Who will represent southern Jersey City?

Four candidates vie for two seats in 31st District Assembly

Al Sullivan and Ricardo Kaulessar
Hudson Reporter -- 05/18/2007

Four candidates running in the June 5 Democratic primary to fill two seats in the state Assembly for the 31st District - which includes southern Jersey City and all of Bayonne.

Of those four candidates, two live in Jersey City, and two live in Bayonne.

Residents can vote for any two in the primary, whether they are on the same or different slates. The top two vote-getters will face two Republicans in November.

In each state election district in Hudson County - the 31st, 32nd and 33rd - there is one contested state Senate position and two Assembly positions.

Recently, a rival Democratic organization called the Democrats for Hudson County (DFHC) formed in order to take on the longtime Hudson County Democratic Organization (HCDO).

On the HCDO ticket, former Jersey City Council President L. Harvey Smith and Bayonne Councilman Anthony Chiappone are running for the two Assembly seats.

On the DFHC ticket, Bayonne Local Redevelopment Agency Executive Director Nicholas Chiaravalloti and Daycare Center Proprietor Sheila Newton-Moses are running for those same seats.

Anthony Chiappone

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For Chiappone, this year's election is filled with strange twists of fate.

Although he has held public office since first being elected in 1998, Chiappone says he has always seen himself as the underdog, the perpetual outsider constantly trying to reform government.

This year, however, he is running on a ticket supported by the Hudson County Democratic Organization (HCDO) - which has always opposed his candidacies in the past.

He took office as a Bayonne councilman in 1999, often serving as a solo voice of dissent, carrying on a tradition he had started as a community activist in 1994.

In 2003, he was part of a ticket headed by former Jersey City Mayor Glenn Cunningham that successfully defeated then-Assemblyman Joseph Doria in the primary, and Chiappone served from 2004 to 2005 as the Assemblyman for the 31st District.

Oddly enough, some of Chiappone's anti-corruption legislation was passed last year - after he was no longer serving.

"Some of my measures were included in legislation last year," he said. "I'm very proud to be credited with those laws."

While a member of the Assembly, Chiappone served on the Housing and Local Government Committee, the Senior Issues Committee, and the Telecommunications and Utilities Committee.

In 2004, Chiappone challenged Doria in a special election for state Senate and was defeated. A Doria/HCDO ticket then pushed Chiappone out of the state Assembly in the 2005 primary.

Chiappone's Assembly career is marked by a focus on particular issues, such as fighting and punishing corruption, and reducing wasteful spending.

But he said he is aware of the needs of the district and hopes to work toward expanding job opportunities for local residents and by helping foster industrial growth in the area.

"People don't just want houses to live in; they need places to work," he said, referring to how he feels MOTBY ought to be developed. "We have numerous other sites where we can locate housing. But we need jobs in Bayonne and I think the base [MOTBY] is a good place to locate them."

For this reason, he said he has an open mind when it comes to possibly locating a container-port operation on part of MOTBY. He said the state has already expressed an interest in expanding rail operations to the area and providing road improvements and an enhanced N.J. Turnpike interchange.

"Bayonne used to be a city in which people could live and work," he said. "When I was a kid, I had a choice of working for places like Wesson Oil, Exxon-Texaco, or Best Foods. Ultimately, I had chose Best Foods. But now we have no choices, and with the plans being made, Bayonne may soon become a town with a commuter population."

Affordable housing is an issue in both Bayonne and Jersey City, and Chiappone said he had worked with then-Assemblyman Albio Sires to sponsor legislation that would help make up for reductions in federal Section 8 affordable housing programs.

"When the federal government cut back, the state stepped in," Chiappoine said, noting that he is continually looking to expand programs to help first-time home ownership. "People need to be able to afford to buy into their own neighborhoods. This is not possible with the housing planned for MOTBY. That housing is for people coming into Bayonne from out of town. Not for people who live here."

If elected, Chiappone promises to open a legislative office in Bayonne. Currently, Bayonne has none.

"What I learned when I had an office here is how much in constituent services we provide," he said. "This could be anything from acting as a notary public to helping people fill out applications for Homestead rebates. We also helped people with getting copies of birth certificates from Trenton."

For Chiappone, one of his priorities will be addressing property taxes. He claims that rising taxes are one of the most significant reasons some senior citizens can no longer live in their own homes.

"Many of the problems we are facing today need a new way of thinking to solve," he said. "I have always been someone who thinks outside the box. While not everything I have come up with will work, I am always looking for new ideas and trying new things to see what will work. I believe that's the way we will find solutions, and that's what makes me different from other candidates running for the Assembly."

One proposal Chiappone made while still an Assemblyman was recently picked up by Senator Doria.

"I asked why the money from a winning lottery ticket couldn't go to help the municipal budget if someone fails to claim it," he said. "This would be a windfall for the local municipality, allow the money to circulate locally, and wouldn't cost the state anything."

He also wants to find a way to change state contract laws to give local vendors an advantage in competitive bidding.

"I would like to see the law changed so that if a local vendor comes within a certain percentage of the lowest bid, local governments can award the contract to the local company," he said. "This would have benefits in keeping the money in the local ecconomy and providing local jobs."

Nicholas Chiaravalloti

This is Nicholas Chiaravalloti's first run for elected office.

But Chiaravalloti has served in several key posts in Bayonne, such as director of constituent services, and executive director of the Bayonne Local Redevelopment Agency (BLRA). He eventually joined the staff of now-Sen. Robert Menendez, who was then a U.S. Representative.

In preparing for this election, Chiaravalloti resigned his position as state director for the Senator's office.

He sees his team as presenting voters with a choice.

"My opponents represent the established status quo," he said. "If you like the way things are going in Trenton, you shouldn't vote for me. But if you're frustrated with your property taxes increasing every year, with the impossibly high cost of health care, with the gang violence in our streets, with the threatened bankruptcy of local hospitals, and with so much more, then you and I have something to talk about."

As a younger man, Chiaravalloti had an interest in elected office. He took part in Doria campaigns and also served an internship with the mayor.

"I learned a lot about how things work," he said. "Joe opened his door and showed me what it's like inside. This was my introduction into politics."

Chiaravalloti said Doria, former Rep. Joe LeFante, and former Bayonne Mayor Dennis Collins became mentors to him, allowing him to learn the nuts and bolts of politics and leadership. Over time, he got to work with people from both political parties, including Gov. Tom Kean, although like many younger Democrats, he came of age in the 1992 campaign to elect Bill Clinton president.

"I got to meet a lot of different people," he said. "It was a lot of fun."

He was in college then and went on to law school, later focusing more on public service than on politics. In 1998, he took up work in the Assembly Democratic office. After Doria became mayor, he took up work as director of policy and planning for the city.

"I worked on implementing Mayor Doria's vision from the 1998 mayoral campaign," he said.

In 2000, Chiaravalloti became the executive director of the BLRA, charged with helping with the city's takeover of the former Military Ocean Terminal (MOTBY).

In some ways, this brought together many elements of Chiaravalloti's life, allowing him to use his skills as an attorney, his training in business, and his desire to work in public service.

"It was a public body, but also independent," he said.

Then and now, he sees MOTBY as the great hope for a bright future in Bayonne, providing the residents of the city with access to New York Harbor for the first time in more than half a century. Under his watch, BLRA negotiated a rare agreement with the federal government that allowed the BLRA to do environmental cleanup, promising to accomplish the chore in a fraction of the time that it would take the Army Corps of Engineers. The city also successfully bargained for the base to be given to the city for free.

But with much of the groundwork done for future development of the MOTBY, Chiaravalloti began to look toward other opportunities, leaving the BLRA in 2002 for what he thought would be a career in the private sector.

At that point, then-Rep. Robert Menendez reached out to him and asked Chiaravalloti to take a position in his district office. When Menendez moved up to become U.S. Senator, Chiaravalloti went with him.

But now, the old itch that he felt as a young man returned, and when he was offered a chance to run for the state Assembly, Chiaravalloti took it, resigning his position with Menendez with the hopes that his gamble will succeed.

Despite his lack of elected-office credentials, Chiaravalloti brings a significant amount of legislative experience to this election. He has been involved at the state and federal levels for more than a decade, and has firsthand experience on issues from urban, suburban and rural areas not only throughout the state, but also on national issues such as international trade and how projects are funded.

"My job as an Assemblyman from the 31st District is to look out for the interests of people here and make sure that we get our fair share of the tax dollars," he said. "We face some serious challenges in Bayonne and Jersey City."

Local hospitals are in financial trouble and former manufacturing sites need to be cleaned up and redeveloped. Jobs are also hugely important, and Chiaravalloti is familiar with Menendez's concept for a Liberty Corridor zone for manufacturing, transport, imports and other activities, which could help generate jobs here.

One of Chiaravalloti's objectives would be to help relieve residents of what is sometimes called "the middle-class squeeze," in which job growth and wages do not keep up with the cost of living.

"People are under a lot of pressure to make it on a daily basis, and we as elected officials must do something to help them," he said. "Government is not the answer to it all, but it is part of the solution. The government must work for the people."

Sheila Newton-Moses

Sheila Newton-Moses, who said she was in her thirties, was born and raised on the island of Antigua. She came with her parents to the U.S. as a teenager, settling in Jersey City.

She finished her schooling at Lincoln High School in Jersey City. She then went on to St. Peter's College in Jersey City, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology with a minor in Secondary Education.

Newton-Moses has continued to follow the education track in her life, earning her degree from Columbia University's Teachers College and currently is pursuing a Doctorate of Education through Walden University in Baltimore, Md.

Newton-Moses has also embraced the business side and has recently completed the Mini MBA program at Rutgers University in Piscataway.

Both education - her first love - and business has helped her to succeed as the president and CEO of the Sunnyside Academy, a chain of daycare centers located in Jersey City. She also brings nearly 10 years of experience as an academic coordinator at the Urban League of Hudson County and at Hudson County Community College. She also worked with the Jersey City Public Schools in developing preschools.

Newton-Moses said her experiences are beneficial to her running for office.

"I believe I am a good candidate based on the experiences I have," Newton-Moses said.

Newton-Moses said one of her first tasks if elected is to work for the children of her district.

"Early childcare is important to me," Newton-Moses said. "I am going to work toward providing children with opportunities by getting more state funding for after school programs.

Newton-Moses also said she would like to look at building new schools specifically in Downtown Jersey City, where she sees many new families moving into the area. And she wants to work toward libraries devoted exclusively to children in Jersey City and Bayonne.

Another goal is jobs for unemployed Jersey City and Bayonne residents, particularly those young men who have just served in jail.

"I am looking to expand job opportunities for those young men who paid their debt to society," Newton-Moses said. "I am hoping to work on an expungement bill for young men so that they can be pardoned and go back into society."

Expungement is a process by which those who have been previously imprisoned for minor crimes can have their records erased, so they would not be used against them getting any future employment.

Also, she plans, if elected to the Assembly, to seek funding to get more affordable housing built in Jersey City and Bayonne. She points to development of luxury housing in both towns from Downtown Jersey City to the Military Ocean Terminal in Bayonne.

"More affordable housing and more subsidized housing is what I will be fighting for," Newton-Moses said. "There's a lot of housing being built that is not keeping up with the job growth and there is a lot of pressure on the typical homeowner to keep up with the expense of owning a house."

On the issue of housing, Newton-Moses also plans to tackle property taxes, with Bayonne paying the second highest property taxes in Hudson County next to Kearny.

"It's plaguing too many residents and I need to look at that to be able to help people stay in their communities," Newton-Moses said.

One controversial issue that Newton-Moses hopes to deal with is the intimidation that government employees face from their bosses when it comes to their political affiliations. That is an especially touchy issue in Hudson County.

"I will be taking a very hard stance on ensuring people should feel they can vote for whomever they want without being subject to harassment," Newton-Moses said. "We can't have a hostile environment; we must have order and civility. It feels like we are living in a Communist country. That is anti-American."

L. Harvey Smith

L. Harvey Smith comes to the primary election having worn a lot of governmental hats over his career. A former teacher and currently an undersheriff for Hudson County, Smith served 12 years on the Jersey City council, where he served in his last term as council president. After the untimely death of then state Sen. and Mayor Glenn Cunningham in 2004, Smith served as acting mayor, and then interim state Senator.

Interviewed at his Montgomery Street headquarters, Smith was surrounded by voter lists and ringing telephones. The office is within a few blocks of the Greenville neighborhood where he was raised, and where he has spent most of his life. Well-known on the City Council as the driving force behind public works projects in the largely African-American Ward F, Smith laid out his election agenda in very specific terms.

"I have some state level experience, and I'm not controlled by anyone," he said.

He said saving local hospitals and improving health care are key concerns for the 31st Legislative District that includes all of Bayonne and the southern portion of Jersey City.

"We have to look into funding health care," he said. "I believe in universal healthcare. This was something that was proposed in 1993 by President [Bill] Clinton. I do not believe politics should be involved in this. It is too serious a matter."

He said hospitals are a major part of health care, and that if the hospitals shut down, people - especially the most vulnerable - will have no place to go.

"Illness recognizes no gender, race, or religion," he said. "Some people can afford to pay for their health care. If is not fair to close a pediatric unit - women will continue to have babies, and we cannot afford to close down acute care units. This must be a concern of Democrats as well as Republicans. This is about people not politics."

He said some other important issues in the district include rising crime in Jersey City, and rising taxes in both Jersey City and Bayonne.

Crime often rises when there is a lack of job opportunities, he said, and pointed to failings of the government to provide adequate training. He said welfare-to-work programs were never properly implemented. He said job creation, drug rehabilitation, and retraining are all essential elements in solving crime.

While new technology seems to be the foundation of new job growth, he also said that the government must be sensitive to the needs of the people, pointing out that blue collar working class jobs helped make Hudson County and American strong.

"These jobs can continue to be the strength of our nation, but union protections are eroding and the cost of living is rising," he said. "This makes middle class people feel like they are more lower class. We need to realize that to solve crime, we need more jobs, not bigger jails."

Welfare and public housing projects were always meant to be temporary solutions until people could move up the economic ladder as people gain more skills and get better educations. He said he believed in regionalizing minimum wage so that people in areas like the New York region with higher cost of living would be paid more.

"Seven dollars an hour may be fine in other parts of the country, but with housing costs here, and the higher cost of living, people can barely survive," he said.

Street gangs, Smith noted, are not a new phenomena, and he said in some sense they are attractive to kids who are seeking security, an enclave and some sense of self esteem. But they are havens for illegal drugs, which is as big an industry in America as many legal industries such as the growing of corn or wheat.

Efforts to combat illegal drugs have taken many roads, such as curing the physical, social even spiritual problems, but not the economic situation.

In this regard, education plays a large role in helping people, but schools and teachers can't be the only resource.

"I believe that if you work hard, study and live by the rules, you can achieve anything," Smith said. "But you can't have people changing the rules in secret. Things need to be fair for everyone."

Smith grimly admits that he has been misunderstood in the past.

"I think I'm one of the most misunderstood political figures in Hudson County," he said. "People who know me have a different idea. But some people mistake my honesty for arrogance. Yet if they don't want to hear the truth, why are they asking the questions?"

Al Sullivan can be reached at asullivan@hudsonreporter.com. Ricardo Kaulessar can be reached at rkaulessar@hudsonreporter.com