The Dumont Demilitarized Zone

There was an awkward moment at the Dumont Street Festival today.

Democratic Assembly candidate Carl Manna was walking along Madison Avenue with a couple supporters when he ran into his opponents, State Sen. Gerald Cardinale and Assemblywoman Charlotte Vandervalk, surrounded by an entourage of four youth wearing red campaign shirts.

“Sen. Cardinale! Welcome to Dumont,” said Manna, reaching out to shake the incumbents’ hands.

“Glad to see you’re out working,” responded Cardinale.

After parting ways, Manna turned and said “I think it was only right that I welcomed them to my town. I don’t get to see them here much.”

Manna’s comment reflects an overarching theme of the Democrats’ campaign here in this newly competitive district: Cardinale, Vandervalk, and running mate John Rooney have become too comfortable in office. Only now, they say, are the candidates making themselves visible, since they’re facing the first truly competitive election in the district since they were first elected during the 1980s.

But the district, Democrats say, is trending in their direction, and Dumont is a prime example of that change. The town, led by 28-year-old Democratic Mayor Matt McHale, is the most populous in the district. It has a growing Korean and Hispanic population, and its government went all Democratic after financial mismanagement by a Republican mayor and council. It’s a working class town, where Bon Jovi’s “Living on a Prayer” blared from the bandstand at today’s event, and a group of five young men competed in a hot dog eating contest.

So today Manna and his running mate, Esther Fletcher, were here to greet potential constituents, while State Senate candidate Joe Ariyan made his way back from a labor breakfast in Atlantic City to join them knocking on doors later in the evening.

The Republicans are hoping to turn back the tide in Dumont to save their seats, but they’re also rallying the Republican faithful in towns like Old Tappan, where the Republicans were going door to door in an upscale condominium development just before meeting with the Democrats.

“It takes a lot of chutzpa to say I don’t have name recognition,” said Cardinale as he made his way between doors.

And many of the residents did recognize them, but apparent in the Korean newspapers laying in some of the driveways was that Demographic shift that the Democrats like to mention.

“It’s just not going to happen,” said Cardinale about the prospect of any of the Democrats winning. He said the Democratic trends in Bergen County were due to money, not demographics, and that while he expects to be outspent, he has enough money to get his message across.

One Old Tappan resident, Malcolm Edgar, told the candidates that he was frustrated that the town didn’t charged a separate sewer fee rather than include it in property tax assessment. He felt ignored by the town’s Republican mayor, Victor Polce, and thought that the town could turn Democratic.

“Now that would be a shame,” said Rooney. “Because then you’d be turning it over to the county Democrats who are really killing us.” Rooney, who said that they would wind up hiring an expensive municipal attorney and raise taxes. Edgar went on to ask Rooney to press the mayor for a meeting.

“I’ll call him this week,” said Rooney.

The Republican answer to the Democrats’ out of touch charge is to raise the specter of Bergen County political boss Joseph Ferriero, which makes the Democratic candidates bristle.

Fletcher described a recent scene when she was distributing campaign literature at a supermarket parking lot. A man approached her and identified himself as a Cardinale volunteer, questioning her extensively. Moments later, she said, four people descended on the parking lot, leaving Republican campaign literature on cars.

“That is the quintessential example of man vs. the machine, and I’m tired of this pot calling kettles,” said Fletcher. “(Ferriero) is the Bergen County chairman – no more no less... I appreciate his support for Democrats running for state and county offices, but I don’t belong to anybody but the people of the 39th district.”

Manna, for his part, compared Ferriero to former Chrysler CEO Lee Iacocca, who turned a struggling company profitable.

“It’s easy to hit the guy on the top because he’s successful,” said Manna.