The Stanley factor: regardless of party backing, former assemblyman ready to run

NEWARK – Democratic Party stronghold Essex was supposed to be quiet this season as Newark and the environs reflect on a North Ward-City Hall lovefest and prepare for the reelection campaign of Gov Jon Corzine. 

Now the Payne family appears mobilized on the primary horizon here in the 28th District and potentially in the 29th, though insiders say it's unlikely they will be able to escalate a fullscale battle, even if they choose to fight.

After getting bumped out of office by an Adubato-Booker alliance in 2007, family scion former Assemblyman Craig Stanley (D-Irvington) is trying to scratch his way back into the legislature and finding little organizational support in the process with two weeks to go before the April 6th state filing deadline.

Essex sources on all sides say there’s little or no chance Chairman Phil Thigpen will award the District 28 party line to Stanley over incumbents Assemblyman Ralph Caputo (D-Belleville) and Assemblywoman Cleopatra Tucker (D-Newark) - not in a gubernatorial election year when an unpopular Corzine faces more than a warm body challenge from the Republican Party, and party chieftains are intent on trying to keep his troops in line. 

Thigpen himself is cryptic on the Stanley issue.

“Ask me in a week, I don’t know right now,” the chairman told PolitickerNJ.com at the North Ward Center’s St. Patrick’s-St. Joseph’s awards ceremony last Wednesday.

Stanley has an operational campaign headquarters on Clinton Avenue, but there’s no organizational break-down-the-gate clamor for his candidacy. 

The nephew of U.S. Rep. Donald Payne (D-Newark) and former Assemblyman Bill Payne (D-Newark) and the cousin of Freeholder/Newark Councilman Donald Payne, Jr., Stanley lost by a handful of votes when he ran off the line in 2007.

However, grassroots phoenix state Sen. Ronald L. Rice (D-Newark) headed the ticket then, and he isn’t running this year. Moreover, after gutting through some parochial fighting, notably with Caputo in a 2008 Belleville showdown, the senator heartily backs his district mates - both Tucker and the double-dipping Caputo, who last year stared down an off-the-line challenge for his freeholder seat from Bob Russo.  

“Cleo and Ralph are doing a good job,” said Rice. “All of the incumbents in Essex are doing a good job. I endorse all of them. We don’t need to be in a fight every year because people allow their personal interests to get involved, no matter what those interests are."

Two years ago, Rice survived a much-publicized organizational onslaught that resulted in two African American candidates - Stanley and former Assemblywoman Oadline Truitt (D-Newark) - getting picked off by Italian American Caputo and African American Tucker.

Rice said he is concerned that Stanley’s reentry would disrupt the gender and ethnic balance he now sees in the district. 

“Why is it Craig who should come back?” he said.  “Why is it not Odaline Truitt? I don’t understand why we should remove an African American woman who’s doing the job. And how do you go and tell non-African American voters in Belleville and Bloomfield that they can’t have representation when that was an issue in the last election? I just think it’s about the Paynes’ personal interests. Wouldn’t Congressman Payne, who’s doing the job – a fine job – wouldn’t he find it very disrespectful and offensive if I ran my son (Newark Councilman Ronald C. Rice) against him just because he’s my blood? It’s different when there’s a vacancy, but I don’t think we should be getting in political fights because of power brokers’ interests.”

Whether or not Thigpen gives him the organizational line, Stanley – an expert on education and Abbott funding issues - intends to pursue his old seat in a primary, said his most ardent public supporter.

“Craig made up his mind that he is running for the Assembly,” said Bill Payne, who gave up his District 29 Assembly seat two years ago to run off the line for the state senate seat that Teresa Ruiz ultimately won.

“Craig Stanley deserves to be back in the Assembly,” said Payne. “It’s asinine for the party to throw away proven leaders because of politics. Craig Stanley is deeply committed to improving education. He’s been recognized by every major education group. It makes me angry when decisions are made because of politics and not the issues.”

Payne said if his nephew doesn’t receive the line, he would engineer his own off-the-line challenge of Assemblywoman Grace Spencer (D-Newark) and Assemblyman Albert Coutinho (D-Newark) in his neighboring legislative district.

The elder Payne last year had attempted to orchestrate back room moves to dump Spencer – an ally of new blood Mayor Cory Booker - so he could return to the 29th District. Although Payne’s deal-making efforts collapsed and Spencer now has her party’s support, the former assemblyman hasn’t shelved his own interest in going after her. 

He says that’s contingent on what Thigpen decides to do about Stanley.

“If Craig is on the line (in the 28th District), I will not run, but last week I started circulating petitions,” Payne said. “If Craig is off the line, I will run off the line myself (in the 29th District).” 

Said Spencer, "Everybody has a right to run."

To date, the only candidate officially in the 29th District race with 188 signatures is Andre Reames, running on a "True Voice for Newark/Reames for Hillside" slogan. 

In the 28th, Tucker said she remains intent on her work in the assembly, noting that the only word she received from Thigpen was an acknowledgement that she’s doing a good job and “to keep up the good work.”

“I’ve been part of a lot of bills, among them new schools construction, improved services for our veterans – a bill signed by the governor,” said Tucker, wife of the late Assemblyman Donald Tucker. “…I’m going around listening to different comments about prisoner reentry, and am dedicated to making it possible for prisoner reentry to work. I’ve been in hearings with the juvenile justice system, and am working on legislation to prevent bars from opening within a certain radius of schools and churches.”

In Stanley’s district hometown of Irvington, a rival last month examined the possibility of endorsing him for the Assembly over the incumbents.

North Ward Councilman David Lyons came in third behind Stanley in the 2002 mayoral election. Both men lost to Wayne Smith, who’s now a year away from completing his second term. 

Anti-establishment standard bearer Lyons said he is definitely running for mayor next year. His endorsement of Stanley for the Assembly could be advantageous to him politically because if Stanley were to win, he could clear the field of a former foe in the upcoming mayoral contest.

If Stanley were to lose, Lyons allies could spin that as an invitation for him to gracefully exit the political scene rather than weather his third loss in a row in 2010. 

After discussions with his chief political ally Rice and others, and following his own assessment of the Stanley situation, Lyons has delayed endorsing the former assemblyman.

“All I know is I’m going to support Cleo,” Lyons said. “I gave her my word. But I’ll have to wait until I have conversations with Craig Stanley.”

Stanley could not be reached for comment, but Essex sources pinned the intrigue on the elder Payne, and lament his decision to run quixotically for the senate in 2007 rather than accept the party’s offer for him to again secure his seat as an assemblyman.

“Bill could have stayed in the assembly and been the most important assemblyman there, but he chose not to and now he has to face it,” said one source.

As for Stanley, most establishment Democrats don’t question his ability, but, like Rice, have a hard time figuring how beleagured voters, let alone the bosses, could reward him – whose cousin holds two elected offices, whose uncle serves as congressman and whose other uncle serves as deputy chief of staff to the county executive – while punishing incumbent Democrats.

They have an especially tough time figuring it, considering the looming fight with Republicans in a no-joke general election year. 

Stanley's best shot off the line may be to train his campaign ire on the dual-office holding Caputo, but that could be a hard-swallow message after most of the Paynes' organizational jockeying for the line has focused on eliminating Tucker, and given the status of Stanley's own cousin as a dual-office holder.