Bret Schundler

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Do lines matter in Bergen County? Paul DiGaetano won the 2005 GOP convention, but Douglas Forrester, above, finished 24 percentage points ahead of him in the primary.

Next up on the Republican gubernatorial campaign schedule: Essex County Republicans will hold a Screening Committee on Tuesday evening to award their organization line.  The favorite to win there is former U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie, who has the support - though not yet officially - of State Sen. Kevin O'Toole (R-Cedar Grove), the Essex County Republican Chairman.  Look for a list of Essex endorsements for Christie to be released before the screening committee. 

O'Toole and Christie some history together - O'Toole was one of the legislators who attempted to convince Christie to run in 2005.  The political alliance between the former Chief of Staff to Essex County Executive James Treffinger and the man who sent Treffinger to prison as a federal prosecutor is indeed an interesting one. 

And in the land of Republican gubernatorial politics, as goes Essex, so goes Passaic.  So the winner of the Essex screening committee will likely replicate his success in Passaic, where Assemblyman Scott Rumana (R-Wayne), the Passaic County Republican Chairman, is an O'Toole ally. 

A player in the Essex, Bergen and Passaic contests will be former Assembly Majority Leader Paul DiGaetano (R-Nutley), who is the biggest Republican name to have endorsed former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan so far.  DiGaetano moved to Essex County after spending sixteen years as a Passaic City Councilman, and in 2005, he won the Bergen County Republican Convention when he ran for Governor.

Republicans have never won in the 20th district, one of districts in the state that have never flipped parties. State Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D-Elizabeth) won 57% in the GOP landslide year of 1991, the worst general election showing of his 32-year political career.

There was a redistricting frenzy after the U.S. Supreme Court's Reynolds v. Sims one man, one vote ruling of 1964.  The Legislature had a new map for the 1965 election, followed by additional maps in 1967, 1969, 1971, and 1973.  It wasn't until 1973 that New Jersey went to forty districts, each with one Senate seat and two Assembly seats.  Since that map, about three-quarters of the districts have elected legislators from both parties. 

The current 5th district went Democratic in 1973 when Assembly Minority Leader John Horn ousted one-term Republican State Sen. Frank Italiano.  Italiano was the last Republican legislator from the City of Camden.  He resigned his seat during the lame duck session after his appointment to the Superior Court.

Republicans have held the Somerset County-based 16th district, although future Commissioner of Human Services Tim Carden nearly won an Assembly seat in 1977, even though State Sen. Raymond Bateman was at the top of the ticket as the GOP candidate for Governor.

Democrats have never lost the Middlesex-based 17th, which was dominated by the father and son John Lynch team despite the younger Lynch's near-loss to Edward Tiller in 1991.  The district was briefly represented by a Republican when Assemblywoman Angela Perun switched parties after Democrats dropped her from their ticket in 1985.  As a Republican, she lost by just a few hundred votes to the Mayor of Piscataway, Bob Smith.

In 1991, Republicans almost won an Assembly seat in the Union County-based 20th, when Richard Hunt came within 900 votes of beating the venerable Thomas Dunn, the seven-term Mayor of Elizabeth and former State Senator.  Raymond Lesniak won a fourth term with 57% of the vote, the lowest general election percentage of his thirty year political career.

Three Essex County districts have never elected Republicans: the ones now represented by Richard Codey, Ronald Rice and Teresa Ruiz.  Another Essex district, won by Democrats in 1973 when Nutley Mayor Carmen Orechio ousted Republican State Sen. Michael Giuliano, regularly elected Democrats and Republicans to the Assembly until it was eliminated in 1991.  The seat was shifted to Ocean and Burlington counties, and now the 30th only elects Republicans.

While Republicans held four Hudson County Assembly seats (Districts 32 and 33) from 1986 to 1988 - their first legislative victory since 1920 - Democrats have never lost the 31st.  Their closest call came in 1991, when Bret Schundler won 42% against Democratic State Sen. Edward O'Connor.  Schundler was elected Mayor the following year in a non-partisan race. 

In Bergen County, Democrats have kept a firm grip on the 37th since Matthew Feldman ousted Republican State Sen. Joseph Woodcock in 1973.  And the Republicans have never lost in the 40th, which now includes parts of Passaic and Essex counties.

Under the current map drawn in 2001, districts 1, 2, 4, 7, 12, 14, 36, and 38 have been won by at least one Democrat and one Republican. 

Over the years, there have been some surprise winners - usually in a landslide year like 1973, 1985 or 1991.  A partial list includes:

Independent candidates for Governor, left to right: Christopher Daggett (2009), Murray Sabrin (1997), Bill Schluter (2001), and Secaucus pig farmer Henry Krajewski (1953, 1957, 1961)

Dr. Christopher Daggett, the former Kean cabinet member who said today that he will run for Governor as an independent, will need to raise $340,000 in contributions of $3,400 or less in order to qualify for public financing and participate in the debate.  In New Jersey, independent statewide candidates traditionally do not fare well.

The only independent candidate to qualify for matching funds was Murray Sabrin, a Ramapo College Professor who ran as the Libertarian candidate for Governor in 1997.  Sabrin won 5% of the vote in his race against incumbent Christine Todd Whitman and her Democratic challenger, then-State Sen. James E. McGreevey.  A conservative, Richard Pezzullo, won 1% in the same race.

In 2001, Bill Schluter, an incumbent Republican State Senator from Mercer County, mounted an independent bid for Governor.  He used the same campaign team that had elected Jesse Ventura in Minnesota three years earlier, but won just 1% of the vote against McGreevey and Republican Bret Schunder, the former Mayor of Jersey City. 

Left to right: U.S. Sen. Clifford Case and his 1978 GOP primary opponent, Jeff Bell; 2001 Republican gubernatorial candidates Acting Gov. Donald DiFrancesco and Jersey City Mayor Bret Schundler.

There is a temptation by the media, including this site, to designate former U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie as the front runner for the Republican gubernatorial nomination.  A Quinnipiac poll released yesterday with a 27-point lead, 44%-17%, over former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan. 

A February 2001 Quinnipiac poll had Acting Gov. Donald DiFrancesco leading Jersey City Mayor Bret Schundler 45%-16% among Republican primary voters.  A Quinnipiac poll taken in May showed former U.S. Rep. Bob Franks with a 46%-24% lead over Schundler.  Schundler won the primary by fourteen points, 57%-43%. 

In 2000, former Gov. Jim Florio had a 57%-22% lead over first-time candidate Jon Corzine in a February Quinnipiac poll.  Corzine won the primary 58%-42%.

Conservative Jeff Bell, a former speechwriter for Ronald Reagan, beat four-term U.S. Senator Clifford Case in the 1978 GOP Primary by a 51%-49% margin.  But just a month earlier, an Eagleton-Rutgers poll had Case leading Bell 35%-7%.

Lynn Schundler, the wife of former Jersey City Mayor Bret Schundler, is reportedly considering a bid for the Jersey City Council.

Former Jersey City First Lady Lynn Schundler has decided against running for the City Council in Ward E after speaking to supporters of Mayor Jerramiah Healy.  Her possible candidacy came just a few weeks after her husband, former Mayor Bret Schundler, dropped his own comeback bid as a challenger to Healy.

Ward E, which is predominantly made up of the city's downtown, is currently represented by Councilman Steven Fulop - one of Healy's most outspoken critics.  Fulop also backed off a mayoral bid and attended Healy's campaign kickoff, but he has declined to run on the Healy slate and will seek re-election on his own.

If Schundler ran, Fulop would likely have forged an alignment with former Assemblyman Louis Manzo, who is making his sixth bid for Mayor. Manzo, sources say, has also courted Schundler as a possible running mate.

Lynn Schundler, an attorney and former Senate Republican staffer, has already met with Hudson County Executive Thomas DeGise, a Healy supporter who was a Schundler ally when he served as the Jersey City Council President.  When Bret Schundler gave up his seat to run for Governor in 2001, he backed DeGise for Mayor in his unsuccessful bid against Glenn Cunningham.

Two sources close to Healy say they were optimistic that she would run, but noted that she has not fully committed.  She did not meet with Healy, as expected, but instead informed members of his political team that she would not become a canddiate.

Frank MacCormack, a Hudson County Republican who waged numerous campaigns for public office over the last six decades, passed away on Sunday evening.  He was 85 and suffered a heart attack while having dinner.

MacCormack made three unsuccessful bids for Mayor of Secaucus and lost races for Councilman.  He won election to the Board of Education and served as School Board President in the 1960’s.  He later served as Secaucus Republican Municipal Chairman.

In 2001, at age 78, he became a candidate for State Senator in the Hudson-based District 32, which includes a small part of Bergen County.  Running as a support of then-gubernatorial candidate Bret Schundler, MacCormack defeated North Bergen’s John Pluchino in the GOP primary with 73% of the vote.   He lost the general election to incumbent Nicholas Sacco by a wide margin.

Former Jersey City Mayor Bret Schundler won't run again in 2009.

Bret Schundler says he will not seek a return to the Jersey City mayoral post he held from 1992 to 2001, saying the nation's economic downturn has caused some of his long-term investments to plummet.  Schundler says he needs to work full-time and can't afford to seek public office this year.

Schundler gave up the post to seek the GOP nomination for Governor eight years ago.

The full text of Schundler's statement is as follows:

Jersey City mayoral candidate Lou Manzo has filled in most of his council slate and plans to start rolling out names next week.

“We will have the majority of the known candidates that are seeking office. It is so tough to find people who want to run, and out of the people who want to run I think I’m going to get the lion’s share of them,” said Manzo, a former assemblyman who’s embarking on his fifth try for the office on Grove Street.

Manzo said that finding quality council candidates has been especially difficult this year. He’s still working on recruiting Ward E Councilman Steve Fulop, who has entertained a number of offers from mayoral candidates to join their slate.

“Everybody’s still fishing for Fulop. He hasn’t made a decision yet. We’re in that race too,” said Manzo.

Bret Schundler, who served as Mayor of Jersey City from 1992 to 2001, is mulling a comeback bid next May.

While the Jersey City mayoral race is starting to gain momentum, former mayor Bret Schundler, who has not formally kicked off his campaign but has already said that he intends to run, has been relatively quiet. 

That has led to speculation that Schundler has had trouble raising money and filling out a full council slate and that he has begun to rethink whether he can pull off the same kind of upset in 2008 as he did in 1992.  Some say Schundler’s feet are beginning to get cold.

Reached for comment today, Schundler said he would like to hold off on interviews until January 15th.  Asked if he would rebut or clarify rumors about having a tough time campaigning, he said “I don’t want to clarify anything.”

But attorney Sean Connelly, a close Schundler ally who ran all three of his mayoral campaigns and served as Jersey City Corporation Counsel during his administration, dismissed the rumors.

“The last time I spoke to Bret was last Monday, and of course we send emails all the time. But nothing gave me any kind of concern,” he said. “I’m very pleased with the fundraising.”

Assemblyman L. Harvey Smith declared his candidacy for Jersey City mayor to the Jersey Journal’s “Political Insider” column over the weekend.

"This should be a great city and I think I can help make it happen," he told the paper.

Smith, the former city council president, served as Acting Mayor for about six months in 2004, after the sudden death of Mayor Glenn Cunningham, and served a few months as a state senator. He lost the following special election to fill the remainder of Cunningham's term.