Wearing a gray business suit with a silver U.S. Marshal pendant pinned to her collar, a busy Sandra Bolden Cunningham walked into the Hard Grove Café in Downtown Jersey City for her interview with the Jersey City Reporter. It was her first interview in the over three months since her husband, former Mayor Glenn Cunningham, died of a sudden heart attack May 25 at Greenville Hospital.
During the nearly hour-long interview, Cunningham spoke on various topics, including her husband’s passing and its aftermath, her future in politics, and her involvement in the current political landscape.Glenn Cunningham’s last day
Sandra Cunningham talked about the May evening in which she came home from a meeting in Wayne, N.J., and met up with her husband at their home in Society Hill. The mayor had just returned from a block party held on West Side Avenue. He had gone for a bike ride from City Hall to the party.
“He got home and said that he was tired; that he wasn’t feeling well,” said Cunningham. “He asked me to take him to the hospital. We went to Greenville Hospital, and he had the attack in the car on the way there.”
Cunningham said she knew of no heart problems that may have afflicted the late mayor, but she attributed the attack to his dual career as mayor and state senator, and having to deal with the “day-to-day stress of fighting the City Council and Congressman Menendez.”
Menendez and Glenn Cunningham had been locked in a bitter struggle over political power in Jersey City and Hudson County during the large part of the late mayor’s administration. Glenn Cunningham was also at odds with the City Council over various issues, such as the city budget and a new lease agreement for the historic Loew’s Theater.
Sandra Cunningham said that the next couple of weeks after her husband’s death were difficult. She depended on all the support she received from family, friends and especially from employees who worked for her husband.
When asked about the controversial decision to not invite City Council President L. Harvey Smith (currently the acting mayor of Jersey City who assumed the position after Cunningham’s passing) to the funeral, as well as not inviting Rep. Robert Menendez and other city officials considered to be political enemies of Glenn Cunningham, Cunningham said that she was the one responsible for not inviting them. But she also does not regret the decision.
“He was subjected to some ugly attacks by these people,” she said, “and I wasn’t going to let them come to his funeral, take pictures and exploit this moment after what they had done to him.”
Cunningham said that she has coped with her husband’s passing by not being involved in politics as much as supporters would like her to be, by thinking of the times they shared together, and by keeping their home pretty much the same as it was before his passing – even keeping the same answering machine message with both their voices in the greeting.
Cunningham and her husband were married five years ago.
She had worked in the administrative offices of the Hudson County Bar Association.
Glenn Cunningham’s birthday is Sept. 16. Sandra said she would be in Atlanta with his siblings on that day.
Keeping the legacy alive
From the time her husband passed away to the present, Sandra Cunningham has been asked by supporters and the media about her intentions to run for political office, to follow in her late husband’s footsteps as Jersey City mayor or state senator. She said that she has declined so far to run for any political office as she still in mourning for her husband, but she has found other ways to express her political clout.
Recently, she endorsed Jersey City Police Chief Ron Buonocore for the upcoming mayoral election, calling him the “best person to continue my husband’s legacy.”
But as far as whether she would campaign vigorously for him, Cunningham made it clear that she would lend support if needed and go out on some appearances if asked, but she has had her fill of politicking from the mayoral and state Senate campaigns of her late husband.
When asked about her endorsement of Buonocore in light of the announcement last week by the late mayor’s former aide, Willie Flood, to run for mayor, Cunningham again reiterated her support for Buonocore and said that she considered Flood a “very good” friend and will continue the friendship.
She also didn’t rule out the possibility of running for elected office in the future, and said if she were going to embark on an extensive political campaign for any candidate, it would be for her own candidacy.
Otherwise, Cunningham will be devoting the bulk of her time running the Sandra and Glenn Cunningham Foundation. The Foundation was started immediately after the late mayor’s death. She will organize fundraising events starting later this month.
The foundation is a 501(c)3 entity that will raise money to provide scholarships for Jersey City high school students who have average grades but want to pursue higher education, and to purchase computers for senior citizens’ residences to help older residents learn and become comfortable using computers.
So far, over $50,000 has been raised since late May, when Cunningham requested the public to send monetary donations in lieu of flowers.
The mayor’s books in progress
Also, there is the matter of the late mayor’s belongings, especially personal papers and three books that Glenn Cunningham was working on until the time of his death.
“After a long day of work, Glenn would sit up writing from 11 p.m. to three or four in the morning,” said Cunningham. One of the titles, Hidden Footprints, a history of African-Americans in Jersey City, is the closest to being published. Sandra Cunningham is currently seeking a company that would publish the manuscript. The other two manuscripts, both incomplete, are a murder mystery set in Jersey City in the late 1920s titled Under the Colgate Clock, and Cunningham’s autobiography that he started when he was a police officer in the late 1960s.
At the June 23 meeting, the City Council passed a resolution for Montgomery Street to be also known as Glenn D. Cunningham Way. At the City Council meeting coming up this week, they will introduce a resolution to rename Orient Avenue, where the Cunningham family home still exists, in his honor.
Sandra on Jersey City politics
Cunningham was unflinching yet not overly harsh when she offered her observations about City Hall under the present administration of Smith. She said she did not want engage in anymore “Harvey bashing.”
She said Smith’s decision to change much of the previous City Hall staff in a rather short period of time was something that she would not have done if she were mayor of the city, nor would her late husband have done so.
“[Smith] got rid of a lot of good people, and maybe he should have taken his time making those decisions,” said Cunningham.
As far as the current election season is concerned, Cunningham did not offer much comment, except to say that everyone has the right to run for Jersey City mayor in November. But she said her choice is Buonocore, and that he will be victorious.