While national Democrats desperately hope that the national Republicans name Mike Huckabee as their candidate for president, Hudson County Democrats are divided between support for U.S. Sen. Hilliary Clinton of New York and U.S. Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois.
Freeholder Maurice Fitzgibbons said the Hoboken Democratic Committee will likely support Clinton. Jersey City Councilman Steve Fulop is also backing Clinton. But Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy has apparently hooked up with Newark Mayor Cory Booker to support an Obama candidacy.
Fitzgibbons says that the factions involved in the recent Democratic civic war in Hoboken seemed to be coming together in time to back Clinton for the February presidential primary.
Behind the scenes, U.S. Rep. Robert Menendez is working hard to get Clinton nominated and elected. While no one can actually say why Menendez needs to push Hudson Democrats in that direction or why he is apparently holding the gun to both sides of the countywide Democratic civil war to make peace, there are theories.
First, if Clinton gets elected, she will make sure that U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie is replaced. Secondly, if Clinton becomes president, Gov. Jon Corzine will likely step down at New Jersey governor to take a White House cabinet post. Menendez could be next in line to replace Corzine as governor, giving Menendez even more political clout than he had when he ruled the roost in Hudson County.
Fulop’s recent conversation with Terry McAuliffe, chairman of the Democratic National Committee (and Clinton’s right-hand man), apparently assured Fulop support for his run for the House of Representatives seat currently occupied by Rep. Albio Sires if he chooses to go in that direction.
Clinton is building a powerful base in New Jersey, although the Obama strategy relies on security the urban districts, where the majority of Democratic votes are generated.
Fitzgibbons believes Clinton will secure Hudson County support that will allow her to win the state.
Healy, of course, has promised the Hudson County Democratic ballot line to Sires. This is probably because of the new political romance between Healy and Weehawken Mayor Richard Turner. Earlier this year, Turner, as head of the state’s Local Finance Board and with ties to Sires, helped secure funding in an effort to rescue Greenville Hospital. Repayment of the political favor will come due in next year’s Democratic primaries, so that even if Fulop chooses to run against Sires, he won’t have the support of the Hudson County Democratic Organization (HCDO), which Healy chairs.
For the holiday season, peace will reign at the Hoboken Democratic Christmas event, where Fitzigibbons jokingly hopes Hoboken councilmembers will entertain the guests by holding a council meeting – a better comedy hit than most of the shows currently running on New York City’s Broadway.
Healy will also be invitged to do his rendition of the Bing Crosby Christmas classic, “Christmas in Killarny.”
When is a peace treaty not a peace treaty?
You really have to question the so-called peace in North Hudson when Turner and West New York Mayor Sal Vega were the only two major political people to show up for the press conference announcing the truce last week.
The war of nasty words between Vega and state Assemblyman and Union City Mayor Brian Stack over the last summer would have created a feud among blood relatives, let alone relative strangers.
While Stack’s staff said Stack could not attend the announcement because of duties in Trenton, Sires was likewise occupied with business in Washington D.C. You would think an event so important as this might be put off to another day to allow the major players to attend.
The other force behind the war, state Sen. and North Bergen Mayor Nicholas Sacco reportedly said he was done with helping Vega – suggesting that this is more a pause in overall hostilities not a peace.
Vega wins after all
The real winner here is Vega, who may have derailed a Stack, Turner, and Sires-backed recall election. The real loser is West New York Commissioner Gerry Lange, who was supposed to challenge Vega in the recall.
Lange has been bounced around over the last year. Late last year, Lange stayed loyal to Vega when Sires and Turner approached him as a possible candidate against Vega in the mayoral election. At that time, Lange served as both a commissioner in West New York as well as the freeholder, and was content to remain loyal to Vega. In fact, Lange even tried to recruit Stack’s wife to the Vega side against Stack. Then one day, Lange shows up at a rally and finds that Vega as put another candidate on the podium for the freeholder seat Lange had then held.
Rejected by the Vega ticket, Lange went to the Stack side and began to work for them, and like any good political soldier, expected the Stack-Turner-Sires coalition to reward him for his efforts.
Lange could be offered a job with the freeholder administration, filling the post vacated if Phil Kenny runs for and wins a Jersey City council seat.
Both sides need to pay Lange off. Vega is probably scared of Lange pushing forward with the recall. Turner and Sires probably felt guilty, and Sacco would most likely want to bring Lange back into the HCDO fold for use as a future weapon against Vega for Vega’s joining Stack.
But Lange, who has already raised a significant amount of money, could continue the recall effort and seek to replace Vega as mayor.
Lange would be very attractive to the voting public because he will seem like an underdog facing off against the political machine, but in fact Vega won’t have much going for him. Sires, Stack, Turner or the HCDO won’t come out to help him if challenged. So Vega will be on his own.
Lange reportedly has already talked to a high-profile fundraiser as well as a nationally-known campaign strategist.
Sad ending
Mary Jane Desmond had a bad day on Dec. 6 when she was told she would not be reappointed to the position of deputy clerk. This may have something to do with the fact that she ran against Barbara Netchert in the Democratic primary last June to become county clerk and lost. The deputy clerk position is considered a political appointment, and as Desmond points out, a new clerk typically appoints her own deputy. Ten minutes after she found out she would not be reappointed, Desmond headed down the stairs at Brennan Courthouse to her office, her head racing with the news, and she fell down the steps, fracturing one ankle and spraining the other.
Desmond, however, is expected to be a candidate in 2008 to become Bayonne mayor.