HILLSIDE – Plastered over with signs and backed up under Highway 22 stands Joe Menza’s campaign headquarters, just one more feature on a cluttered streetscape that on its worst days looks as though it fell through the porous surfaces of the overhead highways at this last edge of Union County with Newark on the other side of newly erected road barriers. 

One wrong turn here can deadend you on a loading dock of some reject factory from the rust belt era, and as for Menza, he’s done nothing but buy properties and squash projects onto lots too small to sustain them, Democratic Party boss Charlotte DeFilippo charges of the mayoral candidate, who’s challenging her candidate Jerome Jewell.

Menza’s used to the complaints, and he anticipates a barrage over the course of the next few days prior to Election Day on May 12th. 

“That’s what they tried to do to me in the last mayoral campaign, turn in me into the big bad developer, and now all the candidates are saying we need development in town. There’s been no development in this town for 30 years,” he says, sitting in his office on Liberty Avenue. “The one development they proposed – thank God, it’s dead, it was a terrible idea – was for 159 townhouses in the middle of an industrial wasteland. It made no sense. We need a Master Plan. We haven’t had a workable Master Plan since 1979. 

“If I was into personal gain, I would not get into politics,” Menza adds. “Believe me, I would not run for office. The only reason I’m in this is because I was taught growing up in Hillside to give something back, and I’m in a position to do so.” 

The independent candidate who was born and raised in this town where he owns two residential properties in addition to his real estate office where he has his own apartment, the 49-year-old Menza is the only white in the contest and fights the opposition argument that he lives elsewhere.

“They say I lived in Springfield and then it was Scotch Plains and then it was Berkeley Heights. I live here,” he says, shrugging his shoulders. “I patronize the businesses in this town. I’m very visible. I work up to 12 hours a day in this office right here. Jerome Jewell, who works in Newark, can’t say he’s here during the day, and neither can Shelley Bates, who works in Trenton. I can. I’m right here.”

Running with a donated headquarters, Menza – who’s backed both Republicans and Democrats in presidential elections - has raised $9,288 and spent $4,419, according to the state Elections Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC). He ran for mayor in 2005, losing to Karen McCoy Oliver by a little over 200 votes, and he ran for 2nd Ward Councilman four years ago and just missed making the runoff, losing by fewer than 20 votes to Shelley Bates.

In the 2007 runoff, Bates won with Menza’s help. He says he scratched out about 70 votes for her. He had hoped to secure her backing in his mayoral run this year, but the fact that he ran for council last time instead of supporting Bates spurred the latter onward into her own mayoral run rather than joining outright with Menza. Of course, they could forge an alliance again if either of them makes the runoff.

Most believe political animal Menza is well-positioned to make the runoff.  

He backed Daniel Santos for the School Board two weeks ago, who won along with two other Menza-backed candidates. In fairness to the other non-establishment Democratic mayoral candidates, “We all backed the alternatives,” says Andre Daniels. But Menza made it a political imperative to embrace Santos.

“One of the reasons that’s important is because it shows the strength of the Portugese vote in town,” Menza says. “When Councilman (Jorge) Batista resigned, (Union County and Hillside Democratic Municipal Chair) Charlotte replaced him with Jerome Jewell, which disenfranchised the Portugese vote.”

Menza concedes DeFillipo’s talent as a political strategist, “But I think Charlotte has made some mistakes lately, including neglecting the Portugese community,” much of which is East Ward Newark spillover and accounts for around 11% of Hillside’s ethnic population.

“They’ve gotten too big, and she’s bitten off more than she can chew,” Menza says of DeFilippo. “We’ve got a phenomenal police department and a strong fire department. But why does a 2.8-square mile town need five deputy fire chiefs? Look, we’ve got a lot of buildings in a small area, and we’re bordered by Newark and Union and Irvington, we need solid emergency services, yes. But it’s the hierarcharal structure of the departments. There’s too much management concentration. And at the very least, police and fire personnel should be required to live in Union County.”