Glenn Cunningham

It was less than a year ago that Sandra B. Cunningham won the Democratic nomination for state Senate in the 33rd District, aided by Jersey City Mayor and newly christened Hudson County Democratic Organization Chairman Jerramiah Healy.

But less than six months after she assumed the office, Cunningham is considering joining the crowded quadrennial field of Jersey City mayoral candidates to run for the seat that her late husband, Glenn Cunningham, held just four years ago.

Cunningham did not respond to multiple requests for comment, but some of her recent actions have suggested that she's leaning towards making a run next year.

Bret Schundler on running for Mayor of Jersey City in 2009: "I never say never." 

Senate Majority Leader Bernard Kenny, the Hudson County Democratic Chairman, told the Star-Ledger that Sandra Bolden Cunningham "would be the first African-American Senator from Hudson County, and I think that matters."  Actually, Cunningham would be the fourth African American to represent Hudson in the State Senate, and Kenny has served with the other three: Joseph Charles, a Senator from 2002 to 2003; L. Harvey Smith, a Senator for a brief time in 2003 and 2004; and the late Glenn Cunningham, who held the Senate seat for six months until his death in June 2004.

The Hudson County Democratic Organization will almost certainly dump Assemblyman Charles Epps from their ticket, but party leaders have not yet agreed on who will replace him. Democrats close to Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy (who is expected to become Hudson County Democratic Chairman in June) are pushing Freeholder Jeffrey Dublin for the post, but other Democrats -- especially Assemblyman Louis Manzo -- want former Jersey City Council President L. Harvey Smith, who served briefly in the State Senate (following the resignation of Joseph Charles) and as Mayor of Jersey City (following the death of Glenn Cunningham).

Smith has been angling to run against Healy for Mayor in two years. Healy could use the Assembly seat as a way of ending Smith's City Hall aspirations, or it could backfire by making Smith a more formidable opponent. Smith had the HCDO backing when he lost a 2003 Senate primary to Cunningham, and fared poorly in his bid for Mayor in a 2004 Special Election.

In the 31st district, the HCDO support is no longer tantamount to a primary victory. Sandra Cunningham, the widow of the late Mayor and State Senator, has been mulling a challenge to incumbent Joseph Doria. Possible Assembly candidates on her ticket include Jersey City Councilwoman Viola Richardson, who has a strong base in Ward F and had beaten the organization before, and former Bayonne Municipal Court Judge Patrick Conaghan, who forced Doria into a runoff last year.

Over the past two decades a somewhat balanced system of politcal power apportionment developed in Hudson County, where the powerful Democratic machine is run by the county's mayors. The mayors of all the towns met regularly to discuss issues, select candidates for jobs and offices, and generally work things out behind the scenes. The mayors with the most clout were the ones from the largest cities -- Union City, North Bergen and Bayonne -- but not always Jersey City.

Back in the early 1980's, Jersey City Mayor Gerald McCann was part of the power-sharing systen, but he was a maverick and not always reliable -- or loyal -- so after a while, the group stopped letting McCann in the room. Robert Jansizewski, the Hudson County Executive and a Jersey City resident, stepped in to fill the void. With no opposition from the others, he claimed to represent Jersey City's interests. As the so-called "Mayor of Hudson County," he became a bonafide power broker. Janiszewski's clout was enhanced in 1992 when Republican Bret Schundler was elected Mayor of Jersey City; this made Janiszewski the only Jersey City voice at the table.

That changed in 2001, when Glenn Cunningham was elected Mayor in May and Janiszewski, who had been wearing a wire while cooperating with federal investigators, suddenly resigned his post in September. Cunningham not only claimed a place at the table, but he demanded to be the first among equals. That did not sit well with the others, who had become somewhat cliquey and worked well together without having to deal with an 800-pound gorilla from Jersey City.

When Janiszewski went away (although not literally at that point -- just to a ski lodge in upstate New York), Robert Menendez, who had been Mayor of Union City before his election to Congress, stepped into Janiszewski's role as the referee among the Mayors. Menendez tried to explain to Cunningham that the old (pre-McCann) days were over and the Mayors acted as a sort of semi-democratic council. Cunningham viewed this as a personal afront, believing that as Mayor of Jersey City, he was entitled to more than the same vote as the Mayor of Guttenberg. The others, led by Menendez (who had succeeded Janiszewski as Hudson County Democratic Chairman), refused to change a system that had worked well for them.

Then it became personal between Menendez and Cunningham. The two went to war over the County Executive post. Cunningham wanted to retain Bernard Hartnett, who won a Special Election Convention to replace Janiszewski as County Executive; Menendez wanted former Jersey City Council President Thomas DeGise, a onetime Schundler ally who had lost the '01 mayoral runoff to Cunningham. DeGise won the 2002 Democratic primary with 75% of the vote. When State Senator Joseph Charles declined to seek re-election in 2003, Menendez and the HCDO backed Jersey City Council President L. Harvey Smith for the Senate. Cunningham ran anyway and won, knocking HCDO Assembly incumbents Joseph Doria and Elba Perez-Cinciarelli out as well.

Then in 2004, Cunningham died unexpectedly. The Democratic powerbrokers picked City Councilman Jerramiah Healy, a former Municipal Court Judge who had run a strong race against Schundler in 1997, as their new Mayor. Doria, the Mayor of Bayonne, returned to Trenton as a State Senator.

The Mayors did not feel especially threatened when Healy took over as Mayor, despite his past penchant for independence. They had all supported him in his campaign and believed Healy knew his place: at the table, but not at the head of it.

The problem was there were only thirteen chairs at the table -- with DeGise's representative, triple-hat-wearing William Gaughan (who at the time served as Chief of Staff to DeGise, Jersey City Councilman, and Jersey City Democratic Municipal Chairman) sitting in the Jersey City Chair and not excited to get up so that Healy might sit down.

Healy, it turned out, was not about to let anyone tell him what to do -- especially DeGise and Gaughan. At first, the County Executive let Healy win what he thought were small victories. But in time, DeGise and Gaughan became less willing to allow Healy to get his way. A series of trash-talking and bar arguments escalated over who really runs Jersey City.

The two engaged in a very public fight over the PJP landfill site. DeGise and Gaughan wanted it to become a golf course, while Healy pushed for a industrial warehouse that would generate tax revenues for the city. This became a classic struggle, especially since Gaughan controlled half the votes on the City Council -- coincidentally, the half that held county jobs. Healy won that fight, and succeeded in ousting Gaughan as the local party chairman.

But Gaughan continued to flex his political muscles, actively seeking to oust Jersey City Assemblywoman Joan Quigley so that he could take the seat. Healy stuck with Quigley, and the other Mayors continued their twenty-year "your town, your seat, your choice" philosophy.

With Quigley virtually assured another term in Trenton, stay tuned for the next fight -- for Hudson County Freeholder Chairman. (The incumbent, Sal Vega, is now the new Mayor of West New York and a new State Assemblyman.) Healy wants one of the Jersey City Freeholders to take the chairmanship, while DeGise seems to want anybody but a Jersey City candidate. While Healy seems to be in control of his hometown, he faces a tougher challenge if he wants to flex his muscles countywide.

With the election of Cory Booker as Mayor of Newark, look his close friend and law partner, Elnardo Webster II, to play an increasingly significant role in state politics. The 37-year-old Webster played All-State football at St. Peter’s Prep in Jersey City and was an All-American football player at Rutgers. He played professional football for the Pittsburgh Steelers before an injury prematurely ended his career.

Webster returned to Rutgers to get an MBA and a law degree. He worked for a politically active law firm, Sills Cummis Radin Tischman Epstein & Gross, before forming a new firm with Booker after the 2002 election. He played a major role in the election of Glenn Cunningham as Mayor of Jersey City. Webster also has a sort of political pedigree: his father won 15% of the vote against Frank Lautenberg in the 1988 Democratic U.S. Senate primary.

Willie Flood, a fomer Jersey City Councilwoman who had been aligned with the late Glenn Cunningham, will run for Hudson County Register with the support of the Hudson County Democratic Organization. The incumbent, Barbara Donnelly, the sister of the late Paul Byrne, is not seeking re-election. Flood ran on Cunningham's line for County Clerk in 2003, losing to incumbent Janet Haynes, and her unsuccessful campaign for Mayor in a 2004 Special Election was endorsed by Cunningham's widow. Her endorsement by U.S. Senator Robert Menendez, Senate Majority Leader Bernard Kenny, the HCDO Chairman, and Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy represents a major peace accord in Hudson County politics.

Bayonne Councilman Anthony Chiappone has not done well in politics since 2003, when he scored an upset victory for the Democratic Assembly nomination -- ousting twelve-term incumbent Joseph Doria on a ticket that dealt a rare loss for the Hudson County Democratic Organization. Chiappone went to the Assembly on the coattails of Glenn Cunningham, the Mayor of Jersey City who won a seat in the State Senate over the objections of the HCDO. But when Cunningham died unexpectedly in June 2004, Democrats picked Doria, the Mayor of Bayonne and Chiappone's local rival, to take the Senate seat. Chiappone ran as an Independent in a November 2004 special election, losing to Doria by a 67%-21% margin in a four-candidate race; Bayonne voters preferred Doria by a 61%-37% margin. Chiappone's '03 running mate, Assemblyman Louis Manzo, ran for re-election on the HCDO line in 2005 with Charles Epps, the Jersey City Superintendent of Schools. Chiappone ran off the line with Bill Ayala, Cunningham's former Chief of Staff, but lost the Democratic primary by more than a 2-1 margin. Now Chiappone is up for re-election to the Bayonne City Council. Doria, seeking re-election to a third term as Mayor, has recruited a full slate of Council candidates in his effort to unseat Chiappone. Chiappone's expected running mate, Ricky Pasquale, dropped out of the race this week, leaving the incumbent alone on the ballot. Pasquale works as a landscaper for the Bayonne Department of Public Works, and apparently did not realize until recently that serving on the City Council might be a conflict.