Healy stands nearly alone as Hudson Democrats flock to Clinton

Obama may have rallied thousands of Jersey City residents on Mayor Jerramiah Healy's turf last week, but the Hillary Clinton campaign sought to make one thing clear today: the bulk of Hudson County public officials are with them, even if Healy, the mayor of the county's biggest city and chairman of its party, is not.

Governor Jon S. Corzine and Sen. Bob Menendez headlined a press conference today at The Turning Point restaurant in their hometown of Hoboken, emceed by Democratic State Chairman Joe Cryan and attended by over two dozen elected officials, at least a few of whom occupy different sides of the Hudson County Democratic split.

And while Clinton wasn't there today, Menendez promised that she would be in New Jersey before the February 5th.

Among the Clinton supporters present were State Sen. and North Bergen Mayor Nicholas Sacco and Union City Mayor and State Sen. Brian Stack - two powerful Hudson County Democrats who still haven't ironed out all their differences stemming from the party split leading up to June's primaries. Also attending were U.S. Rep. Albio Sires, Hudson County Executive Tom DeGise, Assembly members Vincent Prieto, Joan Quigley, Caridad Rodrigues, Ruben Ramos; Hoboken Mayor David Roberts; West New York Mayor and former Assemblyman Silverio "Sal" Vega; and five members of Jersey City's council: Peter Brennan, Mary Spinello, Steve Lipski, Bill Gaughan and Kevin O'Reilly.

"You know you're in Hudson County when Sen. Menendez is correcting your pronunciations," joked Cryan as he read off the long list of officials.

Corzine reminded the audience that he was the first governor in the country to endorse Clinton for president, and emphasized that the state has a proportional delegate system in encouraging the small crowd of mostly officials, staff and reporters not to take the victory for granted.

"I'm going to ask you to do your part - not just show up at a rally, but make sure we get people out to vote," he said. "If we don't vote, if it's a bad day, if things don't work out just exactly, we may win the election but we could lose the delegate count."

Menendez stressed that Clinton's work in the Senate on issues important in New Jersey, like port security, the State Children's Health Insurance Program and the health of 9/11 responders. He also used his own no vote on the Iraq War resolution to defend Clinton's record on Iraq, saying that her experience makes her more able than other candidates to affect change.

"As someone who voted against the war in the first place, I'll tell you that there's only one candidate in this race for the United States presidency who can end this war in Iraq, and that's Hillary Clinton," he said.

Later, Menendez said that he was happy to see that even some county leaders who were still at odds had coalesced behind Clinton.

"Certainly, I am enormously pleased that the overwhelming support of all the elected officials in Hudson County has come together behind Hillary Clinton. She is clearly a unifying force even in that respect," he said. "And hopefully that will continue to strengthen the unity of Hudson County Democrats for a whole host of reasons beyond the election."

The event reinforced the image of the Clinton campaign as the establishment's choice in New Jersey, while Obama's massive rally last week looked like that of a grass roots candidate But Cryan pointed out after the press conference that recent polls still show Clinton with double digit leads in New Jersey.

"The way I would say it is that poll after poll consistently show the people of New Jersey for Hillary," he said

Nor was the press conference a response to Obama's rally.

"We're running the Clinton campaign, not the Obama response campaign," said Cryan.

Obama also has the endorsement of State Sen. Sandra Bolden Cunningham, a Jersey City Democrat.