Sandra Bolden Cunningham

Sandra Bolden Cunningham
31st District State Senate candidate

What’s at stake: Ever since Lee J. Cobb yanked down his collar and showed the knife scar he had on his neck in "On the Waterfront," the wharf rats who replenish the coffers here have operated under the grim assumption that Hudson County is a man’s game. To Cunningham’s defenders, the old boys network of Hudson County needs a shake-up, and if her husband was the first African-American mayor of Jersey City, she will make history of her own by becoming the first woman senator to represent the district.

What makes her tick: If there are politicians who project all of the sweaty self-doubt of having to fulfill a master’s edicts, Cunningham comes across conversely as a proud, dignified legacy-bearer, who answers to her husband’s memory only. In many ways she’s the anti-Hudson County candidate, unnerving to her critics who call her the ultimate diva. If the object is to go for the kneecaps here and act as though that’s simply the way it’s done, Cunningham is the master of projecting incredulous disgust over the whole business.

Liability: Cruising almost on auto pilot for weeks, the Cunningham campaign hit choppy weather with Randall Wallace, a convicted sex offender who served time for raping a 13-year old, and who collected signatures for the campaign. Wallace bowed out of campaign work this week, according to The Jersey Journal, but not before sending the Cunningham airbus into a nosedive.

X Factor: Cunningham received a sustained pounding in the local press for refusing to step up and debate Manzo. First she disapproved of the debate formats, and then said she simply wouldn’t be able to stand in the same room with her opponent. But on Tuesday, facing a scrutiny-surge over the Wallace affair, she debated Manzo in a forum that will be televised this weekend. If she holds her own against the assemblyman, it could buck up the troops.

Best quote of the campaign: Responding to former Jersey City Mayor Gerald McCann’s charge that she’s so aloof from political campaigning he bets she doesn’t even own a pair of tennis shoes, Cunningham blasted back: "Not only do I own a pair of tennis shoes, but I’m training to run the New York Marathon in November. It’s 26 miles, and I don’t think Gerry McCann is going to join me."

Conventional Wisdom: The Wallace connection has hurt the campaign, and infuriated those who believe Cunningham should have strongly denounced Wallace and admitted a mistake in initially keeping him on board. But the fast-striding Cunningham stopped long enough at least to debate Manzo this week, and with the big money backing from the organization, the name of a beloved late mayor who enjoyed overwhelming support, and at least two former big name enemies conspicuously on her side, she can pull numbers in Jersey City, and remains the favorite.