Sources say that State Sen./Union City Mayor Brian Stack will announce next week that he has endorsed the re-election of Gov. Jon Corzine.  Stack, who had openly flirted with the prospect of backing Republican Christopher Christie, committed his support of Corzine during a meeting of the Hudson County Democratic Organization today.

REDD-STACK BILL TO ALLOW COUNTIES TO CREATE TRUST FUND TO AID HOMELESS SIGNED INTO LAW

CAMDEN – A bill sponsored by Senators Dana L. Redd and Brian P. Stack which permits county governments to create trust funds in order to provide assistance to homeless New Jerseyans living within the county was signed into law today by Governor Corzine.

“Particularly in this difficult economy, many New Jersey residents are falling through the cracks, unable to make ends meet,” said Senator Redd, D-Camden and Gloucester. “Many of these folks find themselves living on the streets, victims of the economic downturn and unable to find a helping hand. Now, thanks to today’s bill signing, I can say unequivocally to those who are suffering in the night that help is on the way.”

The most sought after endorsement of the 2009 gubernatorial campaign might be Brian Stack, a Democratic State Senator and the Mayor of Union City, who says he remains undecided in the contest between Jon Corzine and Christopher Christie.  Both candidates showed up in Union City last night to kiss the ring of a local party boss who can deliver 70% of the vote to the candidate of his choice.  Christie came bearing a gift: a strong suggestion that Stack is not the target of any federal investigation.  Clearly Stack was appreciative of the personal endorsement, although it is possible that he won't reciprocate in November. Stack has told people he will make up his mind soon, but he's more likely to extend the courtship, and see where the race is going in October.

It is unlikely that Christie would be so effusive in his praise if he thought Stack was going to get busted.  If that happened, the Corzine campaign would have his comment on YouTube within minutes.  But Christie has an insurance policy: if Stack was in trouble, it makes claims of politically motivated federal prosecutions less credible.  This is a win-win for the former United States Attorney.

Mayor/state Sen. Brian P. Stack (D-Union City), left, in the ring with Gov. Jon Corzine.

UNION CITY - Gov. Jon Corzine campaigned here this evening with Mayor/state Sen. Brian P. Stack (D-Union City), his caravan pulling up to the blockade on New York Avenue moments after his rival, GOP candidate Chris Christie, departed with a contingent of Republicans who had just walked with Stack.

To Union City diehards like Henry Munker, Corzine's presence as a Democratic incumbent governor at the annual National Night Out street festival in a city where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans around 14,800 to 1,400 was less of an eye-opener than Christie's hour-long stride through with Stack.

"Never," was Munker's blunt response when asked when he last saw a Republican candidate for governor make the trek into Union City in search of votes. 

"I heard you had a vistor here," Corzine told Stack after the two men shook hands.

"Yes, we did," Stack said.

"Take my cellphone number" - Stack, right, and Christie meet on the street on National Night Out.

UNION CITY - Chris Christie appeared to vouch for Brian Stack's integrity during a visit to Union City tonight amid speculation that the popular mayor and state Senator could endorse the GOP candidate for governor instead of his party's standard bearer, Gov. Jon Corzine.

For Stack, praise from the former United States Attorney is a big deal in the middle of a corruption scandal that has weakened Democratic machines in Hoboken, Jersey City, Secaucus, and Bayonne.  Sources say that Stack is the "Union City official" in a criminal complaint filed nearly two weeks ago against Shimon Haber as part of a federal corruption sting resulting in the arrests of 29 elected officials and/or political operatives.

"I don't know anything about that," Christie said, referring to the Haber complaint. "As far as I know, he's (Stack's) done nothing wrong. You see the reception that people give him here on the streets. He's an elected official who works very hard for the people here, and it shows."

Stack, clearly pleased, walked Christie around crowd of local residents in a city that Corzine won with 79% of the vote four years ago.

"Do you think he would have come here and be seen with me if I had done something wrong?" Stack asked.

GOP gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie on primary Election Night.

GOP gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie on Monday evening attended the Middlesex County Fair and for Tuesday evening scheduled an unmistakable doubling down of his campaign through the Democratic Party's heartland: Hudson County.

Crushed almost two weeks ago by a federal corruption bust that bagged 29 elected officials and political operatives, most of whom were concentated here, Hudson County is also home to Union City Mayor Brian P. Stack, who serves as the state senator for the 33rd District.

Stack, an independent Democrat who waged an historic 2007 war with the Hudson County Democratic Organization, hasn't yet said who he intends to support for governor. Sources say he invited both Corzine and Christie to his city's National Night Out ceremony.

Tonight, Christie confirmed his attendance.

The Record is reporting that "a political fund linked to Union City Mayor Brian Stack received a $4,000 donation in the middle of August 2007 - the same time that the U.S. Attorney's Office says a 'middleman' for an unnamed "Union City official" received a $4,000 check from the government informant at the center of a far-reaching federal corruption sting."

According to the newspaper, "a donation of $4,000 from BH Property Management - identified in a federal complaint as "an FBI undercover company" that was used to facilitate money laundering - shows up on a 2007 campaign finance report for Union City First, a political action committee linked to Stack, who is also a state senator.  And a payment of $4,000 by a property management company shows up in the government's complaint against Shimon Haber, one of the 44 people charged in the sting. The complaint says the check was intended to pave the way for help with a development project."

Click here to read The Record's story.
 

Councilwoman Carol Marsh stands by her friend, Dawn Zimmer, as Zimmer becomes Hoboken's first woman mayor.

HOBOKEN - It's been a torturous and rewarding path in Hudson County politics for Councilwoman Carol Marsh, who ginned up the city's reform movement base in her unsuccessful 2005 run for mayor against Dave Roberts, and won a seat on the council four years later on the Zimmer Team.

"I never felt this would be easy, and there's a lot of work to do to resolve a lot of competing interests," said Marsh as her friend and ally Dawn Zimmer became Hoboken's first woman mayor.

Sandwiched improbably between her two historic runs - one a heartbreaking loss and the other a victory culminating with Zimmer's swearing-in this afternoon - was Marsh's 2007 bid for the Assembly in the 33rd District as a candidate on the ticket backed by the Hudson County Democratic Organization (HCDO).

A lot of Marsh's allies worried that her place on that doomed ticket - running with West New York Mayor Sal Vega and Nicole Garcia -  against the Union City machine of Mayor Brian P. Stack was the HCDO's way of throwing Marsh under the bus.

Brian Stack, a Democratic State Senator from Hudson County and the powerful Mayor of Union City, will not say if he's backing the re-election of Gov. Jon Corzine.  This non-endorsement whose support could mean 70% of the vote in this city of nearly 70,000 people, is monumental -- especially as scandal jeopardizes the value of Democratic turnout operations in Jersey City, Bayonne, Hoboken and Secaucus in November.  Read Max Pizarro's story on the relationship between Stack, State Sen. Nicholas Sacco (the Mayor of North Bergen) and Corzine.

Corzine is heading into the fall without the ability to rely on Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy, the Hudson County Democratic Chairman.  Healy has not been accused on any wrong doing, but his admission that he was one of the Jersey City officials mentioned in a bribery complaint makes him toxic to Corzine.  The irony here is that Corzine needs Healy much more than Healy needs Corzine.