Healy files with ELEC for 2013

Jersey City Jerramiah Healy is keeping his options open.  

Healy, who just won a second four year term in May, has filed paperwork for “Healy for Mayor 2013” with the Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC) on the advice of an accountant – not because he’s actually made up his mind about running for a third term.     

“I am not making any announcement.  Any announcement would not be made for a couple of years.  Right now I am focused on doing the job the citizens of Jersey City elected me to do -- which is to keep making the streets safer, to hold the line on taxes, to bring investment, development and jobs to our city and to work with the Board of Education to improve the quality of education for our children.  The only election we are focused on at this time is the re-election of Jon Corzine as Governor on November 3, 2009."

It is typical for winning candidates to file their paperwork with ELEC four years in advance of their next race.  Healy, for instance, filed for his 2009 campaign – for which he ultimately raised over $3 million – in 2005, just after winning his first full term as mayor.  

If anything is unusual, it is that most gossip in Jersey City has not been about whether Healy will run again four years from now, but whether he will make it through his current term in the wake of the July federal corruption string.  Healy’s campaign contributions from last time around got special post-election scrutiny after several Jersey City officials, including Healy 2009 treasurer Leona Beldini, were arrested for allegedly funneling bribe money into his campaign coffers, among other things.  Healy has not been accused of any wrongdoing.  

There is one key difference between this filing and the last one: Beldini has been replaced as treasurer by Patricia Connors, who, like Beldini, is a Jersey City realtor.