NJ 'mommy mafia' becomes town's new power brokers

By ANNIE KARNI
July 1, 2012
New York Post

There?s a new mob running Jersey City.

A group of 636 mothers ? many former Manhattanites who decamped across the river after giving birth ? have banded together to reform the public-school system, influence local politicians, and even get a nasty nurse fired at a pediatrician?s office.

A handful of women started Jersey City Moms six years ago on the social-networking site Meetup .com. Their goal was modest: to create a forum for new moms to schedule play dates, share parenting tips, or recommend doctors.

But over the past three years, as more New York City moms have found themselves putting down stakes in Jersey, the group has grown exponentially in size and power.

It helped get an active member, Sangeeta Ranade, and two other moms elected to the nine-member school board in April. JC Moms hosted a panel with eight candidates and allowed Ranade to use its message board to campaign for the three ?Parents for Progress? candidates. Ranade has since successfully advocated to expand the dual-language program in pre-K.

?I voted in the school-board election this year because the JC Moms group was really promoting getting everyone out,? one member said. ?But for the mommy group, I?m not sure the [three women candidates] would have won.?

The nonprofit cannot endorse political candidates, but that has not stopped local officials from lining up to kiss their pacifiers.

Yesterday they were to host a meet-and-greet with Democratic City Councilman Steven Fulop, who is running for mayor. In the past, JC Moms has offered voters rides to the polls.

?It started as a new-moms group,? Fulop told The Post. ?Then you had the downturn in the economy and a lot of people who may have left put down deeper roots here. That led them to think, we need good schools, we need a good environment, and that?s been the evolution of the group.?

The group has been a salvation for Big Apple refugees who moved to New Jersey after having kids.

?Most of my friends in the city didn?t have kids, and this was the first group I joined when I moved here,? said Jodi Schwarzer, 37, who moved to Jersey City when she was pregnant with her first child.

?It?s a group of people who are committed to making the community better,? Schwarzer said.

On Thursday evening, she sat in a row of folding chairs with other JC Moms at a hearing where the school board voted to elect a new superintendent, waving a sign that read ?Jersey City Needs Better Schools.?

Even in non-political affairs, you cross one mom, you cross them all.

After three mothers posted negative reviews online about an inattentive nurse at a doctor?s office, the group alerted the office to their members? complaints. The nurse was fired days later.

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