Mayor Fulop tops Political Insider's 2014 Power List; and your comments

By Agustin C. Torres/The Jersey Journal
February 02, 2014 at 3:44 PM




The Political Insider's Power List for 2014 has a number of new faces. As in the past few years, there is no person or institution from West Hudson here, although a Harrison entity was considered because of the area?s 15 minutes of fame in statewide politics (with the alleged gubernatorial scandals). Some skeptics even said it would be difficult to fill 25 available slots, but here they are.

Last May?s Jersey City municipal election made it easy to focus on one individual who is the big rock creating ripples in the New Jersey Democratic Party?s pond. This is evidenced by the 36-year-old male?s verbal jousting with Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester. Along with Sweeney, he is a potential candidate for governor ? in addition to state Deputy Assembly Speaker John Wisniewski, D-Middlesex, who found a platform (joint investigative committee) to enhance his name recognition.

NO. 1 on the Insider?s list is Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop.

A millisecond after defeating incumbent Jerramiah Healy, Fulop was being touted as a possible replacement for Gov. Chris Christie. Fulop is top dog as much for the commotion and connections he made before, during, and after campaigning in the second largest city in the state. It helps that the mayor seems to have been picked from a casting call, although he did not initially register with the Denver Broncos.

Fulop has been trying to enhance his credentials as a smart, savvy administrator while bolstering his liberal credentials by writing Op-Ed material for hand-picked online sites, including the Huffington Post and Philly.com, and appearing for interviews on TV and cable. His first action as mayor was to push through the City Council a ?progressive? measure mandating paid sick leave for businesses employing 10 or more employees, and thus justifying his reformist label. Even so, with New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on one side and whoever comes out of the frenetic Newark mayoral fight (my pick is Councilman Ras Baraka), Fulop will seem more like a centrist and more appealing to a majority of statewide voters.

He has attracted major politically connected law firms, which like bookies can smell good things happening (for them). Fulop?s name has come up on the periphery of the Christie/bridge lane closures scandal as being on a virtual enemies list, giving the Jersey City mayor national exposure.

And he has only been in office for seven months.

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Very dispriting read, over all. The only thing I came away with from this article was "If it weren?t for politicians, Hudson County might be known to the rest of the tri-state area not as a land of backroom deals and shady election results..."

My money is on nothing ever changing.

The ?Power List?
The Reporter?s third annual rankings of Hudson County?s most influential people

by Dean DeChiaro and Al Sullivan
Reporter staff writers
Jan 26, 2014

You don?t have to be a politician to have influence in Hudson County, but it sure does help. However, you could be an artist, an activist, or even a group of people with similar interests and still wield enormous power.

Each January, our editorial staff spends several grueling meetings ranking the county?s most influential people. This is our third annual list.

2013 was an exciting year in Hudson County ? mayoral elections caused a political shakeup, scandals and truces saw some gain power and some lose it, and a growing arts community continued to flourish ? and we believe our list reflects that.

The key is simple: after each ranking?s name, a + sign represents that they moved up from their position on last year?s list, a ? sign means they went down, and an = sign means they?re ranked in the same spot. The corresponding number represents their previous ranking.

http://hudsonreporter.com/view/full_s ... e--?instance=latest_story

Power List-Riaz Wahid and Esther Wintner made the Power List from the Hudson Reporter. Congratulations.