Jersey City mayor-elect says his eyes aren't on Trenton

By Terrence T. McDonald/The Jersey Journal
May 20, 2013 at 6:35 PM

Jersey City Mayor-elect Steve Fulop doesn’t think much of inquiries regarding his intentions for higher office.

The May 14 mayoral race wasn’t even certified before members of the media began peppering Fulop with questions about running for governor. Those questions are evidence “the bench is very weak” for state Democrats, Fulop told The Jersey Journal.

“It’s less a testament of me than it is to the weakness of the Democratic Party in New Jersey,” he said.

Fulop said he is committed to at least one term as the city’s mayor and, if voters will have him, a second term.

Last Tuesday, Fulop won a resounding victory against incumbent Mayor Jerramiah Healy, who had been seeking a third full term. Fulop won 53 percent to Healy's 38 percent.

Fulop becomes mayor on July 1

http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/20 ... y_mayor-elect_says_h.html

O'Dea, Cunningham to co-chair transition team for new Jersey City mayor

By Terrence T. McDonald/The Jersey Journal
May 21, 2013 at 11:04 AM

Hudson County Freeholder Bill O’Dea, an early supporter of Mayor-elect Steve Fulop, will co-chair Fulop’s transition team with state Sen. Sandra B. Cunningham.

Cunningham, widow of the late former mayor Glenn D. Cunningham, notably never took sides in the fierce campaign for mayor that saw Fulop last week defeating incumbent Mayor Jerramiah Healy’s bid for a third full term.

“I am proud to have two esteemed community leaders heading my transition team,” Fulop said in a statement from his campaign. “My goal is to make Jersey City one of the best mid-sized cities in America and Bill and Sandra have the experience and leadership to help me achieve that goal.”

O’Dea, a former two-term councilman, represents Jersey City’s West Side on the Freeholder board. He was one of the few elected officials who backed Fulop over Healy in the May 14 mayoral contest.

Cunninghan represents Bayonne and portions of Jersey City in the state Senate.

“I gladly accepted Steven’s invitation to join as co-chair of his transition team,” Cunningham said in the statement. “Bill and I will work together to ensure the Fulop administration reflects the great diversity of Jersey City and has the experience and energy necessary to help the mayor accomplish his goals.”

Fulop becomes the city’s 48th mayor on July 1

http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/20 ... ngham_to_co-chair_tr.html

Jersey City mayor-elect says police restructuring, teen recreation, abatements policy top agenda

By Terrence T. McDonald/The Jersey Journal
May 21, 2013 at 10:08 AM

Jersey City Mayor-elect Steve Fulop plans to be just as "hands-on" a mayor as he was a councilman, Fulop said Friday during his first wide-ranging interview since he defeated Mayor Jerramiah Healy on Tuesday.

Fulop, 36, who rarely goes a minute without checking email or messages on his phone, said he trained a lot of his campaign volunteers to be as responsive as he is, and he'll bring that same kind of alertness to City Hall starting July 1.

"There will be a culture of responsiveness that's going to be much more apparent than there is now," he told editors of The Jersey Journal.

Last Tuesday, Fulop won a long and hard-fought campaign against Healy, during which Fulop, currently the Downtown councilman, promised to change City Hall and seek to make Jersey City the best mid-size city in the nation.

His first duties as mayor will be to implement Police Department restructuring, developing additional summer recreation opportunities for teens, and instituting a new system for awarding long-term tax breaks to developers.

As for who will run the city under his administration, Fulop didn't offer any names, aside from his campaign manager, John Thieroff. Fulop declined to specify what role Thieroff will play, adding that he made no commitments to anyone during the campaign and he doesn't intend to summarily ax Healy allies.

"I'm not looking to come in to be a butcher for the sake of being a butcher, vindictive," he said.

Fulop won every ward in the city except Ward F, according to official election results. He lost Ward F by about 50 votes, but the margin of defeat was much more lopsided in the Bergen-Lafayette section of the ward.

Asked whether he thinks he needs to work on convincing voters in Bergen-Lafayette that he will work for them, Fulop said many of his proposals -- to decrease crime, to encourage development in areas aside from the waterfront -- are targeted to improve the lives of residents there.

He also intends to be a resident there soon. A longtime denizen of Downtown, Fulop has sold his Paulus Hook walkup and is seeking to buy a home in Bergen-Lafayette.

"It's a strong signal, is really what I think," he said. "I want to have a commitment to the area beyond just saying it."

For now, Fulop has more campaign work to do: six council races have yet to be decided, since no candidate except Downtown Councilwoman-elect Candice Osborne won more than 50 percent of the vote. And there's an upcoming vote to decide who will be chair of the Hudson County Democratic Party.

http://www.nj.com/jjournal-news/index ... _says_p.html#incart_river

McCann Letter: Most in office opposed Fulop's successful mayoral bid

By Letters to the Editor/The Jersey Journal
on May 20, 2013 at 7:40 PM

In 1981, when I was elected mayor in a runoff election and defeated the Hudson County and Jersey City Democratic organizations, it was considered a major upset. The election Tuesday of our next Mayor Steven Fulop is by far more remarkable than my accomplishment.

First, he did it on the first ballot. I am sure that on the next election, he will carry the rest of his team.

What Mayor Fulop did, though, far surpassed my victory. He had to overcome the endorsement of the most recently elected president of the United States. I was fortunate to have the support, although not the endorsement, of President Ronald Reagan. Jersey City, that had overwhelmingly supported President Barack Obama, had less than six months later to reverse course and support Steven Fulop. I know that Mayor Fulop was a very early supporter of President Obama and held campaign rallies for his election. The other side labeled him a Republican with stickers the night before the election. They made false claims about his career in finance and about his campaign contributors. They labeled him an outsider although he has lived here for 12 years.

Mayor Steven Fulop faced down the endorsements of the Hudson County Democratic Organization and its chairman, Mayor Mark Smith of Bayonne. He was opposed by the Jersey City Democratic Organization and its chairman, Freeholder Jeff Dublin. The mayors of New York (Bloomberg), Newark (Booker) and Boston (Menino) as well as the Democratic nominee for governor, a Democratic senator from Middlesex County, threw their support against our mayor-elect. He was opposed by Congressmen Sires, Pallone, Pascrell and Senator Lautenberg. Freeholder Rivera, Assemblymen Mainor and O'Donnell, both representing Jersey City, rejected Mayor Fulop.

Finally he was enthusiastically opposed by the teachers, police and firemen of Jersey City and all of the municipal unions in Jersey City. I am sure the crying has just begun about their sacrifices.

Mayor Steven Fulop had only his desire and hard work to offset all of their combined support against him. He had one other tough great supporter. He had the citizens of Jersey City. As he said at his victory party, he had a democracy of the people to support his election.

God bless Mayor Fulop and his many, many supporters. God bless Jersey City and its very wise voters.

FORMER MAYOR GERALD McCANN
JERSEY CITY

Former Jersey City mayor claims council candidate lives in Montville

By Terrence T. McDonald/The Jersey Journal
May 20, 2013 at 6:38 PM

A former Jersey City mayor, working as a surrogate for Ward D City Council candidate Assemblyman Sean Connors, is alleging that Connors’ opponent in the June 11 council runoff election does not live in Jersey City.

Michael Yun, who runs Central Avenue store Garden State News, doesn’t deny that he owns a home in Montville, but Yun told The Jersey Journal his 27-year-old son lives there. Yun and his wife live in one of the two residential units above his store, he said.

In a field of four candidates, Yun finished in first place in the May 14 city election. Yun won 2,307 votes, and Connors came in second place with 1,833 votes. Because Yun didn’t win more than 50 percent of the vote, voters will choose between the two men on June 11.

Former Mayor Gerry McCann’s efforts to derail Yun’s candidacy over residency issues are “dirty” and “childish,” Yun said.

“This is a very unpleasant story,” he said.

The flap began on Sunday, when McCann visited Yun’s Montville home, which property records show is assessed at $859,600, and had a verbal altercation with Yun’s son, Benjamin. The younger Yun ended up filing a trespassing complaint against McCann.

McCann today filed a letter with the Superintendent of Elections listing his concerns about Yun’s residency, claiming that as late as March, another individual lived in the apartment Yun claims as his own.

Yun, who is registered to vote in Jersey City, said county election officials came to his store at about 2:30 p.m. and demanded to see the inside of his apartment.

Soon after, Yun allowed a reporter with The Jersey Journal to tour the third-floor apartment, where the closets were filled with clothes, there was food in the kitchen and two sets of slippers lay on the floor by the bedroom.

Yun campaign manager Cynthia Hadjiyannis said McCann’s campaign to get Yun disqualified from the June 11 race “perfectly illustrates” why Yun is running.

“It’s this kind of crap that needs to change,” Hadjiyannis said.

McCann isn’t backing down from his claims about Yun’s residency.

"Here's a guy who sells pornography in his store, sells drug paraphernalia in his store with roach clips and rolling paper ... and then he's questioning me, that I'm harassing him?" McCann said.

McCann said he is not working in tandem with Mayor-elect Steve Fulop, who is backing Connors. Fulop campaign spokesman Bruno Tedeschi said Fulop’s focus is setting up his administration, “not where Michael Yun lives.”

http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/20 ... sey_city_mayor_claim.html

Candidates in Jersey City council races eye dropping out of runoff elections

By Terrence T. McDonald/The Jersey Journal
May 20, 2013 at 7:26 AM

At least one candidate in the forthcoming Jersey City council runoff elections is bowing out of the race, and others may be considering it as well.

Gerald Meyers, who came in second last Tuesday in his bid to win the Ward B council seat, told The Jersey Journal Friday he doesn’t want to participate in the runoff election.

Omar Perez, whose at-large council team came in second behind Mayor-elect Steve Fulop’s three-person team, has also expressed interest in bowing out, according to a city source.

Sources say Councilman at large Peter Brennan, who ran on Healy’s ticket with Perez, may also ask voters not to consider him for the runoff. Requests for comment from Brennan and Perez were not returned.

State election law says candidates cannot be removed from runoff election ballots unless they die seven days or more before the election. City Clerk Robert Byrne said Friday that candidates would have to sue him to force him to remove their names.

Meyers, 65, a part-time Hudson County worker, ran on incumbent Mayor Jerramiah Healy’s council slate (Healy lost to Fulop). He finished in second place on Election Day, coming in about 200 votes behind Fulop ally Khemraj “Chico” Ramchal.

Meyers told The Jersey Journal he thinks it would cost about $30,000 to campaign between now and the June 11 runoff, and he said he doesn’t have the funds.

“Wish I had money trees in the backyard,” he said, adding that he also worries that he’ll miss family gatherings if he’s elected to the council.

http://www.nj.com/jjournal-news/index ... y_counc.html#incart_river

Political Insider: Healy council candidates can run, but also can hide

By Agustin C. Torres/The Jersey Journal
on May 18, 2013 at 12:01 AM

The coup d'etat for the remnants of the administration of Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy comes on June 11 with the runoffs for council candidates. There is no longer a Team Healy -- workers or funding -- now that the mayor lost Tuesday to Downtown Councilman Steven Fulop.

There is no runoff in Ward E, where newcomer Candice Osborne won Fulop's old council seat.

Some administration candidates want to bail out. It is not that easy. Each candidate would have to petition a judge to remove themselves from the ballot. Should one get judicial permission to drop out, a third-place finisher has no chance of moving up into the runner-up's runoff slot.

Now who wants out? Better to ask who can come up with another $20,000 to $25,000 to fund another run?

Don't expect any activity from Ward B council hopeful Gerald Meyer. At-large council hopeful Omar Perez would have to dig into his own pockets to run, an unlikely scenario.

I can't see Councilman at large Peter Brennan continuing without buddies Healy or ex-councilman Bill Gaughan in local government. He must have some campaign funds should he want to take a shot. Brennan isn't answering his phones -- not a good sign.

If they intend to bow out, these folks were told by the administration to just abandon the election, leaving their names on the ballot.

Those Healy acolytes who I expect to go down fighting are at-large candidate Viola Richardson, an incumbent, and Ward A hopeful Charles Epps. Epps, the former superintendent of schools who does Jack Benny proud, will not spend a dime in the runoff campaign and hopes name recognition will carry him to victory. Ward F candidate Jermaine Robinson believes all those votes he received in Ward F will return for a second time.

I knew Richardson would not go quietly.

They should also realize that there is no President Obama endorsement available for them.

Yesterday, Mayor-elect Fulop said he will support all his running mates (even Heights candidate Sean Connors). He added that his campaign will probably blitz Ward A and Epps in support of his man, former police chief Frank Gajewski.

This means independent candidates and top vote-getters Michael Yun of Ward D and Richard Boggiano of Ward C will have to do it again to prove it wasn't a fluke the first time. I expect Yun to get even more campaign donations and Boggiano will walk door to door much faster.

'UNEASY LIES THE HEAD ...'

As mayor of the second largest city in the state and biggest in Hudson County, Fulop will have political responsibilities on top of running the city. After awhile, the politics will distract and at times annoy.

The day after Fulop was elected there were two stories written about him on the Internet. One was that he does not intend to endorse anyone in the gubernatorial race and the second is that Freeholder Bill O'Dea, because of his early support for the councilman, has a shot of replacing U.S. Rep. Albio Sires of West New York in Congress.

Even before taking office, Fulop says he has a transition to worry about and it would be "ludicrous" to get entangled in the race between the very popular Republican Gov. Chris Christie and the Democratic sacrificial lamb Sen. Barbara Buono.

Yet he is a Democrat in the Hudson County seat, a major Democratic Party stronghold. Even though Buono endorsed Healy, I say he does want to get involved in making changes in the Hudson County Democratic Organization, so in the end he'll back the Dem candidate.

BAYONNE CALLING, COLLECT

Do the changes include HCDeadO leadership? Let's just say that Fulop was very unhappy with the head of the HCDeadO, Bayonne Mark Smith, for getting involved in another city's election by wheeling thousands of HCDeadO dollars into Healy's campaign war chest. Everyone who called to congratulate Fulop got a call back, except Smith and Assemblyman Jason O'Donnell of Bayonne.

As for the other story -- O'Dea could probably fill many positions, if offered, but it would be difficult for the freeholder to replace Sires in the 8th Congressional District unless he moved from his present address in U.S. Rep. Donald Payne Jr.'s 10th District.

If we're going to speculate about the freeholder, let's talk about his interest in County Executive Tom DeGise's job, a post Bayonne's Smith may also covet. As for the Fulop administration, I doubt O'Dea would say no if offered the business administrator's post. At least he'd think about it real hard. I wonder if that is why present Business Administrator Jack Kelly showed up late to Fulop's election victory party at Zeppelin Hall Tuesday night -- much to the chagrin of Healy's inner circle.

Now, after the June primary, would all those committee people from Jersey (Fulop) City remove Smith as HCDeadO leaders? There's a consensus that former state Sen. Bernard Kenny of Hoboken would be voted in as the new county Dem head.

Why?

Smith's county political post is a thankless position. Why take over an organization that is headed for a humiliating defeat in November? Better to take over the following year. Then Smith can be blamed for backing Montclair Sen. Nia Gil over U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez's choice of Payne Jr., getting involved in a losing effort in the Jersey City election, and leading a party that gets crushed by Gov. Christie.

What about the Jersey City Democratic Organization reorganization after the June primary? Freeholder Jeff Dublin is gone as chairman. Dublin was heavily invested in the Healy re-election bid. At almost every mayoral debate, Dublin led the booing of Fulop and cheering of Healy. He and Eliu Rivera will eventually be replaced by Fulop on the county Board of Freeholders.

One name I keep hearing as JCDO leader is the mayor-elect's Heights campaign guy Sean "Sully" Sullivan. A woman nominee could also make Fulop look good, but right now that's pure speculation.

POLITICAL INSIDER

-- Thinking back on the Healy campaign: his people put their hearts out in this campaign. Then he opens his mouth and the long campaign and the Obama free-pass is gone. On election night, when it dawned on the mostly city employees that they lost, they are already thinking about how they're going to pay the mortgage and other bills. So what does the lame duck mayor do? He starts singing "Folsom Prison Blues." Sorry, but Healy was never a leader.

Yesterday, Fulop told The Jersey Journal editorial board that he's "not looking to be a butcher, vindictive." He said he needs people to run the city government and doesn't intend to be the only employee sitting in City Hall. The inference is that if people do their jobs well, they'll probably continue working. Some who obviously work at the pleasure of the mayor will be looking elsewhere.

-- I suspect they've already fired some county school teacher to make room for the return of city Housing, Economic Development and Commerce Director Carl Czaplicki, who has been on leave from his educator duties for some time now.

-- One day, the Fulop camp, specifically O'Dea and company, needed good campaign workers who could quickly place political literature on doorknobs of homes. The call went out for Alex and Greg Stamato. "Can you come down to headquarters at 4?" Alex was asked.

"Yeah, right after school," said the 16-year-old boy, a McNair student. His 13-year-old brother Greg would help.

"No Alex, that's 4 in the morning."

Their mom, Barbara, somewhat reluctantly, drove them to their destination.

Some of the best workers in the mayor-elect's campaign were young people, but there were no harder volunteers than the very young Stamato brothers and Robert Zielinski, 14.

It's a tradition in this county where the likes of an O'Dea or Brian Stack, future Union City mayor and state senator, become heavily involved in local politics in their early teens.

"I could see Alex catch the bug," said his mom.

The 16-year-old is more interested in landing a military academy appointment than running for office.

-- My sources tell me thaty not only did the Healy campaign get President Obama's endorsement, payback for Healy's early backing, but they were working with the Democratic National Committee for a date when Michele Obama would visit Jersey City just prior to the city election.

Fulop's camp complained to the DNC about its involvement in a Democrat versus Democrat race and the First Lady visit was never mentioned again. Would she really have popped in for a hello, if asked? Well, we are close to Broadway, etc.

http://www.nj.com/hudson/voices/index ... _counci.html#incart_river

Jersey City runoff elections tend to favor first-place finishers

By Terrence T. McDonald/The Jersey Journal
May 16, 2013 at 12:08 PM

Good news for the first-place winners in Tuesday’s Jersey City City Council elections: history indicates they will likely go on to win their runoff elections.

Since 2001, there have been 12 runoff elections for council races, and in all but one case, the first-place finisher in the first round of balloting won the subsequent runoff.

That one exception occurred in 2001, when every council race resulted in a runoff. Peter Brennan, the current councilman at large who lost on the first ballot that year in his bid to become the Ward A councilman, later scored a strong win in the runoff.

Brennan now faces another runoff. He, Councilwoman at large Viola Richardson and former mayoral aide Omar Perez finished behind Mayor-elect Steve Fulop’s at-large council team: Councilman at large Rolando Lavarro (no stranger to runoffs himself), Daniel Rivera and the Rev. Joyce Watterman.

Only Ward E Councilwoman-elect Candice Osborne won her council race outright on Tuesday night. The remaining eight races will be decided after the Tuesday, June 11 runoff elections.

First-place finishers this time around include former schools chief Charles T. Epps Jr. in Ward A; council aide Khemraj “Chico” Ramchal in Ward B; retired Jersey City cop Rich Boggiano in Ward C; business owner Michael Yun in Ward D; and Councilwoman Diane Coleman in Ward F.

Fulop has said his No. 1 priority between now and June 11 is helping his candidates win their runoff elections, though only two of his candidates (Ramchal and Coleman) head into the runoffs after finishing in first place Tuesday.

It’s “crucial” to have a council with Fulop allies, Fulop said yesterday, because otherwise the nine-member body could be “obstructionist” to his administration.

Having the new mayor-elect on their side could help even those Fulop candidates who came in second place on Tuesday -- he may be able to raise more money for them than the independent candidates (Boggiano and Yun) or Healy's candidate (Epps) will scrape up.

After the 2005 city election, there was only one runoff, for the Ward A council seat. Michael Sottolano won on the first ballot in May and then won the subsequent runoff. Still the Ward A councilman, Sottolano opted to run for a third term this year.

Sottolano faced another runoff in 2009, when he won on the first ballot in May but didn’t win more than 50 percent of the vote. The second-place finisher was Lavarro, who later lost the runoff, too.

Richardson, running for re-election to the Ward F council seat in 2009, also faced a runoff then. She won on the first ballot, and was victorious in the runoff.

Next month’s runoff elections will be the third time Richardson has been forced into a re-match after a May city election.

http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/20 ... y_runoff_elections_t.html

Jersey City mayor-elect outlines priorities for his administration

By Terrence T. McDonald/The Jersey Journal
May 15, 2013 at 8:30 PM

Replicating the resurgence of Jersey City’s Downtown in the other areas of the city is an “absolute priority” of Mayor-elect Steve Fulop, he said today at the Grove Street PATH station.

“You can’t keep building low-income housing in one area of the city and expect a good outcome,” said Fulop, who appeared on Grove Street to thank supporters coming home on the PATH trains.

Fulop, 36, won a decisive victory in Tuesday’s mayoral race, nabbing 53 percent of the vote to incumbent Mayor Jerramiah Healy’s 38 percent. Healy had been seeking a third full term.

The mayor-elect's appearance at the PATH station just before rush hour was a mini-sensation, with a little crowd gathering around him taking photos. Linda Kolodzieg, who grew up on Wayne Street, asked to pose for a personal photograph with Fulop.

"I am so thrilled," Kolodzieg said about Fulop's Tuesday victory. "I believe he's going to do great things for the city."

All but one of Tuesday's City Council races have yet to be decided, with eight of the nine contests heading into runoff elections on June 11. One of those races, in Ward A, will pit former schools superintendent and Healy ally Charles T. Epps Jr. against police chief and Fulop candidate Frank Gajewski.

Epps finished in first place on Tuesday, but didn’t win more than 50 percent of the vote. Fulop, who has said Gajewski was instrumental in putting together Fulop’s anti-crime plan, said today that the Ward A race being in limbo will not affect his ability to put together a plan to revamp the Police Department.

Fulop said he sees no trouble bringing to fruition the numerous plans for city government that he presented as a mayoral candidate.

“Everything that’s there, I feel confident in saying we can accomplish,” he said.

Fulop said Gov. Chris Christie left him a congratulatory voicemail on Tuesday night, and state Sen. Barbara Buono, Christie’s likely Democratic challenger, called him this morning. Asked if he’ll take sides in the race, Fulop said it would be “ludicrous” to do so.

As for Healy, Fulop said he intends to reach out to the mayor tomorrow to talk about the transition (Fulop takes office July 1). Fulop said he will ask the mayor to place on hold any personnel or large-scale budgetary decisions until Fulop assumes office.

After taking questions from the media, Fulop stood at the top of the escalator at the PATH station to greet commuters and thank them for their support.

After about 15 minutes, a Port Authority Police officer told Fulop he was standing too close to the escalators and needed to move farther away.

http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/20 ... _outlin.html#incart_river

Jersey City man guilty of reckless manslaughter in 2009 fatal beating

By Anthony J. Machcinski/The Jersey Journal
May 15, 2013 at 4:44 PM

A Jersey City man accused of beating a man so severely that the victim fell into a coma and died a month later has been found guilty of lesser charges of reckless manslaughter and criminal trespass.

The man, Tim McGeachy, 46, sat silently in the courtroom while the jury returned its verdict this afternoon in front of Hudson County Superior Court Judge Joseph Isabella.

McGeachy had been charged with felony murder, as well as robbery, burglary and criminal trespass. The jury found that McGeachy was not guilty of two counts of felony murder, but said he was guilty of second-degree reckless manslaughter. McGeachy was also found not guilty on both the robbery and burglary charges.

On Nov. 24, 2009, McGeachy got into an altercation with Jackie Sinclair, 31, of Dales Avenue in front of Sinclair's home. During the fight, McGeachy threw Sinclair down a flight of steps and "pounded" him, according to one witness.

Sinclair was taken to Jersey City Medical Center following the incident, where he died on Christmas Day 2009.

McGeachy will be sentenced on June 28 and faces 5 to 10 years in prison.

http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/20 ... _in_200.html#incart_river

Jersey City will get $349,580 from state to help fight litter

By The Jersey Journal
May 15, 2013 at 1:23 PM

Jersey City is slated to receive $349,580 in Clean Communities grants from the Christie administration to help fund litter cleanup efforts, according to officials.

The money going to Jersey City is the most of any municipality in the state except Newark.

The Department of Environmental Protection is awarding a total of $18.3 million, including $16.2 million to 559 eligible municipalities. Seven municipalities are not eligible because they have fewer than 200 houses.

“These grants help enable our cities, towns and counties to move ahead with programs that eliminate litter from our neighborhoods and along our roads and highways, making our state a better place to live and work,” said Jane Kozinski, assistant commissioner for environmental management.

http://www.nj.com/jjournal-news/index ... 9580_fr.html#incart_river

$1.3 billion project to raise Bayonne Bridge gets final approval

By Steve Strunsky/The Star-Ledger
May 15, 2013 at 1:11 PM

The U.S. Coast Guard has approved an application to raise the roadway of the Bayonne Bridge, seen here in August. A permit could be issued allowing work to being as early as May 24.John Munson/The Star-Ledger

BAYONNE —The U.S. Coast Guard has approved raising the Bayonne Bridge roadway, a project intended to clear a navigational obstacle that threatened the viability of the East Coast's busiest port and the thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in commerce that depend on it.

It is the last approval necessary for the project to begin, authorities said.

"We’re looking forward to seeing the project proceed,” said Chief Warrant Officer Russell Tippets, a spokesman for the Coast Guard, the federal permitting agency for the $1.3 billion project.

The project will raise the roadway of the bridge by 64 feet, giving it a new total clearance of 215 feet above the Kill van Kull at high tide. Proponents of the project, including shippers, longshoremen, labor unions and its sponsor, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, say raising the roadway is necessary for the latest, largest generation of container ships to have access to terminals in Newark, Elizabeth and Staten Island following completion of a Panama Canal expansion in 2015.

As a result of the canal expansion, proponents say the big so-called Post-Panamax vessels will begin traveling directly to the East Coast from China and other Asian export nations, and if the roadway obstacle is not eliminated, the terminals — and related trucking, warehousing and other industries in the bi-state region — will lose cargo business to competing East Coast ports.

The Port Authority says 270,000 jobs and $36 billion in commerce depend on the terminals, which, along with others in Jersey City, Bayonne and Brooklyn, are collectively known as the Port of New York and New Jersey.

The project's potential to create thousands of temporary construction jobs, combined with its importance to the region's long-term economic outlook, prompted President Obama to select it in July as the first large-scale public infrastructure job to be granted fast-track review status under his "We Can't Wait" initiative.

The Coast Guard completed its environmental review of the project on May 3, as indicated on the Federal Infrastructure Projects Permitting Dashboard and the guard's Finding of No Significant Impact, or FONSI, was posted online this morning by the Federal Register, one day prior to the decision's official publication.

Coast Guard officials say the actual permit for the project could be issued on or about May 24, allowing work to begin.

In anticipation of the permit, the Port Authority last month granted a $743 million provisional contract for the bulk of the bridge work to a partnership between Skanska Koch Inc. and Kiewit Infrastructure Company.

Port Authority officials say the existing roadway should be removed by the time the Panama Canal expansion is complete in 2015, when a single lane for traffic in each direction will be open on the higher roadway. The new, wider roadway, with two lanes in each direction, shoulders, and a center divider, is to be completed two years later.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency and private environmental and community groups had raised concerns that increased cargo volumes resulting from the project would mean more container truck traffic and higher diesel emissions in neighborhoods surrounding the terminals. Because the port neighborhoods are made up largely of poor and minority residents disproportionally effected by industrial pollution, private groups have threatened to file lawsuits to block the project under an area of the law known as environmental justice.

The Port Authority has insisted it has taken steps to mitigate port pollution, including several initiatives outlined in an agreement with the state Department of Environmental Protection that is related to but not offiicially part of the Bayonne Bridge permitting process.

The Coast Guard also insists the project is environmentally sound.
“We took every expressed environmental concern seriously," said Tippets. "And we adequately addressed all concerns."

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2013 ... approve.html#incart_river

Jersey City voters elect Downtown Councilman Steve Fulop mayor

By Terrence T. McDonald/The Jersey Journal
May 15, 2013 at 11:28 AM

Steven Fulop, the Downtown councilman who pitched himself to voters as a reformer bent on cleaning up Jersey City politics, was elected mayor yesterday after a brutal campaign against his political rival, Mayor Jerramiah Healy.

Fulop, 36, won 52 percent to Healy’s 38 percent on the first ballot, eliminating the need for a runoff election.

Former hoops star Jerry Walker came in third with 8 percent, while Abdul Malik came in a distant fourth with 1 percent.

“Thank you for believing in this great American experiment called democracy,” Fulop said to hundreds of supporters gathered last night at Zeppelin Hall Restaurant and Biergarten. “We are going to work relentlessly to make sure that those of you who put your faith in us, we will make you proud.”

When news of Healy’s concession speech spread through the Downtown Jersey City eatery, Fulop’s supporters erupted in cheers. Fulop entered the room about half an hour later, to the strains of Queen’s “We Are the Champions.”

Fulop, a Wall Street trader, has long eyed the mayoralty. He first won election to the City Council in 2005, representing Ward E, the Downtown, and won re-election in a landslide in 2009 after opting against running for mayor.

After his victory speech, Fulop told The Jersey Journal he intends to be mayor for the entire city, including his opponents.

“I’m going to work hard to instill trust from them, too,” he said.

Fulop’s victory is the end of an era for Healy, a fixture in Jersey City politics who was seeking a third full term as mayor. Healy, 62, was first elected mayor in 2004, succeeding Glenn D. Cunningham in a November special election held six months after Cunningham’s death.

The election was over quickly, with Healy conceding before 9 p.m. Polls closed at 8 p.m.

“If there is anything I can do to help him out after the transition, I stand ready, willing and able to do it,” Healy said to crestfallen supporters at his Oakland Avenue campaign headquarters.

Initial figures from the Hudson County Clerk’s Office put voter turnout at 24 percent. Fulop won 18,265 votes, Healy 13,108, Walker 2,996 and Malik 347.






Enlarge Aiyana Cronk/The Jersey Journal Jerry Walker campaign workers at the Hub on Martin Luther King Drive. Ken Thorbourne/The Jersey JournalJersey City Municipal Election Day 2013 Part 1, May 14, 2013 gallery (46 photos)







Healy’s campaign thought the election was all but sewn up in March, when it received a coveted, and rare, endorsement from President Obama, whose face subsequently appeared in almost every piece of Healy campaign literature.

But political observers believe the election moved away from Healy starting in mid-April, when Fulop began sending out campaign literature and airing television ads featuring information about the 2009 corruption sweep that landed numerous Healy allies in federal prison on bribery charges.

Healy was never charged in the sweep, but he was featured in a hidden-camera video meeting with disgraced developer Solomon Dwek, the confidential informant who helped federal officials make their cases against corrupt pols like Leona Beldini, Healy’s 2009 campaign treasurer and deputy mayor. One of Fulop’s ads featured footage from that meeting.

A Healy insider who asked not to be named told The Jersey Journal that Fulop’s focus on the corruption sweep “definitely” hurt Healy’s standing with voters.

Joshua Henne, a spokesman for the Healy campaign, said he wouldn’t allow Rosemary McFadden or Bill Matsikoudis, two top officials in the administration and high-level campaign functionaries, to comment.

Last night, after conceding, Healy shook hands of his supporters outside his headquarters and apologized to them for losing.

“I think the people of Jersey City get sick of you after a while,” Healy said. “I guess I’ll check to see if my law license is still in good standing.”

Journal staff writer Michaelangelo Conte contributed to this story.

http://www.nj.com/jjournal-news/index ... ys_new_mayor_says_he.html

Mayor-elect Fulop: I'll work hard for supporters, win trust of opponents

By Terrence T. McDonald/The Jersey Journal
May 15, 2013 at 12:15 AM

Jersey City Mayor-elect Steven Fulop tonight said he would work hard for the people who voted for him, and work equally hard to win the trust of those who voted for his opponents.

Fulop, who tonight won a decisive victory against incumbent Mayor Jerramiah Healy and two other mayoral hopefuls, said his No. 1 priority for now is to work hard for his running mates who must run in the June 11 run-off election.

"I think it's important that we have a council that can work to move this city forward," he told The Jersey Journal tonight at Zeppelin Hall in Downtown Jersey City.

Election results from the Hudson County Clerk indicate only Ward E council candidate Candice Osborne won her election outright. None of the remaining first-place winners in the eight other races won more than 50 percent of the vote, which is necessary to avoid a runoff election.

Fulop, who represents the Downtown ward on the Jersey City council, first won election in 2005 – defeating a Healy man who has since endorsed Fulop – and was re-elected in a 2009 landslide.

A former U.S. Marine and ex-Goldman Sachs trader, Fulop was making his first bid this year to become the city’s top executive.

The councilman has argued that Jersey City under Healy's leadership is not what it could be.

Fulop was considered something of a shoo-in in the middle of last year, with Healy’s campaign making a slow start in the fundraising department. But some good numbers at the end of 2012, and a high-profile endorsement of Healy by none other than President Obama, put the race back into something of a toss-up.

http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/20 ... _suppor.html#incart_river

Video: Fulop gives victory speech to lively Zeppelin Hall crowd



By Anthony J. Machcinski/The Jersey Journal
May 15, 2013 at 12:57 AM

Jersey City Mayor-elect Steven Fulop tonight said he would work hard for the people who voted for him, and work equally hard to win the trust of those who voted for his opponents.

Fulop spoke to the crowd at Zeppelin Hall tonight shortly after it was announced he won the city's election to become Mayor.

http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/20 ... ry_spee.html#incart_river

Former Wall Street Trader Fulop Ousts Jersey City’s Mayor

Bloomberg
By Elise Young - May 14, 2013 9:39 PM ET

Jersey City Councilman Steven Fulop, who quit Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.’s trading desk to run for mayor, ousted incumbent Jerramiah Healy in an election that drew attention to an FBI investigation and a drunken nude photo.

Fulop, 36, who had financial backing from Wall Street, won 52 percent of the votes, according to results posted on the Hudson County clerk’s website. Healy, 62, who had endorsements from President Barack Obama and Newark Mayor Cory Booker, had 38 percent, with 85 percent of the votes counted. Both are registered Democrats in the nonpartisan race.

Healy conceded to Fulop, according to Bruno Tedeschi, a Fulop spokesman. The two battled for control of a city savvy enough to coax Goldman Sachs Group Inc., UBS AG and Citigroup Inc. to open offices there, earning it the nickname “Wall Street West.” Healy, though, was unable to shake Jersey City’s reputation for a century of crooked Democratic politics. Fulop won after telling voters it was time for Healy to quit embarrassing New Jersey’s second-most populous city.

In 2009, Jersey City was rocked by “Operation Bid Rig,” the largest Federal Bureau of Investigation corruption sting in state history. It netted 44 public officials and rabbis. The case led to prison sentences for Healy’s deputy mayor, Leona Baldini, who had been his campaign treasurer, and several other aides and allies.

Never Charged

Healy, recorded on a hidden FBI camera meeting with an undercover informant, was never charged in that case. Fulop used the footage in a campaign advertisement with a tagline, “Mayor Healy got away with it.” Healy’s campaign issued a cease-and-desist letter that called the material defamatory.

Healy, a former prosecutor, municipal judge and councilman, became mayor after winning a November 2004 special election to succeed Glenn Cunningham, who died of a heart attack. He was re-elected in June 2005 and again in 2009.

In 2004, while Healy was still a councilman, a photo of him sleeping nude on his front porch surfaced on the Internet. The New York Times quoted Healy saying in 2006 that he didn’t remember how he got on his porch after drinking six to eight beers at a local bar.

Nude Photo

In an interview this year with the Star-Ledger of Newark, Healy was quoted as saying that “three Hispanic girls” had lured him outside, pulled off the towel wrapped around him and did “filthy” things to him. He chased them off, then sat on the porch, and was then photographed by a political enemy, he was quoted by the newspaper as saying.

In 2006, the mayor was arrested and convicted of a disorderly person offense after scuffling with police outside a Bradley Beach bar owned by his sister. Four years later, the state Supreme Court’s disciplinary review board admonished him for the incident, and the Jersey Journal of Jersey City called for his resignation.

Fulop previously had worked at Citigroup Inc. (C) and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS), leaving after the 2001 World Trade Center attacks to join the U.S. Marine Corps and serve in Iraq. He was elected to the City Council in 2005 at the age of 27. He was endorsed for mayor by Advance Publications Inc.’s Jersey Journal and Star-Ledger newspapers.

His political backers included Appaloosa Management co-founder David Tepper and Pennant Capital Management founder Alan Fournier. He was the subject of supportive mailings from Better Education for New Jersey Kids, a New Brunswick-based political action committee that was started in 2011 by Tepper and Fournier to support the creation of charter schools, privately run with public funding.

Healy had tried to get a Superior Court judge in Hudson County to force the group to stop producing campaign ads. In a May 10 lawsuit, Healy accused it of engaging in “explicit advocacy of Fulop’s candidacy” and skirting campaign-finance laws. Judge Peter Bariso dismissed the suit.

As of May 2, Fulop had raised $955,964 to Healy’s $804,028, according to state campaign-finance data.

Jersey City, with 250,000 residents, is New Jersey’s second-most populous municipality. It’s also the state’s most diverse, according to U.S. Census Bureau data analyzed by Bloomberg. About 75 languages are spoken in the homes of the children who attend its public schools

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05 ... -jersey-city-s-mayor.html

Jersey City police charge man in shooting outside Healy campaign event

By Charles Hack/The Jersey Journal
May 13, 2013 at 8:09 AM

The innocent victim of a drug deal gone bad, a 47-year-old woman was a shot in the chest around 6:30 p.m. Saturday as she was standing outside of a bar that was hosting a campaign event for one of Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah T. Healy's council candidates.

Jersey City police charged Rahmed Jones, 24, of Clark Street, with the shooting tonight.

The woman was in stable condition, officials said.

The shooting occurred at Mallory and Clark avenues on the city's west side, outside the PNK tavern where Ward B candidate Gerald Meyers was holding a meet-and-greet.

Healy was in attendance, as were other members of his slate, including Councilwoman at large Viola Richardson.

The woman stepped outside to have a cigarette when she was struck by a bullet, according to witnesses.

A witness told police she saw the shooter -- later identified as Jones -- walk out of the alleyway between 69 and 71 Clark Ave. with two men, reports said.

Jones, who had a handgun behind his back, raised the weapon and began shooting toward the intersection of Mallory and Clark, the witness told police.

Martinez said Jones was arrested at Hillside this afternoon and brought back to Jersey City at 6:30 p.m. The details of how police tracked Jones to Hillside were not immediately available.

Jones told police he was in the backyard of a property on Clark Street selling 40 pills of ecstasy to two men when they tried to run away without paying for the pills, Martinez said.

When all three men ran out of the alleyway, Jones said, he fired three rounds at the two men, missing them but striking the innocent bystander, police said.

All three men fled east on Clark Avenue, according to Martinez.

The woman who was shot once in the chest according to police, told officers she was having a cigarette at Mallory and Clark when she heard three pops that sounded like firecrackers.

She looked down and thought she was bleeding from her right arm after being hit by a firecracker, but then a man standing nearby told her she had been shot in the chest, reports said.

Healy, who visited the victim in hospital, issued a statement.

"She is in stable condition and my thoughts are with her and her family," Healy said. "This is an unfortunate example of the senseless violence that occurs when the intentional mass production of handguns and the reckless distribution of such weapons winds up in the hands of persons whose only intent is to commit crime."

http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/20 ... rge_man.html#incart_river

On Election Day tomorrow, Jersey City voters will choose mayor and all nine city council members

By Terrence T. McDonald/The Jersey Journal
May 13, 2013 at 7:31 AM

President Obama has weighed in. Rapper Jadakiss has, for some reason, offered his opinion.

And finally, tomorrow, Jersey City voters will have their say in the city's quadrennial municipal election, when the mayor's office and all nine City Council seats are up for grabs.

Most of the focus is on the mayoral race. Incumbent Mayor Jerramiah Healy is seeking a third full term and fending off a very aggressive challenge from longtime rival Councilman Steve Fulop, with mayoral hopefuls Abdul Malik and Jerry Walker also in the mix.

The top-of-the-ticket contest could be the closest Jersey City has seen in years, with neither Healy's nor Fulop's camp extremely confident of the outcome. There is no public polling, but sources inside the two campaigns say internal polling shows a tight race.

Walker's bid could result in the city's first mayoral runoff election since 2001, the Healy and Fulop campaigns fear. If no candidate receives more than 50 percent of the vote - and if Walker draws in enough votes - then the two top contenders meet again on June 11.

The campaign is just about as expensive as the last citywide race in 2009. Healy and Fulop have raised more than $3.2 million total, with Fulop's haul a smidgen more than Healy's, according to their latest campaign filings. Walker has raised about $48,000 and Malik $12,000, the filings show.

The campaign has turned especially nasty in recent weeks, with Healy's campaign hammering Fulop over his support from Republican donor and education reformer David Tepper, his hands-on dealings with the public-school district and his decision to send out vote-by-mail ballot applications with his own campaign's address on them instead of the Hudson County Clerk's.

Fulop and his surrogates, meanwhile, have released multiple television ads and campaign mailers highlighting the 2009 corruption sweep that ensnared numerous Healy loyalists who later spent time in federal prison on bribery charges.

The focus has "definitely" hurt Healy's standing with voters, according to a Healy insider who asked not to be identified. It also has personally angered the mayor, who has noted that no charges were ever filed against him as a result of the sweep, the insider said.

The nine council races could bring change to City Hall, too. Only five incumbents are running, and two independent candidates in Wards C and D are well-funded enough to make Healy's and Fulop's campaigns nervous.

Polls for the nonpartisan election open at 6 a.m. and close at 8 p.m.

The Jersey Journal will have comprehensive coverage starting early. Keep an eye on nj.com/Hudson, and follow The Jersey Journal on Twitter, @jerseyjournal, for updates as returns begin to come in and for dispatches from Fulop's and Healy's election night parties.

After the polls close at 8 p.m., results will be recorded on The Jersey Journal's election hotline phone number at (201) 217-2498 as they become available.

http://www.nj.com/jjournal-news/index ... on_day_tomorrow_jerse.htm

Ex-mayor McCann's letter: Fact-checking Healy's boasts

By Letters to the Editor/The Jersey Journal
May 11, 2013 at 9:33 AM

With all due respect to Mayor Jerramiah Healy, he did not build the first five parks in the last 100 years. During my administration, the park at Exchange Place, J. Owen Grundy, was designed, built and opened. The Caven Point facility that is one of the most used parks in Jersey City was designed, built and opened. I also funded the recreational facility in front of the gym at St. Peter's Prep High School. We also designed, built and opened the ice skating rink and swimming pool at Pershing Field.

At my urging and influence, my administration enabled St. Peter's College to develop the western part of Lincoln Park along with my brother Tom, the Hudson County Parks director, for over 30 years. I was also mayor when we paid for the construction of the Boys Club on Grand Street that also opened during my administration. The park at Claremont Cove was also designed and built during my administration and the Smith administration at the foot of Essex Street on city-owned property. I also was able to get the Liberty Science Center built in Jersey City after we donated the city-owned land to it to lure them here.

Finally, the river walk at Liberty State Park, the Environmental Center, the restoration of Ellis Island and Liberty Park while I served on the National Commission appointed by President Ronald Reagan (Morris Pesin was my designated representative) were again done during my tenure in office.

I have noticed that after nine years in office, one park has just started construction on Garfield Avenue, and for that I applaud you. I am not sure what parks you are referring to, but would like to enjoy them if you could point them out to me. If you are referring to imaginary parks, let me know that also because I do not want to get lost.

Also, I understand that you were taking credit for the park at Essex Street. The park was built over 20 years before that. You might not remember it because you did not live there, but the boat club previously occupied the property illegally. I tore down the boat club and built a park. I might note that the LeFrak Organization did build a new park along Washington Street. I did not take credit for the parks and recreational facilities built at Society Hill, Port Liberte, Liberty Harbor, etc. because they were part of the planned development that we approved during my administration. I might want to point out that the parks within Newport were part of the planned development when my administration sold the property to the LeFrak Organization.
As a councilman, I voted on at least five new parks built during the Thomas Smith administration, and I know of parks built and improved during the Bret Schundler administration. There were many parks built during the Paul Jordan administration. It is probably because you are not from Jersey City that you did not notice them being built.
You noted these as your major accomplishments. I do not blame you for the murders in Jersey City nor do I credit you for the murders that never occurred. The crime of murder is very difficult to eliminate since most murders are personal and may occur in the act of another crime. Murder was down all over the United States. I am not going to give you credit for that, either. The murder rate is up over last year and I do not blame you. As far as buying back the guns, we do not know where they came from (Jersey City or wherever), but I applaud you for initiation of the program. While you have replaced police officers who have retired, stating that you hired over 300 police officers might be misleading. It also goes to the fact that more police left the department during your tenure in office than most other mayors for the past 50 years. Some might criticize you for police no longer wanting to work for you. Some others might point out that you rehired more police into civilian jobs than any mayor in history, giving them a full-time job that could have been filled by someone else.

They now collect a pension from the city and still work full-time from the taxpayers dollar.
GERALD McCANN
FORMER MAYOR

http://www.nj.com/hudson/voices/index ... _fact-c.html#incart_river

Nearly 6,000 more Jersey City registered voters since Nov.

By Terrence T. McDonald/The Jersey Journal
May 10, 2013 at 1:46 PM

With few days remaining until Jersey City’s quadrennial election, the city has nearly 6,000 more registered voters than it had in November, with the highest number of new voters living in Ward F.

The re-election campaign of Mayor Jerramiah Healy concentrated its voter-registration efforts in Ward F, a swath of the inner city that is largely African-American and poorer than the rest of Jersey City.

Of the 5,851 new voters in Jersey City since November 6, 22 percent, or 1,280, are in Ward F. Ward B, which encompasses the city’s West Side, has the next highest number of new voters, 1,113.

Healy’s campaign believes high turnout in Ward F could be one their keys to victory on Tuesday, when voters are tasked with selecting a mayor and all nine City Council seats. But mayoral hopeful Jerry Walker has been targeting Ward F, too, hoping that his popularity in the Bergen-Lafeyette community will lead to a large show of support for him.

Healy, who is seeking a third full term, is in a tight race with Councilman Steve Fulop, his longtime rival. He also faces a challenge from Abdul Malik.

Fulop’s home base, Ward E, which encompasses most of the Downtown, saw a small increase in registered voters, 835. The only ward with fewer new voters is Ward C, 823.

The nonpartisan election is Tuesday, May 14.

http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/20 ... _city_r.html#incart_river

Hung jury declared in Jersey City stabbing murder trial

By Anthony J. Machcinski/The Jersey Journal
May 10, 2013 at 4:11 PM

After two days of deliberations totaling more than ten hours of deliberations, the jury in the case of a Jersey City man accused of stabbing another man in the back told the judge it was unable to reach a veridct and a mistrial was declared.

Ricky Roman, 27, is accused of stabbing Kareem Trowell, 31, twice in the back on Oct. 25, 2010 at 14 Montgomery Court in Jersey City.

Trowell was taken to the Jersey City Medical Center after the stabbing, but died shortly afterward, authorities said. Roman was tracked down on Oct. 28, 2010 on Third Avenue near 88th Street in North Bergen after a foot chase, authorities said.

The murder weapon, an eight-inch kitchen knife, was found in a sewer on Merseles Court wrapped in a pillow case days later.

Deliberations continued this morning around 9 a.m. after the jurors were unable to return a verdict during five hours of deliberations yesterday. They returned around 2 p.m., telling Hudson County Superior Court Judge Fred Theemling that they were unable to return a verdict "without compromising their beliefs."

Roman, his attorney Dawn Florio and Hudson County Assistant Prosecutor Sal Rozzi are scheduled to meet on June 13 to decide a new date for Roman's next trial.

Florio said that despite the new trial, she doesn't plan on altering her defense strategy.

"I wouldn't change a thing I did," Florio said after the trial. "I think I mounted a vigorous defense."

http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/20 ... ersey_c.html#incart_river

Political Insider: Foot-in-mouth outbreak does Jersey City mayor no good at all

By Agustin C. Torres/The Jersey Journal
on May 11, 2013 at 12:01 AM

Panic: A sudden overpowering fear, with or without cause, that produces hysterical behavior.

This is a definition of the Team Healy camp with the Jersey City election almost upon us. There isn't a soul in this city that is unaware that Mayor Jerramiah Healy pulled one of the biggest political gaffes in Hudson County history. Because this is Hudson County, only after the election will we know if the laws of la politique physics actually work in this dimension.

While being interviewed by Tom Moran of the Star-Ledger, the mayor is asked about the al fresco photo taken of him sitting on his front porch during a 2004 election campaign. Now we have heard every story of how Healy wound up on the Internet in his birthday suit, but his response to Moran opened an entirely new scenario, almost as if a repressed memory came to the surface.

The mayor blamed The Three Amigas. While wearing a towel -- now I would have understood if it was a toga -- Healy confronted three Hispanic girls to stop them from making a racket outside of his house. Not only did the mayor say that one of the Amigas snatched his Cannon -- I'm guessing it wasn't a Ralph Lauren or Jacyln Smith towel -- but they also did "dirty things," leaving this open to interpretation by what Sigmund Freud calls our id.

What was he thinking? Obviously the mayor didn't recall Moran's interview with state Sen. Sandra Cunningham a ways back when he wrote that the senator was clueless.
Healy's stock plummeted. Team Healy campaign leaders received numerous phone calls from panicky major donors. The energy went out of the Team Healy campaign workers all week. Their Internet commenters are working overtime to respond to criticism of the mayor's comments that some say is a slap in the face of all Hispanic girls and the Latino community.

What is interesting about all this is that while Fulop supporters are inclined to swing around their version of the Pittsburgh Steelers fans' "Terrible Towels" and the mayor's supporters may feel the campaign is on the rocks, Healy is still certain he will be victorious.

Today, Healy workers will gather at Casino in the Park in what is being described as a rally but is where the poll challengers will receive their credentials. It is expected that there will be some Hispanic demonstrators outside the catering hall in Lincoln Park shouting their displeasure at the mayor for his comments about the Three Amigas, who are no doubt figments of one man's imagination.

POLITICAL INSIDER

-- There was a call from one critic of The Jersey Journal endorsements of council candidates who backs Downtown council candidate Dan Levin. She said that a word caught her eye in the seal of approval for Ward E hopeful Candice Osborne. The word is "funny" and she did not think this would be considered a criteria for public office. Funny, many times I thought the City Council's actions were hilarious.

Actually, the word was used in describing Osborne's personality, as in "smart, funny and charming."

The caller added, "To me this is code word for 'pretty.' "

Uh-oh.

-- Here's what I'm thinking about Tuesday's election results -- and I've received similar numbers by email and phone calls from election groupies interested in this fun but important campaign.

Healy's hope is a big margin of victory in Ward F, the center of the city's black community. Ironic isn't it, considering they have received the least from local government. If he doesn't win big there, the administration is finished.

Fulop needs a record turnout from Downtown, more than the 5,500 votes from the last city election -- say closer to 6,500 to 7,000, then the councilman wins. By staying close or winning Ward F and just a good turnout in Ward E, then Fulop should win. Pressure.

I'm projecting that mayoral candidate Abdul Malik gets 350 to 450 votes. Jerry Walker receives anywhere between 1,000 and 2,000. Past Healy voters walk away and he gets a tally of between 13,400 and 14,000. Fulop has a shot at somewhere between 15,500 to 16,400 -- and possibly a 51 or 52 percent win to avoid a runoff.

Those council seats break down with plenty of runoffs.

Ward A: Epps avoids a runoff, although Gajewski is gaining this week. Chico Ramchal is top vote-getter in Ward B but in a runoff with Gerald Meyer, and the difference maker in this race could be candidate Esther Wintner. In Ward D, there's a runoff between Michael Yun and Sean Connors.

Fulop's old Ward E seat goes to Osborne, but Levin could just get enough support to force a runoff. Ward F, Diane Coleman is on top, but there's a possibility of a runoff with Healy's pick, Jermaine Robinson.

At large, I have to think name recognition is big, which gives the edge to incumbents Peter Brennan, Viola Richardson and Rolando Lavarro.

A landslide by either mayoral candidate means all bets are off.

-- Because of the recent rains, Team Healy - I mean the mayor's office - had to drop a trio of groundbreakings and announceents, including a blah-blah promise involving the long delayed 100 steps project that was to connect the Heights with a Hoboken light rail station. It will be tough to cram all these events into the day before the election.

-- Congratulations to Fulop for cramming enough political ads into the Urban Times. The black commuity newspaper that seems to only come out during election season mirrored state Sen. Sandra Cunningham's inaction and made no mayoral endorsement. Coincidence?

-- Hoboken Councilman Ravi Bhalla gave up his 33rd District Assembly seat quest after Housing Authority Director Carmelo Garcia successfully appealed getting booted from the primary ballot as the Hudson County Democratic Organization line candidate.

Union City Mayor and 33rd District sen. Brian Stack is still mad at Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer and her team member, Bhalla. The HCDeadO leadership is also not amused.

-- On Wednesday, Zimmer, Secaucus Mayor Michael Gonnelli and Weehawken Mayor Richard Turnerheld a press conference to moan about the big tax increases their municipalities will suffer as a result of the proposed Hudson County government budget.

The interesting part is not that they are complaining. These communities are always abused come county budget time. This is all Kabuki theater. The mayors always whine and the county says they can't help it - and nothing changes. Everyone plays a role.

Freeholder Chairman Anthony Romano of Hoboken attended the press conference and promised to run his comb through the budget. Do I sense Romano has hitched his wagon to the Zimmer express? Let me see, is there a public safety director in the Mile Square City. Just wondering?

It will be interesting to see how Romano votes on the budget, after his exploratory surgery

-- The Journal will bring you Tuesday's election all day with blog posts, photos and twitter. Those registered should vote for their hometown's future. The eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg are watching.

http://www.nj.com/hudson/voices/index ... in-mout.html#incart_river

Longshot Jersey City mayoral candidate Malik rails against pols

By Terrence T. McDonald/The Jersey Journal
on May 08, 2013 at 10:00 AM

Yes, there are four men running for mayor in Jersey City.

Incumbent Mayor Jerramiah Healy faces three challengers, though his longtime political rivalry with mayoral hopeful City Councilman Steve Fulop grabs most of the headlines.

And Jerry Walker, who announced his bid for the mayoralty in January, earns attention because of his status as a former hoops star for St. Anthony High School, and thanks to his popular afterschool program, Team Walker.

And then there’s Abdul Malik.

Malik, 54, has less name recognition than the other three candidates, hasn’t reported raising any money to compete with his opponents’ millions of dollars and is such a long-shot to win on Tuesday, May 14 that even when he attacks his opponents in debates, they almost always ignore him.

Still, Malik insists he’s a contender. He pitches himself to voters as the outsider who can clean up City Hall.

“We are not bound to pick these career politicians,” he told The Jersey Journal recently.


A doctor in his native Pakistan, Malik has lived in Jersey City for nearly 25 years. Formerly in the pharmaceutical industry, Malik has been on permanent disability since a 1992 back injury. In a March sit-down with editors from The Jersey Journal, Malik cited his disability as the reason he hasn’t done much volunteer work.

Asked whether his disability would deter him from acting as mayor, Malik said it would not.

“If somebody asked me, ‘We care going to plant some flowers around the block,’ I’m sorry, I can’t do that … (but) I can work and achieve,” he said.

Malik’s campaign almost wasn’t. Mayoral candidates are required to hand in petitions with signatures from 1,331 registered voters, and Malik handed in barely enough to qualify, while officials struggled to confirm many of the petitions, a city source said.

In the end, his candidacy was certified just minutes before the 4 p.m. deadline on May 11.

Malik claims that city officials were rude to him and purposely tried to keep him from running in the May 14 race.

On the campaign trail, Malik is light on details regarding how the city would operate under a Malik administration, but he uses populist rhetoric that can be crowd-pleasing: taxes are too high, City Hall is corrupt, politicians “never do anything for us,” etc. He has promised to lower taxes.

He can be a sloppy debater. During the five debates he participated in, he had to be told frequently to stop speaking when he went over his allotted time. And while occasionally scoring points for attacking Healy and Fulop, his thick accent, coupled with a tendency to speak close to his microphone, leave some audience members scratching their heads, wondering what he’s saying.

Malik calls himself a “man of principle” who believes “in strong family values.”

“I am the one who understands the issues," he told The Jersey Journal.

http://www.nj.com/jjournal-news/index ... _mayoral_candidate_7.html

Editorial: Jersey Journal endorses Steven Fulop for mayor of Jersey City

By The Jersey Journal
May 08, 2013 at 8:10 AM

The Jersey Journal endorses Downtown Jersey City Councilman Steven Fulop for mayor.

There are four people who are asking the voters to elect them to the city’s highest office. With Fulop, this newspaper believes the city has the best chance to use its superior inherent qualities — its geography, people and resources — to become one of the nation’s prominent municipalities.

Fulop has the leadership and sound decision-making abilities to select the right path for Jersey City’s journey through the 21st century. He has the vision and commitment to make this city a place that will sustain its residents and improve their lives and that of their children.

The smoke and mirrors employed by the current administration for the last eight and a half years have not allowed all of Jersey City to reach its potential. The city, and more important its people, deserve so much better.

Jersey City is a vital city in the New York metropolitan region with a dense but very diverse population of about 250,000 people. We are a transportation hub with a deep water port, rails, buses, light rail trains, ferries and many major roadways that intersect the Hudson County seat. Located across from the Big Apple, Jersey City is a major financial center with an ever-growing service industry.

Usually, this is how the city is described. There should be much more.

There’s untapped potential in city landmarks like the Landmark Loew’s Jersey Theatre and the Sixth Street Embankment — places that, with proper planning, could be destinations. Artists have always been attracted to the city, and its institutions of higher learning — St. Peter’s University, New Jersey City University and Hudson County Community College — are growing in capital improvements, curriculum and student populations.

Since being elected to the City Council in 2005, Fulop has been the major voice of reason in local government.

In his first term, he was the lone council member to challenge an administration that lacked transparency and imagination but controlled the legislative body. Labeled a reformer, Fulop managed to bring together a council coalition interested in better serving their constituents. Since November, with the election of Ward F Councilwoman Diane Coleman, Fulop’s power on the City Council has grown. The coalition he helped create has been able to block administration efforts that were wrong for Jersey City.

One of his prominent accomplishments is adoption of a strict pay-to-play ordinance designed to ban vendors from using campaign donations to secure contracts with the city. The councilman backed an effort to have city government employees put in 25 years of service before being entitled to lifetime benefits. He co-sponsored a living-wage ordinance to improve pay for workers of companies that have contracts with the city.

FULOP GOT THINGS DONE

In a city facing annual financial problems, despite decades of waterfront development, Fulop helped end costly health benefits for board members of the city Municipal Utilities and Incinerator authorities. Among his other accomplishments, the administration agreed to place government-identifying decals on a dozen city-owned cars used by selected individuals — a watered-down version of Fulop’s request for decals on all vehicles, except those used by public safety. He also calls for more rational use of tax abatements to stimulate development in the older sections of the city.

Fulop ... has the vision and commitment to make this city a place that will sustain its residents and improve their lives.

It should be noted that this election is also a referendum on the present administration headed by a mayor whose time in office took on a surreal quality this week when a controversial issue from his 2004 run for mayor resurfaced.

While being interviewed by a Star-Ledger columnist, incumbent Mayor Jerramiah Healy decided to clarify how a photograph of him, naked and sitting on the steps of his front porch, became public on the Internet during the 2004 special election campaign. The mayor felt he had to explain that "three Hispanic girls," whom he’d never mentioned before, were to blame for the incident. At the time, his campaign portrayed him as a victim of a political dirty trick.

In fact, in Healy’s eyes nothing during his years in office has been his fault. This includes a 2006 scuffle with Bradley Beach police that led to a disorderly conduct conviction that the mayor appealed and lost. The mayor never apologized for his behavior.

The worst was yet to come.

In 2009, Operation Bid Rig III, a federal investigation into dishonest government in New Jersey, led to massive arrests. Those who were indicted and convicted of or pleaded guilty to corruption included members of Healy’s administration, such as then-deputy mayor Leona Beldini, then-council president Mariano Vega, then-council member Philip Kenny, and then-city Housing Authority commissioner Edward Cheatam. Beldini was also Healy’s reelection campaign treasurer that year.

The mayor was never charged and says he did nothing wrong.

He also never strongly denounced, or apologized for, these corrupt officials. His administration also helped stonewall Vega’s resignation. The councilman didn’t step down until it was too late to hold a special election to replace him, allowing Healy’s majority on the council to hand pick a successor.

On Feb. 5, 2010, The Jersey Journal wrote an editorial: "Healy must resign as mayor of Jersey City." Healy was described as being disengaged from reality and as posing as a caring public official. An excerpt of that editorial:

"As in his Bradley Beach conviction, Healy does not believe he did anything wrong in his meetings with purported developer Solomon Dwek, an FBI informant and cooperating witness. This mayor even sees the videos in the Beldini trial as vindicating him.

"What the hidden camera lens caught was a mayor who is willing to talk development and campaign contributions over a dish of potato salad. Is this how business gets done in Jersey City?"

Remember, the mayor is a lawyer and former municipal judge, an officer of the court who should be held to a high ethical standard.

CRIME A MAJOR ISSUE

Ironically, a major issue in the current election is crime.

Healy has always run on a public safety platform. He joined a group of East Coast mayors who demand stricter gun control laws. The city has also initiated gun buyback efforts. Yet, when residents have complained about what they see as high crime, the mayor has repeatedly said he has statistics that show that crime is down. His reaction seems more political than sympathetic.

The mayor solicited and received a number of political endorsements, including those from President Obama and Mayors Cory Booker of Newark, Michael Bloomberg of New York City and Thomas Menino of Boston. While Obama does not know this city and is paying back Healy for his early support of his own first campaign, Menino is in his last term and helping out a gun control comrade.

It is easy to make the argument that Booker and Bloomberg made the endorsements for the same reason as Menino, but one could also argue that the heads of two rival municipalities wouldn’t mind seeing Healy remain as an ineffective chief executive.

INNER CITY IGNORED

Healy’s administration can be summed up by a stretch of Bergen Avenue, from Montgomery Street south. While one could argue that dealing with crime is difficult and the poor economy can be an impressive foe, there is no excuse for not providing basic services.

Taxpayers along this stretch have been clamoring for years for the city to pave the road and fix the curbs, only to be ignored. Potholes and bare patches are the norm along the forgotten avenue, a metaphor for older sections of the city. It is not the waterfront.

Besides Healy and Fulop, the mayoral candidates are Abdul Malik, a local activist who was a physician in his native Pakistan, and Jerry Walker, a former basketball star and co-founder of Team Walker, a nonprofit academic and recreation organization for city children.

Malik is passionate about his desire to represent local residents, criticizes the constant use of tax abatements for mostly waterfront development and chides politicians for making running for office a career. The Journal feels Malik does not have the administrative skills to handle the day-to-day grind of the second-largest city in New Jersey.

Walker is an intriguing prospect in that he is a convincing speaker — no doubt a skill he has developed in seeking funds for the nonprofit he created — and argues that he has learned administrative and budgeting skills working with his nonprofit. He seems very capable of bringing people together. The Journal believes he has yet to hone governmental and political statesmanship skills. Walker bears watching as a future city leader.

http://www.nj.com/hudson/voices/index ... steven_fulop_for_may.html

Jersey City cops break up candidate's 'haircuts for the homeless' event

By Terrence T. McDonald/The Jersey Journal
on May 07, 2013 at 2:22 PM

Jersey City mayoral hopeful Jerry Walker wanted to give away free haircuts to the homeless and poor in Journal Square today, but the unusual campaign event turned into a minor headache when he had to shut it down prematurely.

Turns out Walker, a former hoops star at St. Anthony High School, didn’t have a permit to host three barbers giving away free haircuts by the Journal Square 9/11 Memorial Fountain. Police officers told him he had to shut down the operation.

Walker said the officers’ actions are precisely why his campaign’s slogan is “People Before Politics.”

“We’re just trying to lend a helping hand, that’s it,” he said.

Walker's team set up the haircut stations at about noon today. Within minutes, police officers approached to say he needed a permit. By about 12:30, Walker agreed to shut it down.

Walker had some members of his City Council slate in attendance, including Adela Rohena, an activist who is running for the Ward C council seat. The team had taped campaign signs to the fountain and trees.

Walker is one of three men challenging Mayor Jerramiah Healy in the Tuesday, May 14 city election. Walker

“I wouldn’t blame it on the mayor,” Walker said. “But it’s the police department, he’s the chief in charge, right?”

City spokeswoman Jennifer Morrill said park permits must be obtained to host events in that area of Journal Square.

http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/20 ... y_election_2013_cops.html

Jersey City election 2013: one more week until voters head to the polls

By Terrence T. McDonald/The Jersey Journal
May 07, 2013 at 11:25 PM

In just seven days, Jersey City will head to the polls for the city’s quadrennial city election, when four men will compete to become the city's mayor and 33 candidates will vie for nine seats on the City Council.

The marquee race is for mayor, with longtime political nemeses Mayor Jerramiah Healy and Ward E Councilman Steve Fulop going head-to-head for the chance to govern the state’s second-largest city.

The two have raised over $2 million total to nab the city’s top job in a campaign that becomes nastier as each day passes.

Former St. Anthony High School hoops star Jerry Walker is also making a bid for mayor. Few expect him to win, but some observers contend he could win enough votes to trigger a run-off. If no candidate wins 50 percent of the vote plus one, the two leading contenders meet again on June 11.

Abdul Malik, a doctor in his native Pakistan, is also competing, with few expecting him to win more than about 1,000 votes.

Healy, a former municipal judge and councilman, is seeking a third full term. Voters first tapped him for mayor in a special November 2004 election after Glenn Cunningham’s death, and he won election the following May to his first full term. He won again handily in 2009.

The mayor's mantra this campaign season has been, "It it ain't broke, don't fix it."

Fulop first won election to the council in 2005 – defeating a Healy man who has since endorsed Fulop – and was re-elected in a 2009 landslide. Fulop, a U.S. Marine and former Goldman Sachs trader, is making his first bid to be the city’s top executive.

The councilman has argued that Jersey City under Healy's leadership is not what it could be.

Fulop was considered something of a shoo-in in the middle of last year, with Healy’s campaign making a slow start in the fundraising department. But some good numbers at the end of 2012, and a high-profile endorsement of Healy by none other than President Obama, put the race back into something of a toss-up.

There is no public polling, but internal polls suggest a very tight race, sources say.

The city election is set for Tuesday, May 14, 2013, with polls opening at 6 a.m. and closing at 8 p.m. A runoff will be held June 11 for any race in which no candidate receives over 50 percent of the vote.

CITY COUNCIL

Both Healy and Fulop are running with a full slate of nine City Council candidates, while Walker is missing one at-large council hopeful and Malik is running solo.

The council races get little attention, with debates sparsely attended and most of the attention showered on the mayor's race. But if the winning mayoral candidate doesn't bring in at least six of his council hopefuls, he runs the risk of seeing his agenda falter amid opposition from the legislative body.

There are no incumbents running in Wards A, B, D and E.

AT-LARGE

The nine-member council comprises three at-large members, who represent the entire city, and six ward members, who represent different areas.

All three current at-large reps – Peter Brennan, Rolando Lavarro and Viola Richardson – are seeking re-election, Brennan and Richardson to their fourth terms and Lavarro to his first full term.

Brennan and Richardson have served on the council since 2001. Richardson is the former Ward F rep who was promoted to her at-large seat in a wild November 2011 special election that saw 17 candidates running for two spots.

Lavarro, who ran on a ticket with Richardson during that campaign, was the other winner of that election. He is running on Fulop’s ticket to remain an at-large councilman, while Brennan and Richardson are running with Healy.

Omar Perez, a former aide to Healy and corrupt former councilman Mariano Vega, is running on Healy’s ticket as an at-large candidate. Perez ran in the 2011 special election, coming in ninth out of 17 candidates.

On Fulop's slate, Daniel Rivera, a former president of the Roberto Clemente Little League of Jersey City, and the Rev. Joyce Watterman of the Continuous Flow Christian Center will run at-large. They are both new to Jersey City politics.

Running at-large with Walker are former city attorney Sean M. Connelly and city cop Ramón “Ray” Regalado.

There is a slight anomaly in the at-large race when it comes to a possible run-off: only one of the eight candidates has to win over 50 percent of the vote, not three. So if one candidate tops that threshold, the two candidates with the next highest vote totals win, too, even if they aren't on the same ticket as the winner and even if they don't top 50 percent.

WARD A

In Ward A, which encompasses Greenville, Councilman Michael Sottolano is not seeking a third term. Former schools superintendent Charles T. Epps Jr. is running to replace him. A former assemblyman, this is his first bid for council, and he’s running on Healy’s ticket.

Epps will face Frank Gajewski, a former police chief, who is running on Fulop’s slate, and Rickey Johnson, a Hudson County Jail administrator running with Walker.

Independent candidate Jayson Burg is also running in Ward A. Burg was an also-ran in the last two school-board elections. Lori Hennessey is also running unaffiliated with a slate.

WARD B

Ward B Councilman David Donnelly, after previously announcing that he had joined Fulop’s slate, opted in January not to seek re-election.

Donnelly joined the council as a mayoral appointment in 2009, and then won a special election in 2010 to remain in the seat until this July.

Donnelly aide Khemraj "Chico" Ramchal, a Hudson County Improvement Authority employee, will run on Fulop's ticket in Donnelly's place. Ramchal is an unpaid aide to Freeholder Bill O'Dea, who has endorsed Fulop's ticket. Ramchal was formerly a part-time worker for the Hudson County Sheriff’s Office, but resigned soon after announced his council bid, according to an HCSO spokesman.

Healy's pick for Ward B, which encompasses the West Side, is county employee and Dem activist Gerald Meyers, who formerly ran the Lincoln Park Little League.

Also hoping to win in Ward B are Chris Gadsden, a Lincoln High School vice principal who is running with Walker, and activist Esther Wintner, who ran unsuccessfully for the same seat in a 2010 special election. Wintner is unaffiliated with a slate.

WARD C

Ward C Councilwoman Nidia Lopez is seeking re-election to her second full term. Lopez is a former Healy ally who now backs Fulop.

She will face JP Morgan analyst Janet Chevres. Chevres is running on Healy's ticket in Ward C, which Healy supporters have vowed to "take back" from Lopez.

Walker has enlisted Adela Rohena, a homeless activist and part-time teacher's aide with the public-school district, to run in Ward C on his ticket.

Meanwhile, former Jersey City cop Rich Boggiano, who made a strong showing in the 2011 at-large special election, will run in Ward C, which encompasses Journal Square. Boggiano, head of Journal Square’s Hilltop Neighborhood Association, is unaffiliated with a ticket.

WARD D

Central Avenue shop owner Michael Yun, who heads the Central Avenue Special Improvement District, is running to replace Ward D Councilman Bill Gaughan. Gaughan has been Ward D’s council rep for nearly two decades, and announced in early January that he doesn't plan to run for a sixth term.

Yun has raised an impressive $137,000 so far, according to his latest campaign filings (by comparison, Boggiano, another independent candidate who has a good shot at winning, has raised only about $20,000).

The Healy camp had hoped Assemblyman Sean Connors would run with them to succeed Gaughan, but Connors, who endorsed Healy in September 2012, retracted his endorsement two months later in a move that stunned and angered Healy loyalists and even some in Connors’ camp. He then joined Fulop's slate as its candidate in Ward D, which encompasses The Heights.

Healy, meanwhile, tapped the Rev. Mario Gonzalez, who heads the The Hope Center for the Visual and Performing Arts, to run on his ticket in Ward D. Walker is running businesswoman Grace Giron in The Heights.

WARD E

Ward E – the Downtown, Fulop’s base – finds community activist Dan Levin running on Healy’s ticket, much to the surprise of some of his supporters.

Levin, who called on Healy to resign after the massive 2009 corruption sweep, came in fourth when he ran for mayor that year and came in seventh out of 17 candidates when he ran for an at-large council seat in the 2011 special election.

Fulop, meanwhile, has tapped activist Candice Osborne to run for his current seat, while Second Street man Fletcher Gensamer is running independent of any ticket.

WARD F

In Ward F, which includes the Bergen-Lafayette section and a portion of Downtown, Ward F Councilwoman Diane Coleman is running for re-election on Fulop's slate. Coleman, who runs Building an Empire, a nonprofit that connects needy residents with social services, won in a November 2012 special election for a term that ends June 30.

She defeated Michele Massey, who was appointed to the seat in December 2011 after Richardson became a councilwoman at large.

Jermaine Robinson, who runs the Light Rail Café on Randolph Avenue, is running on Healy’s ticket as a Ward F candidate.

Walker's Ward F candidate is Chantel Snow, a Dickinson High School English teacher.

Independent candidates in Ward F include minister Deborah King and small-business owner Kenny Reyes.

http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/20 ... ty_election_2013_one.html

Fulop seeks to make Jersey City 'best mid-size city' in the nation

By Terrence T. McDonald/The Jersey Journal
May 06, 2013 at 12:23 PM

The Jersey City mayoral race has four candidates, but political observers are only interested in two: incumbent Mayor Jerramiah Healy and Ward E City Councilman Steve Fulop.

The two men have been adversaries ever since Fulop, a U.S. Marine and one of the youngest individuals ever elected to the nine-member council, first joined the body in 2005 after defeating one of Healy’s running mates.

Since then, Fulop, 36, has built up considerable local celebrity, especially (opponents say only) in the city’s Downtown by casting himself as a political reformer bent on destroying the city’s entrenched political establishment. The incumbent he defeated in 2005 has since endorsed him for mayor.

He has long wanted Healy’s job.

In recent public appearances, Fulop has said the city is at a “crossroads.”

“Our goal is not to be a better Jersey City than the Jersey City of Mayor Healy,” he said during a sit-down with editors of The Jersey Journal last month, repeating verbatim a line he has used frequently elsewhere. “There is a route for Jersey City to be the best mid-size city in the United States of America.”

Fulop grew up in Edison, the grandson of Holocaust survivors. His parents own and operate a Newark bodega.

He is a graduate of the State University of New York at Binghamton who went on to receive a master’s degree in public administration from Columbia and a master’s in business administration from New York University before becoming a Wall Street trader.

After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Fulop enlisted in the U.S. Marines, becoming part of the 6th Engineer Support Battalion. He was deployed in 2004 and was honorably discharged about three years ago.

His military service features prominently in his campaign literature, with fliers containing photos of the councilman in full military gear.

An Essex Street resident, Fulop once headed the Historic Paulus Hook Association. In 2004, and with the backing of the late former mayor Glenn D. Cunningham, he made a Quixotic bid to unseat then-Rep. Bob Menendez. Fulop won 14 percent of the vote that year.

He was more successful in 2005, running for the Ward E council seat against Healy ally E. Junior Maldonado. Fulop stunned Jersey City by defeating Maldonado, who was one of only two Healy running mates to lose that year. Maldonado is now a Fulop supporter.

The councilman spent much of his initial years on the council as the lone opponent to Healy administration initiatives. Meanwhile, Fulop championed ethics issues that the council responded to with hostility.

At least one council member around this time changed her seat on the council dais to stay away from him. The council adopted an ordinance intended to keep Fulop from continually introducing measures embarrassing to the administration (only Fulop voted “no” on that ordinance).

He flirted with running for mayor in the 2009 race, but opted out and ran for re-election to his council seat instead. In a five-candidate race, he trounced the opposition, winning 63 percent of the vote. The runner-up went to prison two months later, one of dozens of pols arrested in the massive corruption sweep that ensnared numerous Healy allies.

Fulop, who four years earlier had expressed hope about working with Healy, crowed after his 2009 landslide: "It speaks to the fact that people responded to a reasonable voice on the council for open government on the council.”

Since 2011, Fulop has earned enough allies on the council to give him a majority, winning the support of two recent additions to the body and two former Healy loyalists. Ethics measures that went down in flames when he first joined the council have been approved, some unanimously, while he has the power to block administrative initiatives if he so wishes.

But as the councilman’s power over city government has increased, so have the attacks on his views and his character. Healy allies say Fulop is a hypocrite who espouses the virtue of “pay to play” bans while using the Board of Education – Fulop helped eight of the nine members get elected – to enrich his donors and friends.

The Board of Education has been Fulop’s Achilles heel of this election season. He is intensely involved in the public-school district – hundreds of emails the Healy campaign had hoped would prove he steered school contracts to his allies instead showed Fulop intervening on issues as mundane as adults loitering on school property.

Fulop also backed an effort to oust former schools superintendent Charles T. Epps Jr. in favor of former Delaware superintendent Marcia V. Lyles, who became Jersey City’s schools chief last year. The move, especially the BOE’s decision to hire from outside the district instead of promoting a popular associate superintendent, cost Fulop some support. At times, the utterance of his name at a BOE meeting is enough to result in a cascade of boos from the crowd.

“I have probably paid the price politically for it,” Fulop said recently to The Jersey Journal of his dealings with the school district. “But I’m proud of what I did because I did the right thing by residents.”

The Healy campaign has used Fulop’s involvement in the school district as the lynchpin for its campaign against the councilman. A television commercial featuring ominous music and campaign fliers with unflattering photos of Fulop warn voters about Fulop’s plans for the schools.

The local teachers union, which has backed Healy, has told its members that if Fulop is election, public schools will be privatized. Fulop says this is untrue, while noting that Healy’s policy on charter schools is the same as Fulop’s (they both support charter schools).

Healy’s campaign lobs negative attacks at Fulop because the mayor has “no record to run on,” the councilman said.

“On taxes, (he’s) a failure,” he said. “On education, he’s been non-involved … on corruption, he’s been a failure.”

The campaign Fulop has waged against Healy has been the most aggressive the mayor has faced since 2004, perhaps ever. Last year, political observers thought Fulop was a shoo-in, but Healy’s initially sleepy campaign hit the gas pedal in the last quarter of 2012.

In March Healy’s allies believed they turned things around completely when President Obama waded into the race and endorsed Healy, an early Obama supporter. As the campaign heads into its final week, it’s difficult to find Healy campaign literature that doesn’t feature Obama’s picture.

The president’s endorsement led to panic among Fulop supporters, and Fulop himself conceded in April that Obama’s nod had had a negative impact on his fundraising.

The councilman’s supporters have since regained a bit more optimism, and Fulop’s decision to shift some focus to the 2009 corruption swept has helped. Healy was never charged in the sting, but his deputy mayor, two council allies and other members of city government were, and Healy himself was caught on tape meeting with disgraced developer Solomon Dwek, the confidential information who helped the feds nab corrupt pols throughout the state.

When speaking to The Jersey Journal in early April, Fulop said he “hoped” his campaign wouldn’t address the corruption sweep, but soon after Healy’s campaign mailed out a flier going negative on Fulop, a television commercial using footage of Healy’s meeting with Dwek went on the air, followed by another commercial and several campaign fliers.

Fulop’s campaign insists the focus on corruption has hurt Healy’s poll numbers, and at a May 2 debate at School 4, Fulop defended going negative by noting that Healy was the first to release negative campaign literature.

“Not even one mailer that has come from the mayor’s office has one thing about my vision for Jersey City,” Fulop said. “Each has my image distorted and a picture of President Obama on the other side.”

The election is Tuesday, May 14.

http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/20 ... fulo_13.html#incart_river

New footbridge from Downtown Jersey City to Liberty State Park aims for June completion

By Michaelangelo Conte/The Jersey Journal
May 06, 2013 at 10:29 AM

Six months ago Hurricane Sandy washed away the footbridge connecting Jersey Avenue in Downtown Jersey City to Liberty State Park but construction of a new bridge is set to begin, officials said.

"We know how important this piece of infrastructure is to our residents, and that is why we worked quickly with our (Office of Emergency Management) officials and our engineering staff to find a way to expedite the replacement of the Jersey Avenue footbridge," Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy said in a statement. "I am pleased that we will be able to open this bridge for use in the summer months."

A press conference to kick off the construction project was held Thursday at the foot of Jersey Avenue.

The new bridge, which will provide access in and out of the park for pedestrians and cyclists, will cost roughly $750,000, city officials said.

Jersey City has applied to the Federal Emergency Management Administration for reimbursement, city spokeswoman Jennifer Morrill said.

The bridge is expected to be completed by early June.

http://www.nj.com/jjournal-news/index ... m_downt.html#incart_river

Jersey City mayor: I 'wasn't thinking that well' when asked about nude photo

By Terrence T. McDonald/The Jersey Journal
May 06, 2013 at 8:07 PM

Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy, under fire for comments he made to The Star-Ledger regarding an infamous nude photo of him taken nearly 10 years ago, said today he “wasn’t thinking that well” when he answered questions about the snapshot.

“The question came out of the blue,” Healy told The Jersey Journal today from his office in City Hall. “Foolishly I commented on it.”

Healy’s statements this afternoon immediately followed a press conference held by supporters of Healy rival City Councilman Steve Fulop, who is mounting an aggressive challenge to Healy’s re-election campaign.

Fulop’s allies used the press conference to criticize Healy for telling The Star-Ledger, in a Tom Moran column published yesterday, that “three Hispanic girls” were partly responsible for the infamous photo showing Healy slumped over naked in front of his Ferry Street home.

The girls had woken Healy up that night so he went outside in a towel, which the girls ripped off him just in time for a political opponent to snap the embarrassing photo of him, the mayor told Moran. Healy's new story differs from his previous statements about the photo.

FLASHBACK: Political Insider: Photo worth 1,000 nasty words by rival Jersey City campaigns

Fulop’s allies today said Healy should apologize to the Latino community for blaming the photo incident on “three Hispanic girls.” But Healy said he’s not discussing the photo any more, and he blasted Fulop’s allies for “capitalizing” on the controversy.

“I’m done talking about something that happened nine years ago,” he said. “I’m focusing on the issues facing the city.”

Healy also touted his commitment to the Latino community, noting that he appointed the first Latina municipal judge and tapped a Latino to head the city Department of Health and Human Services.

Healy added that his campaign has received the endorsement of President Obama, who Healy noted received near-record support from the Latino community in his 2012 bid for re-election.

Healy’s campaign, meanwhile, issued a statement from Healy’s three Latino council candidates criticizing the Fulop campaign for continuing to discuss Healy’s comments to The Star-Ledger.

“This latest Fulop distraction from the real issues highlights the fact that their message and record are not resonating with the voters in the final week of the campaign,” reads the statement from at-large candidate Omar Perez, Ward C candidate Janet Chevres and Ward D candidate the Rev. Mario Gonzalez.

“For the past four years, Fulop and Lopez have ignored the Latino community,” the statement continues. “Now that we’re in the final days of an election they’re trying to fabricate an issue and pretending to care about our community.”

http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/20 ... snt_thinking_that_we.html