In Jersey City, all five mayoral candidates debate

JERSEY CITY – Mayor Jerramiah Healy wants his constituents to know that he has a friend in Barack Obama.  

“As most of you know I was the first elected official in the State of New Jersey to endorse [Obama]. He hasn’t forgotten that,” said Healy in his opening statement at tonight’s mayoral debate.  “We’ve been awarded over $20 million in economic stimulus.”

For the first time, all five men who want to run New Jersey’s second largest city met to debate at an elementary school in the city’s Heights neighborhood tonight.   It was the second debate of the campaign season, but the first that Healy attended.  He refused to participate at yesterday’s forum at the Landmark Loew’s Jersey Theatre on the grounds that some of the moderators were biased against him.  This was the second appearance for the four other candidates: good government activist Dan Levin, former Assemblyman Louis Manzo, Assemblyman L. Harvey Smith and police detective Phil Webb.  

During the forum, which was sponsored by The Heights Coalition, Healy frequently burnished his relationship with elected officials, from the city council all the way up to the President, arguing that they had helped him secure funds and other types of outside government support for the city.

Levin, for his part, noted that he founded the activist group Civic JC and led the effort to pass the city’s anti-pay-to-play ordinance.  

“I do it because I care. I want to speak up for others, and I am very concerned about the direction our city is going. I am not a career politician,” he said.

Webb noted that only he and Levin were political outsiders, and contrasted that with the other candidates’ slogans.  

“I find it interesting that all of my opponents except for Mr. Levin are political veterans, and all their slogans talk about change,” he said.

Smith, who served as acting mayor in 2004, opened his remarks by noting that in the 2008 state budget he appropriated more than $20 million for Hudson County state parks, much of which went to Jersey City.  

Manzo reminded the audience of his environmental accomplishments, from pushing for chromium cleanup as a public health chief in the 1980s to blocking the city’s attempt to build an incinerator when he was a freeholder.  He also noted that he sponsored the CeaseFire New Jersey law in the legislature – a bill that came up frequently in the debate.

Among the most contentious topics of were tax abatements, in which developers make payments to the city for a set period of time in lieu of paying regular taxes.  The four non-incumbents complained of abuse of that system, which they said left regular taxpayers bearing a greater burden.

Healy said that the abatements were “demonized,” and that, unlike regularly-taxed properties, the abated projects’ money all goes to the city.  If there weren’t abatements, Healy argued, the city would not have experienced the building boom of the last 20-plus years.  

“Tax abatements are the most misunderstood program out there,” he said.   

Levin, however, countered that the city was issuing abatements on property that developers do not have to be encouraged to build on.  He said he feared that the city could face an enormous tax increase like neighboring West New York and Hoboken.

“They’re negotiated behind closed doors, the public doesn’t participate, there are no established criteria, and there’s always a deal involved with a giveback or favor,” he said.  “We’ve actually given tax abatements for 30 and 40 years. My children will be older than I am.”

On crime, Healy mentioned that he hired 250 police officers – about 125 more than were retiring, and proudly mentioned that the city was sued by the NRA over a handgun purchase restriction law.  Other candidates said, however, that the department needed to focus more on community-based policing, and denigrated the four-year-old gun buyback program that was well-publicized by Healy at the time.

The mayoral campaign has been remarkably calm by the standards of Jersey City, where the cliché of politics being blood sport rings more true than most other places.  

In a phone interview yesterday, Healy Campaign Manager Bud Demellier, who also ran the mayor’s 2004 and 2005 races, said that it has indeed been calmer than past election years, though he’s ready for more action.  They went up with a new television advertisement on Tuesday, put out a new wave of mailers and have “a variety of field activities that will be ramped up and implemented.”  

“It’s not quieter from our perspective. We’re maintaining the same type of pace and some types of things you normally do in a campaign. What we’re not seeing is our opposition doing the same thing, so in that regard it’s quieter,” he said.

Manzo, who’s run for mayor four times before and has been expected to present the biggest challenge to Healy, said that he tends to peak early and has been biding his time, but has an extensive street field operation.

The dearth of Manzo campaign signs around the city, he said, is not a sign of poor fundraising and will change this week.

“One thing people always said about me was that I peak too soon in my elections. If you see my poll, it’s over 70% name recognition, which is that people know me,” said Manzo.  “My thing is that as long as Healy is running around telling them that crime is down and taxes are low, he’s aggravating people.