Guttenberg to pick new mayor
By Matt Friedman, PolitickerNJ.com ReporterThe Guttenberg town council will meet either this week or next to decide on who will fill the office of former Mayor David Delle Donna, who stepped down late last month after his conviction on corruption charges.
The Municipal Democratic Committee submitted three names to the council: Margarita Batista; former Vasilios G. Scullous; and James Hannon.
The mayor will serve until November, when he or she will have to run again in a special election.
Batista unsuccessfully ran for school board last month on a slate supported by Union City Mayor/State Sen. Brian Stack.
Scullous has run in several local elections before. He challenged West New York Mayor Silverio “Sal” Vega as a Republican for his freeholder post in 2005, ran again for the seat when Vega went to the Assembly, and ran for town council three times in 2003, 2004 and 2006.
Hannon, 74, is a Korean War veteran.
The council has until May 30th to pick a mayor. If they fail to do so, the decision will be in the hands of the town’s municipal committee.
Guttenberg is about a fifth of a square mile and has a population of about 11,000 – most of who reside in a high rise apartment complex called The Galaxy. It has one elementary school of its own.
But the town has some significance in an ongoing rivalry between Brian Stack and North Bergen Mayor/state Sen. Nicholas Sacco. Guttenberg and North Bergen share many services, and Stack has already made inroads by getting his allies elected to nine of the town’s 12 Democratic County Committee seats. The town’s council, meanwhile, is made up of Hudson County Democratic Organization (HCDO) loyalists.
The Stack-allied Mayor could give him a foothold in Sacco’s territory. But the more important mayoral contest begins June 3rd, when voters pick their county committee men and women.
If the HCDO can win back a majority on the body over the Stack-allied members, then the HCDO allies will be able to pick the Democratic nominee for the full mayoral term in November’s special election.
But the HCDO-backed committee members will not be clearly identified as such on the June 3rd primary ballot. In one of the compromises of their tenuous peace agreement, Stack and Jersey City Mayor/HCDO Chairman Jerramiah Healy agreed not to put any committee candidates on the organizational line.
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There is only ONE right choice for Guttenberg
Once this meaningless appointment is said and done and the special election takes place, there is only one right choice for the town of Guttenberg and that choice is Elizabeth Padron-Geron.
Ms. Geron has lived in Guttenberg for almost forty years and has a tremendous track record of serving her community and its children as head of the P.T.O as well as a coordinator for various recreational programs for the town.
She works tirelessly for her own family, as a public educator in Paterson and will work just as tirelessly to fix Guttenberg's problems as well as its damaged reputation.
If Guttenberg, which is a town that can be easily dissolved into North Bergen as I've stated in the past, is going to remain sustainable, it is going to take strong, credible leadership. Leadership that actually addresses problems rather than just telling the people of Guttenberg what's wrong.
Liz Geron is that choice, hands down.
"Political correctness is tyranny with manners." - Charlton Heston
Time to get a Republican in there
There are virtually no elected Republicans in Hudson County right now. To sustain democracy, NO PLACE can sustain the rule of one party. Moreover, Guttenberg is the kind of town that could elect a change-minded Republican locally. I hope Dino's choice would fulfill this role.
Liz Geron?
Dino, stop smoking.
SewarenScoop
James Geron, Liz's husband, ran for mayor in 2001 against David Delle Donna and lost 2 to 1. Other Republicans like Bill Scoullos have also tried in the past and have faired even worse.
Make no bones about it, Guttenberg is an extremely tough nut to crack and while there are a few reasons for this, there are two primary reasons and those reasons are the HCDO line and the Galaxy.
The mayor and council candidates traditionally run on the county democrat line which most people just vote straight down without even looking at the names on the ballot. You could run, Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy for Mayor and council at large in Guttenberg and they'll all win 2 to 1.
The other reason, The Galaxy Towers, are for all intents and purposes, a town within a town. It's a condominium complex consisting of three towers where the town's affluent community resides and they basically control the vote for the whole town. The town can vote one way but if the Galaxy votes the other way, it always cancels out the vote of the rest of the town.
Traditionally, only the county line candidates like Delle Donna have inside connections and are allowed to canvas these buildings and will always select at least one Galaxy resident to be a council candidate on their ticket. With Delle Donna, it's sitting councilman Gerald Drasheff.
A secondary cause is the town's public housing bloc which the establishment has a stranglehold on as well. The Mayor appoints the head of the Housing Authority which goes around circulating petitions for the Mayor and council's re-election bid while reminding the residents, "who helped put a roof over their head."
The only way this trend can and will be changed is if this becomes a three or four horse race and the vote is completely divided, much like when Bret Schundler first became Mayor in Jersey City.
At this rate, it looks like this is going to be the case.
"Political correctness is tyranny with manners." - Charlton Heston