Political Insider: Keep Healy on toes, or maybe it's Cunningham

By Agustin C. Torres/The Jersey Journal
December 15, 2012 at 6:20 AM

There is nothing more trivial today than Hudson County politics. My heart goes out to the families who lost loved ones in that senseless taking of lives yesterday in Connecticut.

Even Mayor Jerramiah Healy and I briefly talked about it and ended the conversation with Healy wishing me a Merry Christmas and me wishing him the same. Really.

Let's start with an observation about the Jersey City mayoral race.

While most political observers call Downtown Councilman Steven Fulop the front-runner in the May city election for mayor, I always feel that a candidate who is ahead is in a more precarious position. In Fulop's case, the danger starts with the possibility that he could knock Healy out of contention too soon. He may want to carry the incumbent a few more rounds before it becomes overwhelmingly obvious that he is way ahead on the voters' score cards.

Fulop has the county Dem's favorite guy , former state Sen. Bernie Kenny of Hoboken, or at least his law firm, working on the councilman's election campaign. Is it not as good as an endorsement? a few more shots like this and there's the danger of the election being called on a technical knockout. The councilman has to play rope-a-dope.

Why? Because, according to some political folks who are not fanatics for one candidate or another, the danger is that should Healy suddenly announce he is not seeking re-election, there may be an independent effort to push state Sen. Sandra Cunningham into the fray.

There are many who believe that Cunningham would make a more formidable candidate against Fulop than Healy. The first people who would probably try to assess the possibility of Cunningham jumping into the campaign would be her political consigliere and operative Joe Cardwell and mentor, and Democratic state Sen. Ray Lesniak out of Elizabeth. This is assuming Cardwell can get involved in politics because there may be a stipulation that he must avoid it for a bit after being released while serving a six-month federal prison sentence this year for taking a $10,000 bribe from a federal informant.

If the 31st District senator gets involved, how soon before Jersey City Councilwoman Viola Richardson ( Would she run as an independent against Diane Coleman for the Ward F seat? Is that a step back?) starts making noise about running with Cunningham as her Assembly running mate -- sorry Charlie Mainor.

Cunningham would have two problems. She needs money and this is where Lesniak has to help, but he has his own re-election concerns next year. The other is putting together an organization, from scratch, to counter Fulop's obviously smoothly running ground game. Good luck with that. And stay tuned.

GOOD WILL TOWARD POLS -- NOT

Middlesex County Democratic state Sen. Barbara Buono announced she will challenge Gov. Chris Christie in the 2013 election and there is speculation that state Senate President Steve Sweeney and Newark Mayor Cory Booker, both Democrats, will also jump into the "Get Christie" race.

Just how will these possible candidates approach Hudson County Dems when they ask for their support? The answer is very cautiously because of the war between state Sens. Nick Sacco, D-32nd District and Brian P. Stack, D-33rd. The two are the respective mayors of the neighboring municipalities, North Bergen and Union City.

Sacco is the de facto head of the Hudson County Democratic Organization because whatever the North Bergen mayor wants, the HCDeadO leadership, including Chairman and Bayonne Mayor Mark Smith, gets.

As most readers know, Stack is at present the non-Republican, anti-HCDeadO leader of the county. He is also considered by pundits as a close friend of Christie. While it's true that he agrees with much of what the governor represents and that the senator appears prescient, considering Christie's recent skyrocketing approval ratings, Stack bleeds Democrat. Ask former Gov. Jon Corzine who turned to Stack, when he felt abandoned in Hudson County, for help in on Election Day 2009 and the Union City mayor provided him with ballots in a losing cause.

In this nearly decade-old feud, the North Bergen mayor's attacks on Stack have been more sophisticated. He supports some Stack opponents by repackaging them as "civic" organizations. One outfit is called the Concerned Citizens of Union City and the other is Moving Hudson County Forward.

The latter group is pushing a video ad attacking Stack for bringing $25 million in state aid to Union City, while Jersey City received nothing. Stack's 33rd District was gerrymandered to include a piece of the Jersey City Heights, although there are at least three other state legislators from Hudson whose districts include a great deal more of the county seat.

Is it a coincidence that the feds are investigating Community Development in Union City and the state Attorney General has placed a magnifying glass over the North Bergen Department of Public Works and assorted officials? Or was the genesis of these probes the result of dime dropping by the antagonists?

So if you are running for governor, would you seek the support and primamry line of the HCDeadO, or perhaps a rival organization that may pop up with Mr. Sensitive Stack and allies that could include Cunningham and others.

It will be an interesting New Year.

INSIDER NOTES

-- Hudson County Sheriff Frank Schillari held his fundraiser this week at Puccini's and everyone was there, including Healy and Fulop. County Freeholder Anthony Romano of Hoboken was the MC and Healy, Sacco and county Executive Tom DeGise were speakers. Essentially they all said they would work hard to get Schillari re-elected next year. May have been about 400 people in attendance, including New York Giant fullback Henry Hynoski -- hey, I don't get it either.

-- After naming former school superintendent, ex-assemblyman, past royalty and asparagus soup and free-range chicken eater Charlie Epps and Peter Brennan, with an outside chance that Bill Gaughan running again should Jim Carroll balk at running as the Heights candidate on Healy's ticket, we should call the slate "Team Medicare." Yeah, I know there's also council candiates Omar Perez, at-alrge, and Dan Levin, Downtown. who lower the median age to "time to join the AARP."

Healy should have started with totally a new slate of candidates, all young people, business types. But he is true to his old neighborhood types or as one commenter calls them "beer drinkers not wine sippers." There's the problem. Mone on from Pabst.

-- I hear crickets in West New York. This does not bode well for the usually feisty and talkative Mayor and Dr. Felix Roque.

-- Does Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer no longer have any opposition? Or is she content just taking on the U.S. Senate and the leaky National Flood Insurance? Or did anyone notice she just "gave herself" a six-month extension on her adminstration's term of office.

-- Jersey City announced that they have a $100,000 police tower to help fight crime. New York City uses them at big events like the St. Patrick's Day Parade or a big demonstration. Send me your suggestions for using the tower, and nothing anatomical.

-- I don't want to do a Christmas column, but this will depend on what help I get from all of you. Send me your ideas of what gifts Santa can send your favorite political personality -- remember, this is a family newspaper.

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