Standing in front of city hall to honor a World War II veteran, Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Heavy laughed off a question about whether he appointed political consultant Joe Cardwell to a position on the board of the Municipal Utilities Authority (MUA) in order to keep him from working too hard for Rob Andrews.

Cardwell is the closest advisor to state Sen. Sandra B. Cunningham, who in April announced her support for Rep. Rob Andrews for Senate and is considered a potentially strong mayoral challenger to Healy next year.

“I appointed Joe to the MUA because we had a vacancy, and I know Joe will do a really good job down there,” said Healy, who is also the chairman of the Hudson County Democratic Organization.

A good showing for Andrews in Jersey City wouldn’t bode well for Healy, who’s backing Lautenberg. Most of his potential rivals for Mayor next year – Cunningham; Ward E Councilman Steve Fulop; Assemblyman L. Harvey Smith and former Assemblyman Lou Manzo – have thrown their support behind Andrews.

While Healy wouldn’t venture a prediction of Jersey City’s results, he said he expects Lautenberg to do well.

“We anticipate turnout throughout the state is not going to be that heavy. It’s a long running presidential, Democratic election contest going on, and I think it’s kind of sucked the oxygen out of everything else,” he said. “I expect that Frank (Lautenberg) will pull off Jersey City pretty heavily, and Hudson County for that matter. So we’ll wait and see.”