He has a reputation for forming alliances, both with the disparate factions in his own county and with the leadership of that other big city that stands two rivers removed to the west of him, but Jerramiah Healy still can’t escape the prize fighting references.

On Friday at a breakfast in Spring Lake Heights, the Jersey City mayor and head of the Hudson Democratic Organization will receive the Jimmy "Cinderella Man" Braddock Award from Essex County political boss Steve Adubato.

It’s not actually a formal award, said Healy. Rather more of a tongue-in-cheek reference to his Irish heritage and his tough guy demeanor, which was reinforced by his run-in with the law last year in Bradley Beach. For a politician with such a reputation, who has inherited the leadership of Hudson County’s traditional Democratic machine in the midst of a political civil war, Healy is unfailingly diplomatic when talking politics.