February 25, 2008 - 1:44pm
Jersey City mayoral hopefuls doubt polling data
By Matt FriedmanA poll showing Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy’s approval rating at 71% has two of his rivals skeptical.
Former Assemblyman Lou Manzo and Jersey City Councilman Steve Fulop are both considering making a bid for the seat in 2009. And based on what they’ve seen across town, they don’t believe it’s possible for Healy to have an approval rating of 71%, or a favorability rating of 66%.
“Taxes are up 35%, crime is still an issue. A reasonable person would ask if that poll is valid,” said Fulop. “It was likely conducted at the Astor Bar between the hours of 11 (p.m.) and 2(a.m.) – then it would make sense.”
Manzo, who has run for mayor four times since 1992, has commissioned his own mayoral poll. While the numbers aren’t in yet, he’ll be shocked if they bare any resemblance to the poll released today. He said that Jersey City residents he talks to tend to find Healy likable, but feel the brunt of rising property taxes and don’t feel any safer, despite a statistical drop in crime.
Manzo pointed out that he used the same pollster, Joel Benenson, during his state Senate race last year. In that poll, Healy’s negatives were higher than his positives. This poll, Manzo suggested, is more of a fundraising tool than a measurement of public opinion.
“It’s kind of hard to believe those numbers unless it’s a push poll. Some pollsters will put a spin for you to go out and raise money,” he said. “You can ask a question: if Jerry Healy lowers your taxes next year by 40% and there’s no murder, violent crime and your street gets paved in the next couple months, would you vote for him?”
Manzo recently opened up a public advocacy office -- mainly, he said, to address the public’s concerns about Gov. Corzine’s fiscal restructuring plan. Many observers see the move as a way to get out in front of a potentially crowded pack of mayoral candidates.
Other politicians whose names have been floated as potential candidates in the non-partisan race include two Healy allies during last year’s legislative races: State Sen. Sandra B. Cunningham and Assemblyman L. Harvey Smith. Smith served as acting mayor for six months after the death of Sandra Cunningham’s husband, former Mayor Glenn Cunningham. Also named are former Mayor Bret Schundler, a conservative Republican who served from 1993 to 2001, and Councilman Steve Lipksi.
Healy could not immediately be reached for comment.
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July 4, 2008
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."
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In the News
Read the expanded Wake Up Call, our summary of today’s news media coverage.
Today’s Must Reads:
Bob Torricelli is Mad at the Big, 'Mean' Bergen Record― THE MEDIA MOB
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MUCHAS MARGARITAS― ANDY UNANUE
NJ Economic Growth chief leaves office― Gary Rose
Candidates spend plenty of their money― Philadelphia Inquirer
News anchor sizing up run for governor― Star-Ledger
Political parties get right down to business― Daily Record
Ex-city official should give all of it back― Star-Ledger
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Its a shame that Manzo can't
Its a shame that Manzo can't check his ego at the door and run on a Fulop ticket as an At large candidate.Together they would send Healy in to early retirement.
Fulop?
Fulop needs to show some substance other than anger. He consistently fails to lay out any vision for the future of Jersy City. All he does is point his finger and say they are bad.
Manzo should have stayed in the Assembly he was actually getting some things done there. Instead he out flanked himslef last year and now he has nothing.
Bret Schundler
Bret really needs to get into the race. Especially if Manzo and Fulop are both in.
"Steve Lonegan wouldn't give twenty thousand dollars to his mother!"- George Shalhoub
fulop goes negative
I agree with ShoreKid, as Fulop resorts to petulant name calling and petty insults. Since becoming downtown councilman, his major achievements continue to be that he beat Junior Maldonado and that he isn't Junior Maldonado. Beyond that, his combative "style" and penchant for insulting his PEERS (those other 8 councilpeople ELECTED by the citizens of Jersey City) have doomed every piece of legislation he's tried to move forward. He is the poster boy for "Doesn't play well with others" - not something that works well in politics.
He could have moved his (or whoever wrote it) pay to play legislation forward by making it apply to the successors of this council or making some other compromise. But his "I'm right - you're wrong" attitude instead drove him to call his colleagues a bunch of crooks and packing the council chamber with an angry mob. Now he wants to get it on the ballot as a referendum. If the poll numbers are correct (or even close) maybe he needs to put in a few appearances at the Astor Bar if he expects "regular" citizens to vote for it.
As for Bret - he's just not viable as a candidate anymore. If he has a demographic here, it overlaps with Fulop's, who is fresher and more au courant. Not to mention the fact (which I'll now mention) that Jersey City won't be fooled into believing that this isn't Bret's using JC as a stepping stone into Trenton.
Lou? C'mon.
Doesn't play well with others....
Saying that Fulop doesn’t give respect to his fellow council members should be worn with a badge of honor by the young councilman. Maybe you don’t particularly like his style but he is literally the lone voice for Jersey City residents (taxpayers) on that council. He proposes these good government ordinances that will make the local elected officials more accountable with absolutely no downside to the way the government is run and his “peers” vote against it?
Good for him taking these issues to referendum. I see his people walking door-to-door all over the city on the weekends collecting signatures. The silence form the rest of the council is deafening. If a few other council people or anyone employed by the administration had half the gumption of this guy the city would be a better place to live and work.
This month’s scandal de jour is a perfect example. Healy uses UEZ funds (public money) to send campaign literature to registered voters while putting his personal lawyer on the city payroll and 7 out of the 8 “elected” council people turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to the situation?
Instead questioning the motivation of the one guy in the whole city that actually cares about the way government is run, why don’t you take exception to the 7 council members who sit idly by as the mayor runs the city into the ground.
By the way…. very funny quote about Astor Bar……
Attitude is great
if attitude was all the job was about. Unfortunately, the young councilman was elected to do something other than grandstanding on pet issues, position himself for a mayoral run, and get some potholes filled. On that score, I see him lacking.
And before you counter with "but that's all the others do", that doesn't make it right. Frankly, he's no better than the others if he can't get things done. Politics is a messy business that runs on compromise.
Fulop
Councilman Steve Fulop = Schundler-Lite.
Well i'll take shundler or
Well i'll take shundler or even a lighter version over this bunch of drunken fools that are running the city into the ground.
Trouble with a Capital T
You got to love Fulop and Schundler.
They blow in from out of town and within less than 3 years they run for public office, because they know what's best for it's citizens.
They move into Jersey City because it's convenient to get to New York City and the rent is cheap, before long they are telling everyone who will listen what's wrong with their city since these individuals are the only persons who can fix all the problems that are ailing the poor uneduated rabble.
You got to wonder what if they tried the same from where they came, would they have been run out of town by their own or just laughed at?
They call these guys "The Music Men", "Carpetbaggers" or just plain "snake oil salesmen", all would fit perfectly.
Leon: don't diss Harold Hill
He did get River City a band, after all. And he did grow a conscience. And he bagged a cute librarian. Those are tangible achievements :)