Cunningham will be HCDO candidate
By Wally EdgeSandra Bolden Cunningham, whose late husband served as Mayor of Jersey City and as a State Senator, will be the Hudson County Democratic Organization candidate for State Senate in the 31st district. She is expected to succeed Joseph Doria, who is not seeking re-election to a second term in the Senate.
Running for the State Assembly on the HCDO line will be Bayonne Councilman Anthony Chiappone, who served as an Assemblyman from 2004 to 2006, and L. Harvey Smith, who has served as Acting Mayor of Jersey City, as an interim State Senator, and as the Jersey City Council President.
Glenn Cunningham was elected Mayor in 2001 -- the first African American to win the post -- and served until his death in 2004. In 2003, he won a contentious State Senate primary against Smith, who had the backing of the HCDO. In that primary, Chiappone and Louis Manzo were elected to the Assembly, defeating incumbents Doria and Elba Perez-Cinnciarelli in the Democratic primary.
Manzo is expected to be a casualty of the Hudson Democratic realignment.
Cunningham will run on the HCDO line with Hudson County Executive Thomas DeGise, a longtime rival of her late husband. DeGise ran against Cunningham in the 2001 mayoral runoff, and Cunningham backed his rival in the 2002 County Executive primary.
Her decision to run with the organization strengthens the HCDO's bid to block Assemblyman Brian Stack, the Mayor of Union City, from winning a State Senate seat in the 33rd district.
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Syndicate
Manzo should run alone for Assembly
Chiappone on the HCDO line is a pretty funny sight to see. I can't see Stack recruiting anyone strong enough to beat this unified ticket. I suppose Manzo will run for Senate on the Stack line, but I can't see him winning.
Manzo's best bet would be to run as a bullet for Assembly with no running mate. He could squeak by.
Wally What are the residency
Wally What are the residency requirments for Assembly and Senate candiates? Must they live in the district and if so, for how long before the election? Thanks
And yet ...
... the Jersey Journal's Political One-sider column implies that this might actually help Stack.
Hmmmm, Very Intriguing
You know, I always felt that Brian Stack had popularity that transcended the party line which is extremely rare, especially in North Hudson where most Democrats don't even know who they're voting for, nor do they care. If you ask most of them, they just say something like "I vote Day-mo-crah!" Rafael Fraguela found that out the hard way. (I can't help picking on him whenever I see the opening!)
Hudson County Democrats are trained to vote the HCDO line from top to bottom like brainless zombies. It'll be extremely interesting to see just how split the machine is here. When the committee people who work for their town's respective housing authorities go into the projects to usurp signatures from residents, for whom will they usurp?
If there's one bright side to any of this, it's finding out if I'm right about Stack's popularity. Seeing him go up against the beast that he helped feed should make for some top notch entertainment.
A Big Mistake.
If Brian Stack puts up an opposition ticket to go after Nick Sacco's seat in the 32nd LD which is being implied, he will be making a HUGE mistake. Sacco's iron clad support in North Bergen will easily defeat any opposition Stack can dig up.
I guess Brian will at least give Sacco a better run for his money for his Senate seat than that crackpot Bo Scannivino ever did as a commisioner candidate.
If any of you are asking, "Who's Bo Scannivino?", I rest my case!
CLEVER MOVE
By both Cunningham and the HCDO. This is certainly a marriage of convenience all but guaranteeing a victory for the DeGise and Cunningham slates. Of course, the person who must be laughing the most is Bayonne Councilman Anthony Chiappone who was backstabbed by his former running mate Lou Manzo and dumped by Doria and Kenny during the last primary when he was replaced by "Prince Charles" Epps. Doria, Kenny, and Epps are now gone, with Manzo "going, going, gone" and Chiappone seemingly headed back to the Assembly. As for Cunningham, how sweet will it be for her to beat Manzo for Senate after he betrayed her late husband by supporting Doria for Senate in 2005? It's the "bizzarro" world in Hudson County but who knows how long this new "peace" will last.