The Orangeman: Codey stays street-level in Orange while engaged in other battles

Sen. President Richard Codey (D-Essex) in Newark with Mayor Cory Booker and Council President Mildred Crump.

ORANGE - Politics here invariably comes back to the state’s most popular politician, former governor and Senate President Richard Codey (D-Essex), who grew up across the street from the city’s other favorite son, Two Ton Tony Galento.

"With Tony, what you saw was what you got," Codey recalls.

A rotund puncher who trained on spaghetti and beer, what that got Galento was a fourth round technical knockout at the hands of heavyweight champion Joe Louis, and a subsequent supporting role as a heavy in "On the Waterfront."

Codey employs different tactics than Galento, usually turning to his Rolodex instead of his fists, and maintaining a political edge through a combination of charm, press savvy, a basketball coach's x’s and o’s strategic grasp, and carefully cultivated alliances.

But mostly through a fierce sense of competition.

One of his allies was Orange Mayor Mims Hackett, who maintained immense popularity through 12 years in office before his political career crumbled with news last fall that the feds had hit him with corruption charges.

That hurt Codey, even as it emboldened Hackett antagonist At-Large Councilman Donald Page, whose ill will for the mayor in 2001 spilled over into an unlikely challenge of Codey.

"He ran against me, for no apparent reason," Codey says.

According to Page’s people, the councilman built his state senate campaign in part on local voter discontent over Codey’s successful efforts to re-configure East Orange out of the 27th legislative district. The move resulted in fewer African-American voters in the 27th and convinced Page that he could arouse sufficient black support to upend Codey.

Codey promptly flattened Page.

Then the Senate President put a galling exclamation point on his win when he offered to balance out his legislative ticket with a black running mate.

That he was black wasn’t the problem. What unnerved Page was the fact that the new state representative was Hackett. It was bad enough having him as mayor. Now Hackett was mayor and assemblyman. Meanwhile, Page’s own political career was in a free fall.

But two years later and coming off back-to-back losses for state Senate and his North Ward council seat, Page reanimated himself while exacting a little local revenge, dealing Codey’s and Hackett’s at-large candidate a beating and returning to the council as a revved-up Hackett antagonist.

To this day, the councilman insists he harbors no bad feelings for Codey.

"I’m not going to say anything against Governor Codey," he told PolitickerNJ.com earlier this year. "I respect him."

He even reached out to Codey for an endorsement, which the senate president refused.

After examining the profile of the son of his former Assembly colleague, Eldridge Hawkins, Codey instead picked him to succeed Hackett, and once again, Codey and Page find themselves at odds.

North Ward councilwoman Tency Eason - another candidate running for mayor - believes Codey’s efforts on behalf of Hawkins won’t mean much in this election. He’s given the young candidate $2,600, worked some of his press and political connections on behalf of the 28-year old newcomer and lent his picture to the campaign to be used on campaign mailers.

Though the Codey family funeral home dominates a hill in Orange on a street named for the former governor’s father, "What does Codey’s name really mean to the people of Orange?" Eason asks.

Codey and his family long ago moved to West Orange, a relocation that in election-year local politics is roughly akin to someone being from another state. Page could add that Codey’s candidates haven’t done well lately, considering Williams’ failure to deliver and Hackett’s off-the-rails departure from office.

But while Codey remains attentive to local politics in a way that causes municipal-level opponents to fume about his control freak tendencies, and his municipal-level allies to marvel at the ability of a former governor and powerful Senate president to stay street-connected, he’s of course always playing to win at the state and county levels.

Whatever happens in the May 3 election, it is not the only election. Also engaged in the June 3 state-level contest, Codey feels gratified that U.S. Frank Lautenberg (D-1) owns the organizational line in Essex.

When an alliance between Democratic leaders Steve Adubato of Newark and George Norcross of South Jersey threatened to severely weaken incumbent U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), Codey last month engineered a strategic counter-offensive.

As Adubato worked to generate organizational line strength for Lautenberg’s primary challenger, U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews (D-1), Codey went into high bore political mode, ostensibly to help Lautenberg, but critically for Codey, to ensure that Norcross, his most ferocious statewide rival for control of the state Senate, did not produce a victory in Codey’s home county.

Codey made phone calls, organized endorsement support, worked his county committee channels and his alliance with U.S. Rep. Donald Payne (D-10), took out petitions at the clerks’ office in then event he needed to field candidates with Lautenberg if Norcross and Adubato prevailed and Andrews, not Lautenberg, secured the organizational line.

It wouldn’t come to that, as Lautenberg’s support held, and the 84-year old senator maintained his place on the organizational line.

The result not only officially backed Norcross out of Codey’s territory. It also forced any other public support Andrews might have mustered in Essex to stay underground rather than support a U.S. Senate candidate running against those local and county Democratic candidates lined up on the ballot underneath Lautenberg’s name.

It also didn’t hurt Codey to deal a loss to cross-county rival Adubato.

It was street-style defensive politics for Codey, for whom the streets lead back to Orange, where another street-level Orangeman, Donald Page, now threatens to deal the more powerful man a political loss, and succeed where the other statewide power brokers lately failed.