If Dawn only had the resources to dig into Campos's campaign the way they've thrown money into digging into hers. Can you imagine the graveyard vote and vote buying that went on in those projects of his?

Gerry McCann's 'Excellent Hoboken Adventure'
by Margaret -- Hoboken NOW

http://www.nj.com/hobokennow/index.ss ... ellent_hoboken_adven.html

Saturday August 04, 2007, 12:15 PM

The Jersey Journal's Political Insider spends much of his time in Bayonne today but visits Hoboken a) for some crystal ball predictions on what will happen should state Sen. Bernie Kenny not be able to return to Trenton because of his trip-and-fall/hit-and-run accident and b) to go behind the scenes of Councilman Chris Campos' court campaign to keep his seat from Dawn Zimmer.

Behind the curtain, PI tells us, is former Jersey City Mayor Gerald McCann.

Among PI's more entertaining observations: "Putting McCann in among Zimmer's reformer friends is a bit like dropping a boa constrictor in a warren of bunnies.''

See more
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Politicial Insider

Expect Doria announcement after Labor Day
Saturday, August 04, 2007

T here are questions about whether Senate Majority Leader Bernard Kenny of Hoboken will be able to finish out his term in office as a result of injuries he received last month in a jogging/hit-and-run accident. It turns out that the lame duck senator from Hudson County who is more likely to leave office early is from Bayonne.

Bayonne Mayor and Sen. Joseph Doria is expected to be New Jersey's next state commissioner of Community Affairs, according to several state legislative and Hudson County sources.

Doria received a telephone call from Gov. Jon Corzine Thursday morning, the sources said. They added that State Police are expected to officially begin a four-way background check of Doria on Tuesday, a process that takes about two weeks, but some preliminary screening work has already started in the Peninsula City.

The state post is presently being held in an acting capacity by Community Affairs Deputy Commissioner Charles A. Richman, who last month replaced former Commissioner Susan Bass Levin, who left after July 1 to become the $250,000-a-year deputy director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Doria could not be reached for comment. He took off for vacation again following the Corzine call. How many times can you go to Hershey Park?

The mayor is doing an amazing job of keeping this secret. Almost all his close Bayonne political confidants say they have not heard a thing about the appointment.

A state government appointment has been rumored for months, and has been stronger the past few weeks. Most people are wondering if what they are hearing is another cycle of the same rumor. The confusion could be because a week ago Doria was still giving people the impression that there was no way in hell he was leaving the Mayor's Office and that he would fight for re-election.

Naturally, this writer's sources swear that the governor's offer is authentic. What does the governor say?

"It is too early to make any announcement of a new commissioner of Community Affairs," said the governor's spokeswoman when specifically asked whether Corzine asked Doria this week to take the job. Did you hear the word "no?"

Key to any appointment is that Doria is not expected to step down as mayor and senator until after Labor Day.



This will give the Bayonne City Council 30 days to decide whether an interim mayor should be appointed. In the meantime, Council President Vincent Lo Re would immediately become both council member and acting mayor. When the council takes no action, as expected, Lo Re remains as acting mayor.

By the end of this drawn out process, it will be too late to file petitions for a special election for mayor that would be held in the November general election. A special mayoral election will have to be scheduled in the 2008 November general election.

The next municipal election is not until 2010, when the administration would probably throw its support to Nicholas A. Chiaravalloti, a former executive director of the Bayonne Local Redevelopment Authority who was district director for Robert Menendez when he was a congressman.

With the Doria appointment, state and Hudson sources said you have to give former Gov. Jim Florio credit for an assist. It was Florio, a South Jersey guy, who met with those South Jersey powerbrokers like George Norcross and Assembly Speaker Joseph J. Roberts Jr., who are not Doria fans. Florio worked hard to convince them to go along with the idea, or at least cushion the blow.

Guess we'll have to wait for the announcement from Doria when he gets back to say he is not interested, or after Labor Day, when it becomes an "official" declaration.

Let's get back to Kenny and whether he will be ready for the next, and his last, session in Trenton.

Kenny will have until after the November election to complete his physical rehab and return to legislative work when the Senate returns to session. Usually, a member of the Legislature who misses two voting sessions may face the prospect of being replaced. In Kenny's case, one doubts that Senate President Richard Codey will go out of his way to entertain a replacement for the Hoboken senator.

If he can, Kenny will no doubt try his best to get back for his lame duck session rather than turn the reins over to say - Union City Mayor and Assemblyman Brian P. Stack, who won the Democratic primary for Kenny's seat. No one on either side of the Hudson County civil war are projecting what is ahead. Politicians for both sides all say they hope Kenny recovers quickly, for his health's sake.

We are looking forward to the September Superior Court trial where the Hoboken 4th Ward runoff election is expected to come under a microscope. Chris Campos, who held the council seat, is trying to reverse Dawn Zimmer's slim-margin victory.

It will be up to Assignment Judge Maurice Gallipoli how the trial progresses. The more witnesses and evidence he allows, the better the autopsy of an emotional and heated campaign. The municipal election was seen as a surrogate battle between the HCDO and the rival Democrats for Hudson County of Union City Mayor Brian P. Stack, Sires, Weehawken Mayor Richard Turner and a majority of Hoboken City Council members.

The entertainment factor in this Campos/Zimmer litigation comes mainly from former Jersey City Mayor and (evil to some) Puck extraordinaire Gerry McCann, who heads up the investigation for Campos. Putting McCann in among Zimmer's reformer friends is a bit like dropping a boa constrictor in a warren of bunnies.

McCann has not been shy about his findings. He has even been on the www.nj.com forum in "colorful" debate with some of the Hobokenites about the merits of the case. McCann admits taking part in the online debate, but he adds that it is not always him behind the forum name and that he lets two others use his "nom de plume," but he does type in when it is "himself."

"It helps shake the trees for useful information." McCann said.

Some of the accusations in this trial are not just about mishandling of absentee votes, but McCann is not shy about personally letting Zimmer people - the neophytes and Wall Street types and not HCDO workers - know that the allegations are also of knowingly violating election law - also known as criminal conduct.

His excellent Hoboken adventure comes on the heels of a failed attempt to reverse McCann's victory in the Jersey City school board election. The legal challenge whimpered to a halt for various unconvincing reasons, but one suspects that the challengers really did not want to go toe-to-toe with the brawler.

Subpoenas have been gleefully issued by McCann "himself" to some of Zimmer's people for the trial. The psychological pressure in Hoboken must be enormous. As the trial gets closer, it will seem less like an exercise in democracy and justice and more like a garden party scene from the "Manchurian Candidate."

Zimmer was expected to have filed yesterday in Superior Court answers to Campos's charges, which she has called accusations that are unsupported and untrue, and charges him with a whispering campaign in an attempt to intimidate voters.

What is he whispering? Is it "McCann"?

INSIDER NOTES:

- Sidebar to the Doria story is that by ending his Senate career early, does that mean there is a good chance that Sandra Bolden Cunningham, the Democratic nominee for the seat in the 31st District, will get the nod to step in? This would probably depend on the mood of the chairman of the HCDO, Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy.

Does Healy try to look good in the city black community and push for her, or does he see Cunningham as an eventual rival in the 2009 municipal election and bypass her?

The mayor's mood has been a bit sour lately. Just ask Chief of Staff Carl Czaplicki, suddenly a good candidate for director of Housing, Economic Development and Commerce. In other words, the mayor may be looking for a new chief of staff. One of the reasons may be that he was not happy with Czaplicki's advice to support Cunningham in the primary. Anyway, that's the mayor's feelings this week, say several administration hangers-on.