Political Column

Political justice?
By Al Sullivan -- Hudson Reporter -- 08/20/2007

The Sixth Street embankment has been one of the more contentious issues in Jersey City politics.

Caught in the middle of it is Mayor Jerramiah Healy, who put a lot of political capital behind it.

A ruling voided the sale of land to developer Steve Hyman, saying it must first be offered to other possible purchasers such as local, county, and state governments.

In some ways, this is political karma for Hyman, who had used the political process to his advantage over the last year only to have Assemblyman Louis Manzo - who worked to get the sale overturned - stop him.

Hyman had worked behind the scenes to defeat Manzo's 2004 bid for mayor. This was nothing personal. The general belief was that if Manzo became mayor of Jersey City, former Jersey City Mayor Gerry McCann would have more say in development in Jersey City - and would tie up Hyman's embankment project indefinitely.



Hyman backed Council Steve Lipski's mayoral bid instead.

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In the end, Hyman cost Manzo dream of mayor and Manzo took away Hyman's dream of developing the embankment.

This leaves Healy with some hard choices when it comes to the embankment. Does he try to develop it anyway, and make his developer-supporters happy? Or does he create a park, removing valuable future ratables from the tax base? While a park will make local activists happy, they will not contribute much to Healy re-election coffers. Angry developers might not contribute out of spite.

The big winner in the embankment is Councilman Steve Fulop, who sided with local residents on the matter - a good base for his expected 2009 bid for mayor.

Healy, of course, has more than just Fulop to worry about. He will likely spend a lot of legal fees between now and the election. He is appealing his own disorderly conduct conviction from Bradley Beach. Along with legal issues surrounding the bridge death of a baby and the allegedly drunk cop, Healy may also face a legal appeal from Hyman.

Some believe at the heart of Healy's maneuvering is not re-election at all, but positioning himself for an appointment either to a court or to some state body such as the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

For this reason, Healy needs to appeal his conviction. While few would care if the mayor of Jersey City had a conviction on his record, Healy would not likely qualify as a Superior Court justice with it. But he still has to live with his own rhetoric, such as the well-distributed quote that he likes to drink, party, and dance.

McCann is on a tear

McCann, of course, has become engaged in a war of words with several Hoboken politicos in internet chat rooms, causing significant agitation in an already troubling legal case involving Councilwoman Dawn Zimmer and Chris Campos, the person she beat in a runoff election last June by eight votes.

McCann, who has taken on the task of investigating irregularities in Zimmer's absentee balloting, has insulted two of the mainstays of the Hoboken reform movement, Tony Soares and Michael Lenz. While McCann has allegedly said some dreadful things about both, perhaps the most devastating was his declaration that Soares, Lenz, Zimmer and their ally Peter Cunningham are no longer reformers.

Few insults could be so mean as that, yet McCann makes a convincing case as to why their alliance with the Hudson County Democratic Organization (HCDO) has revoked their license as reformers.

Zimmer and Cunningham didn't help dispel this perception when they voted to restore contracts to the HCDO-connected Kenny-Florio law firm.

But defenders of Zimmer-Cunningham said the HCDO has changed and opened its ears to some of the issues reformers have been pushing for in the past.

Who will replace Doria?

Although state Senator and Bayonne Mayor Joseph Doria is reported to be one of five contenders to become the next chairman of the Department of Community Affairs, sources claim Doria will be offered the job but will not announce leaving his Senate and mayoral posts until after Sept. 8. Most likely, Doria will make the announcement after the city unveils its memorial to Bayonne 9/11 victims on Sept. 11.

This will give the city until November 2008 to hold a special election for his replacement as mayor and state senator.

Council President Vincent Lo Re will serve as interim mayor for at least 30 days, although the council could vote to name someone else to fill the mayoral post. Two names have surfaced in this regard: Freeholder Doreen DiDomenico and former candidate for state Assembly Nicholas Chiaravalloti.

Just who will take Doria's seat as state senator remains uncertain, although some believe Healy, as chairman of the HCDO, would name Sandra Cunningham to the seat. Cunningham is the Democratic candidate running for the seat in the upcoming general election on Nov. 6.

Booker under attack

The Hudson County friends of Newark Mayor Cory Booker claim the recent row over the execution-style murder of three students may have a strong political tinge. Booker, who set a broad agenda for improving the public perception of Newark, has also stepped on some big toes in his move to unseat the political establishment. While Booker cannot be held accountable for the tragedy, political forces seeking to derail his reform movement seem to be pulling the strings of several civic groups in blaming Booker.

The real problem for Booker is how he laid out his dream of a gentler and kinder Newark, and the belief that education was the yellow brick road out of the shadow of Newark's criminal history. Unfortunately, three students - who were on the pathway to Booker's Emerald City - were shot down.

Political tidbits

A campaign to name the new high school in Union City after city native and U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez seems to have kicked off last week. It is hard to tell how many people are behind the move, but at least one strong supporter has made several calls in the effort, claiming Menendez is "the pride and joy of Union City."

Meanwhile, Secaucus Mayor Dennis Elwell and North Bergen Mayor Nicholas Sacco took part in the India parade in Jersey City last week, acknowledging the changing nature of the populations in both cities.

The parade included the traditional live elephant, which takes on symbolic importance in many Indian ceremonies. While Hudson County Democrats also use the elephant as a symbol of their organization, the Indian elephant was healthy.

The Jimmy King Civic Organization of Jersey City set up a water station along the route and issued water and juice packs. Sacco and Elwell partook of the refreshments. No one said whether the elephant sampled the refreshments or not.