Whose side are you on today?

Political Column By Al Sullivan -- Hudson Reporter 03/28

The wheeling and dealing in Hudson County politics has never been at such a fevered pitch as it has been leading up to the June Democratic primary.

It has been years since any state level election has been anything other than a puppet show, where the results were already known.

In 2003, Jersey City Mayor Glenn Cunningham threw open the curtains to the political theater by with a significant victory over candidates supported by the Hudson County Democratic Organization in the 31st District. In 1993, North Bergen Mayor Nicholas Sacco did the same in the 32nd District. This year, Union City Mayor Brian Stack figures to repeat these rare feats by climbing into the state Senate in the 33 rd District.

But the impact may be felt countywide as the HCDO grits its teeth for what may actually be one of the greatest political boxing matches since Tony Cucci and Gerry McCann went head to head in Jersey City in the 1980s.

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In paraphrasing Mark Twain, Hudson County is one of those places were people still respect their politicians. Everywhere else people get jobs in the private sector.

The battle for control of Hudson County is about patronage, and who controls access to jobs, contracts and property use.

While we get rhetoric as to why various politicians are lining up on this or that side of the political battle: Stack or the HCDO, behind the scenes this is a turf war.

As with the battle against Glenn Cunningham a few years ago, the HCDO is seeking to preserve the old order and protecting jobs a win by a Stack-backed ticket could disrupt. While the HCDO professes to have most of the county's mayors lined up to support its candidates, this is a patch work of back room deals and the mutual fear that if Stack wins, the political game as it was once played is over.

Proving just how political loyalties shift was the decision by Sandra Cunningham to join the HCDO ticket.

The decision may seem less strange when you consider that Cunningham's beef in the past was not against the HCDO, but against U.S. Senator Robert Menendez - who backed the HCDO in the past, but appears to be backing Stack in this year's primary.

But you can best the HCDO spiced its offer to Cunningham with a lot of more practical elements such as possible donations to her charity, possible other patronage elements and future support.

Cunningham, who is running is running for state Senate in the 31st District along with Bayonne Assemblyman Anthony Chiaponne and former Jersey City Council President L. Harvey Smith does not yet have an opponent since incumbent State Senator and Bayonne Mayor Joseph Doria withdrew from the race several weeks ago.

This district includes all of Bayonne and parts of Jersey City. Assemblyman Louis Manzo, who would have been on Doria's ticket, is faced with the tough choice of either running against Cunningham for State Senate or against HCDO supported County Executive Tom DeGise.

In either case, Manzo will have Stack's support.

A county wide battle?

Stack is expected to mount a full ticket in at least two of the three legislative districts as well as for the three county level seats being contested.

The HCDO announced its intention of supporting DeGise for County Executive, Barbara Nechert for County Clerk, and Juan Perez for County Sheriff.

Stack is apparently backing Manzo or someone else for county executive, former Bayonne Council member Mary Jane Desmond for county clerk, and incumbent Sheriff Joseph Cassidy for county sheriff.

Full tickets are expected to be announced this week for both sides of the political power.

In the 31st District that includes Union City, West New York, Weehawken, Guttenberg, Hoboken and a portion of Jersey City, Stack is expected to face off against West New York Mayor Sal Vega for the state senate. Stack is expected to run with Hoboken Councilman Rubin Ramos and West New York Commissioner Caridad Rodriguez for the two state Assembly seats. Vega is expected to run with former Hoboken Council woman Carol Marsh and Nicole Garcia, wife of former Union City Mayor Rudy Garcia.

Vega's ticket has gone through various contortions over the last few weeks with behind the scenes deal making that tried to get Hoboken Councilman Michael Russo to support a Vega-led ticket.

At one point, Vega people promises to have Frank Raia drop out of the council race in Hoboken against Russo, and would have put Raia on the ticket in the place of Garcia.

Marsh, who has been a long time reformer in Hoboken, is going to have to explain carefully why she has decided to run with the HCDO, what reforms will be instituted in Hoboken in order to gain her support.

Hoboken, of course, is in the middle of its own uproar.

City Attorney Joe Sherman was asked to submit his resignation last week, which he refused to do. Sherman has been at odds with Hoboken Mayor Dave Roberts for some time, and it will be interesting to watch if Roberts has the gumption or even the votes to fire Sherman.

Roberts was supposed to come up with a city council ticket, but has hemmed and hawed for so long the city council has put up its own ticket, all the incumbents. Meanwhile rumors claim Roberts may even support reform candidates such as Dawn Zimmer.

The reform movement in Hoboken has its own problems with Beth Mason leading one faction while former Councilman Tony Soares and political guru Michael Lenz seem to be part of another faction. While Mason faces an uphill battle to secure her election in Hoboken's second ward, the faction appears to be solidly behind Zimmer and Peter Camerano in two other wards.

Will Stack and Christie face off for governor?

Will Rogers once compared corrupt politicians to a dishonest store clerk.

If a clerk gets caught with his fingers in the cash register, the boss fires him, then promptly replaces him with another dishonest clerk.

This may well be the legacy of U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie, who has made a point of rooting out corruption from New Jersey's political garden, little realizing that for ever weed he plucks out, ten new weeds take its place.

Despite Christie's close relationship with President George W. Bush (who called Christie Big Boy for the large amounts of campaign contributions he was able to bring to the Republican coffers), history shows Christie actually believes in a clean government. As a freeholder in Morris County, Christie actually accused fellow Republicans of violating ethics rules, and under Christie's watch, some of the more stringent new ethics reforms were instituted.

But with questions about whether or not the White House ordered other Republican-appointed U.S. Attorneys to investigate prominent Democrats in other states, you have to wonder if the current series of probes is Christie's idea or generated from a higher power?

Some political observers believe Stack is a target because he has the potential to run for governor, should Gov Jon Corzine take a cabinet level position if and when a Democrat is elected president in 2008.

Some believe Christie will be the next Republican candidate for governor, and the last person Christie needs to face is Stack.