One Jersey City Ward F candidate says unity, not crime, is top issue

By Terrence T. McDonald/The Jersey Journal
October 25, 2012 at 4:14 PM

When voters in Jersey City?s Ward F head to the polls on Nov. 6 to select a representative on the City Council, among the choices will be at least one candidate who says crime is not his top issue.

Tyrone Ballon, 50, who ran unsuccessfully for the Ward F seat in 2009, said he believes crime is indeed an important issue for residents, but the first issue he plans to tackle, if elected, is disunity among the ward?s residents.

?One person can?t change Ward F,? Ballon told The Jersey Journal yesterday by phone. ?The people must get together to change things.?

Ballon, a PATH train dispatcher who lives on Kearney Avenue with his wife, four children and granddaughter, said he hopes as councilman he would be able to bring together the various constituencies in the ward.

?The people seem to like the voice of an elected official,? he said. ?When an elected official makes a cry out, an appeal . . . the people respond to it just by virtue of the person?s position.?

Ballon?s decision not to name crime as his top priority puts him at odds with the other contenders in the race, who say they would tackle public-safety issues first. But Ballon said with only seven months in office, the winner wouldn?t have time to address that problem.

Local nonprofit administrator Diane Coleman, anti-crime activist Debby Walker, and Ward F Councilwoman Michele Massey are duking it out with Ballon for the Ward F seat.

Massey was appointed in December 2011 to replace former Ward F councilwoman Viola Richardson, after Richardson won a similar special election last year to become a councilwoman at large.

Richardson?s Ward F term doesn?t expire until June 30, 2013, so the winner of this year?s special election will remain in the seat until then.

http://www.nj.com/jjournal-news/index ... candida.html#incart_river

Political Insider: Jersey City's black pols have a lot to worry about

By Agustin C. Torres/The Jersey Journal
October 25, 2012 at 12:01 AM

The ruling black political leadership in Jersey City's Ward F has a big problem. It could be very close to losing its grip on the "black" ward seat on the City Council.

A special election for the post now held by Michele Massey is being held on Nov. 6. The other candidates are the Rev. Tyrone Ballon, anti-crime activist Debby Walker, and nonprofit social service agency founder Diane Coleman.

Massey was appointed to the council by Mayor Jerramiah Healy to fill a vacancy and the panel approved the choice in December. Although she was brought to the table by Councilwoman at large Viola Richardson, the previous Ward F council member, Massey gravitated to the Healy administration for support. Richardson is now the mentor scorned.

Unfortunately, Massey is on a listing Healy ship and she has only loose loyalty to the state Sen. Sandra Cunningham and Freeholder Jeff Dublin cartel. If Massey loses, it will be a blow to Healy, and a preview of his re-election chances. It also would give the appearance that Cunningham is losing influence in city government.
Which brings us to probably Massey's biggest rival, Coleman.

Word on the street is that the head of Building an Empire is working hard and effectively on her campaign. It helps to have assistance from folks who have ties to Healy's big rival, Downtown Councilman Steven Fulop.

The worry among black pols is that a Fulop victory in May, with the help of a sitting Councilwoman Coleman, might put an end to a number of patronage jobs in the Jersey City Incinerator Authority.

I expect that the black leadership, with political guru Joe Cardwell, may release the Kraken -- The Urban Times newspaper that is always dormant until it's needed for character assassination and endorsements.

Cardwell has returned from serving six months in federal prison for taking $10,000 in bribes in the state's largest sting operation in 2009. He probably still has about two months remaining in his six months of home confinement. He must have had "visitors" for deep confabs since his return and if The Urban Times is resurrected, don't expect to see Cardwell's name in it.

Urban Times or not, it appears the Ward F political status quo is in danger of a possible cracked foundation.

Update: right after writing this column last night, I received an email from Journal staff member Terence McDonald who was at the Jersey City council meeting. Massey came late to the City Council session and voted in favor of Fulop's version of a city pay to pay bill. Her's was the deciding vote. Now two hours later, she changed her mind and the Fulop version fails. The councilwoman has to keep checking her text messages, otherwise how can anyone run government?

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

Jersey City nonprofit head running for Ward F council seat, saying crime in the area holds seniors 'hostage'

October 03, 2012, 11:35 AM
By Terrence T. McDonald/The Jersey Journal

More than 12 years ago, Jersey City woman Diane Coleman founded Building an Empire, a nonprofit dedicated, she says, to ?filling in the gaps? provided by social-social groups to poor and low-income residents.

This fall, Coleman hopes to use her experience running the nonprofit to vault her to victory in next month?s special election to find a Ward F council member to replace Viola Richardson, who vacated the seat last November after becoming a councilwoman at large.

Coleman, 65, of Arlington Avenue, said she?s helped over 8,000 residents via Building an Empire, and could reach even more if she becomes Ward F?s newest council representative.

?The need is so great,? she said recently inside her Martin Luther King Drive campaign headquarters. ?These people are struggling.?

Coleman, nearly a lifelong city resident, said Ward F?s biggest issue is crime, which she said affects other priorities for residents, like affordable, decent housing. The ward has been neglected, she said, adding that her nonprofit, located at Martin Luther King Drive and Bayview Avenue, is ?in the heart? of all of the violence.

?Seniors are held hostage,? she said, adding that many of them are afraid to leave their homes to run errands. ?Children are getting shot.?

If elected in November, where she is also running against Michele Massey, Richardson?s temporary successor on the nine-member council, Coleman said she plans to insist on ?pro-active? police patrolling in Ward F.

?If it doesn?t happen, I can just get 1,000 residents together and will go down to the police chief?s office? to demand it, she added.

In addition to Massey, Coleman?s opponents in the Nov. 6 special election are anti-crime activist Debby Walker and pastor Tyrone Ballon.

http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/20 ... y_nonprofit_head_run.html

Political Insider: Ward F special election will help measure Healy's chance for re-election

Saturday, September 29, 2012, 11:03 AM
By Agustin C. Torres/The Jersey Journal

The special election for the remaining term -- runs to May -- for the Jersey City Ward F City Council seat now occupied by Michele Massey is a barometer for the city administration's future political success.

Although brought to local government by Councilwoman at Large Viola Richardson to fill a vacancy created by Willie Flood's 2011 resignation, Massey's loyalty quickly found a home in the administration of Mayor Jerramiah Healy.

Now the mayor is at a crossroad. Should Massey win her seat, there's no problem, but Healy cannot afford to see her defeated. She loses, it's a good bet the incumbent mayor is a loser, with a capital "L."

Healy's campaign organization must be able to show it has what it takes to get out the vote. This should be an easy fight because it is in the center of the city's black community where the administration has been busy trying to portray Healy's rival for mayor, Downtown Councilman Steven Fulop, as uncaring and a secretive manipulator. They and their allies in the black community paint Fulop as a pandering outsider who ousted former Superintendent of Schools Charles Epps, a black man, and who refused to consider another black man for the job, Franklin Walker.

A black woman, Marcia Lyles, was eventually hired as the new schools superintendent.

Those running against Massey includes the Rev. Tyrone Ballon, whose name on the ballot doesn't include any mention of the cloth. There is also nonprofit social agency, Building an Empire, founder Diane Coleman, who I thought was known as Fuller-Coleman -- someone who was "witness" to how (Newark) government works. Coleman is also seen as the threat to Massey's re-election bid. The fourth candidate is anti-crime activist Debbie Walker.

I'm sure the Healy camp was fast asleep in Ward F and by my mentioning what's at stake, it may wake them up. But, I doubt it. (Dems fightin' words, right guys.)

FOR MONEY CAN'T BUY ME LOVE

Most political organizations in Hudson County are broke. A big money loser is the Hudson County Democratic Organization which probably has vendors yapping at its heels.

The HCDeadO announced plans for its Oct. 12 fall dinner at New Jersey City University kicking off the November election. What is unusual is that the county Democratic Party notified members they can make checks out directly to a handful of candidates -- 31st District Assemblyman Jason O'Donnell of Bayonne and County Clerk Barbara Netchert, 33rd District Assemblyman Sean Connors and Freeholder Jeff Dublin, all three of Jersey City.

I was wondering why the direct funding, but it seems the usual sources are a little tight-lipped. At first I thought that these candidates were trustworthy enough to hold the funds until the HCDeadO gets by its creditors. Or, could it be that it is how the HCDeadO can pay back these folks who may have used their own campaign monies to keep the county flagship afloat in the past?

More than likely, it's a way for the present HCDeadO leadership to squirrel away cash by using trusted lieutenants as off-shore island depositories because you never know who may try to take over the organization in June.

One more thing about money for those backers of North Bergen Mayor and Sen. Nick Sacco: you are more than likely expected to help finance the war on Union City Mayor and Sen. Brian Stack.

Sacco and Stack will compete in November on who gets out the most votes. Then the arch rivals will get involved in the Jersey City municipal race. All this costs money. Sacco's fall fundraising dinner is expected to come with a ticket price hike. Start taking out your credit union loans.

... IT'S HOW YOU SAY IT

Wednesday is the start of presidential debates and much of Hudson County is making a party of it with like-minded people and organizations. Check your Facebook and Twitter accounts for places and times for any such gatherings.


Mayor Healy is planing a debate party at the Brightside Tavern on, what else, Bright Street.

Over at the Park Tavern on West Side Avenue, there should be a band of Fulop people, mostly out of Ward D, for the debate.

Assembly Democratic primary candidate Peter Basso of the Heights is planning to get people together for that evening, possibly at Zeppelin Hall. Basso is running for a spot in the 33rd District, where we're not sure who is really running. More about Basso's effort in the future.

There are plenty of others debate bashes in Hoboken and other burgs. One of the neater events is expected to take place in Bayonne High School where some students, with their teachers, will watch the presidential candidates verbally spar in that evening. Sorry, no taverns for the youngsters. There may be some local Dems and, gasp, Republicans attending.

INSIDER NOTES

-- When Sacco cut off Herb Shaw and ended the North Bergen commission meeting because of the constant applause by people in the audience whenever there was criticism of the administration, the mayor said there was a lack of decorum.
It all seems like such a plebeian thing for the mayor to do. But, correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Sacco get tossed out of a commission meeting when Anthony DiVincent was mayor, back in the old days? Was there a lack of decorum?

-- There seems to be a rhythm going, as in the case of the North Bergen scandal and its no- and low-show jobs, and so we wait for the next subpoena to hit.

-- Did you notice something odd about some of the people mentioned in that North Bergen kerffufle. James Wiley, who pleaded guilty today to conspiring to have Department of Public Works employees perform chores at his home and work on election campaigns while being paid by the township, and John Stalknecht, a dual job holder who is apparently given "leeway" as to the hours he puts in at work, are Republicans.

Their boss, Township Public Works Commissioner Frank Gargiulo, is a member of the GOP and was once chairman of the Hudson County Republican Party. Frank must be putting out that vote for Romney in North Bergen ;) BTW, why was Wiley helping Democrats? It's almost as if there are a herd of old RINOs in the county :0

-- For those who can't wait: U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez of North Bergen debates his GOP opponent state Sen. Joseph Kyrillos of Monmouth and the 13th District on Thursday evening at Montclair State University. Where's your debate party? -- IHOP?

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