal to Mayor Dawn Zimmer. Speculation is that he is lobbying to get a seat on the North Hudson Sewerage Authority (NHSA), where he was for 25 years. Last year, members of the authority gave him a retirement dinner after the Hoboken City Council failed to reappoint him.
Raia has been a regular member of the NHSA for several decades. When out of favor with a Hoboken administration in the past, he has talked one of the mayors of another member town of the authority to appoint him.
Although he had apparently worked out an agreement last year with the Zimmer administration to support his reappointment, the whole deal fell apart at the last minute, leaving Raia without a seat for the first time.
Some observers believe that Raia backed a third mayoral ticket in 2013 as part of deal to split the anti-Zimmer vote and help the mayor’s reelection effort, and that his reappointment was supposed to be his reward for this effort.
Currently, he is rumored to be considering a run himself for mayor in 2017 on a third ticket, and this has some people wondering if yet another deal is in the works.
If so, then Raia would displace Tony Soares, whose term on the NHSA expires shortly.
Soares, who is a former councilman and founding member of the reform movement from which Zimmer emerged, has lost favor with the Zimmer administration because of his pro-local business stance. Soares has been critical of the administration’s perceived unfriendliness to local business. And with the Zimmer administration, a critic quickly becomes a political enemy.
Romano will likely run for freeholder first
A Raia bid for mayor could spell bad news for Freeholder Anthony Romano, who is considering a run against Zimmer in 2017. But as with the 2013 election, Zimmer’s opponents need to unite their voters behind one candidate if they hope to win.
With Councilman Ruben Ramos reportedly planning to make another run after being derailed by the Raia ticket in 2013, Hoboken could see Zimmer swept into office again.
Romano, however, apparently isn’t taking things for granted. His current efforts are geared toward winning the Democratic nomination for freeholder, a primary race that will be held in June. If the numbers look good, he may then decide to run for mayor in November.
Zimmer, of course, could force Romano to spend down his political funds defending his freeholder seat. Traditionally, the Hudson County Democratic Organization (HCDO) allows the mayor to decide which candidate can run on the HCDO ballot line. This means Romano could be forced to run on his own again. Although he won “off line” in his last election in 2013, this was partly due to the fact that Zimmer’s candidate derailed his own election by running an anti-county campaign, blaming Democratic leaders of the county for the high increases in Hoboken’s share of the county taxes.
Blaming the county for tax increases may be the Zimmer Administration’s favorite sport, but it doesn’t make friends with the county’s Democratic leadership.
Race issues
A verbal dispute between high ranking officials from the Sheriff’s Department and the Hudson County Correction Facility may wind up in court. An incident occurred in mid-June and has required the county to hire outside counsel to look into the matter. Allegedly, an official from the Corrections Department, who is black, used a racial slur against an official from the Sheriff’s Department who is white.
This comes at a time when racial division appears to be igniting a number of official controversies, especially in Jersey City, where a dispute over a mural at the Newark Avenue Pedestrian Plaza has pitted the mostly white directors of the city mural program against African-American members of the City Council and the African-American community. A Monopoly board mural approved for the public street raised concerns about the depiction of a person behind prison bars who appeared to be of color. Eventually, the council ordered the offensive portion of the board to be blotted out. But several African-American members of the council said the directors of the city program would not respond to their requests for information, while white members of the council received a response. Last week the mural was removed entirely.
The conflict has led to a significant dispute in the arts community over the government’s role in sponsoring art and its content. Behind the scenes, Mayor Steven Fulop has defended the program, citing freedom of speech as necessary in a free society.
Candidates have filed for Board of Education elections
Gauging from the number of candidates filing in various towns, board of education elections this November will be hotly contested.
This may be particularly true in Jersey City, Hoboken, and Bayonne, where there are significant debates over issues being waged.
The incumbents in Jersey City have decided not to run for reelection, leaving a wide open field for the first time in decades. The three incumbents were strong supporters of Superintendent Dr. Marcia Lyles and their departure could shift the balance of power on the board against Lyles.
While it appears unlikely the board will rescind Lyles’ contract renewal, a new board could make Lyle’s job much more difficult, and increase the animosity reportedly erupting in closed door board sessions.
In Bayonne, three incumbents are running for three-year terms, and will face off against a number of challengers. Since board elections are a relatively recent event in Bayonne, it is uncertain just how strong the incumbents are, and so this election will test their political potency. Although the board has already voted not to approve the renewal of a contract for Schools Superintendent Dr. Patricia McGeehan, other serious issues face the board, including an unsettled contract with the teachers.
Hoboken candidates apparently hope to wrestle control of the board from the strong grip of Theresa Minutillo, continuing an almost endless political conflict over control of the board. This isn’t just reformer vs. old school, the way politics often breaks down on the council level. The board is often split on issues such as support for charter schools and rebuilding the traditional schools.
Al Sullivan may be reached at asullivan@hudsonreporter.com