Brian Stack

Union City Mayor/State Sen. Brian P. Stack (D-Union City), last year.

UNION CITY - Union City Mayor/state Sen. Brian P. Stack has not endorsed a candidate for governor.

Somewhere a crowd gathers in Bergen, but here in a gazebo in Hudson County, a solitary figure in white shirt sleeves stands at the precipitous edge of the palisades with the maw of the river and Hoboken and Jersey City and Manhattan below as he talks on a cellphone.

It's Stack.

"I didn't even know there was a rally today," he says, folding the phone in one hand, referring to Gov. Jon Corzine's rollout of running mate, state Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck). "Where is it? What's going on?"

It's not as though Stack's home turf is stagnant in the blaze of summertime, or as if Stack ever really has a tendency to gravitate away from Union City.

"I'm always here," he says with grin, but on this occasion it looks like an especially lonely vantage point, considering the fact that on Thursday, sections of the Democratic Party infrastructure caved with the FBI arrests of numerous political operatives and officials, most of them from Jersey City. 

TRENTON – A measure sponsored by Senators Dana L. Redd and Brian P. Stack which would permit county governments to adopt homelessness housing plans to address the housing needs of the homeless within their municipalities has been approved by the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee.

            “The sad reality is, as more and more jobs are lost, the homeless population will continue to increase,” said Senator Redd, D-Camden and Gloucester.  “This legislation would give counties the right to create a blueprint for how to identify and address the needs of their homeless population, as well as create a trust fund to help offset the costs of emergency room, hospital care and other social services often associated with homelessness. We have to look out for the needs and well-being of all segments of our population.”

            “This legislation would help to address the needs of the homeless populations around the State,” said Senator Stack, D-Hudson.  “In many cases, the problems of homelessness are more far reaching than simply not having a place to live.  Through the task forces, these residents would be able to receive other much-needed care and services to help them transition into being able to support themselves and their families.”

Councilwoman Dawn Zimmer and her running mate, Ravi Bhalla

HOBOKEN – Purists don’t like the Hoboken mayor’s race because they don’t readily identify in any of the three main candidates the kind of old school character who might just as well have been a barkeep, tavern owner, longshoreman, tug boat operator, barge hand or fireman as mayor.

But while At-Large Councilman Peter Cammarano, 2nd Ward Councilwoman Beth Mason, and 4th Ward Councilwoman Dawn Zimmer probably can’t trace their respective family histories back to a distant uncle who pitched in the world’s first baseball game played in Hoboken, the Tremitiedis, Russos and Raias of the world opted out of this year’s contest, leaving these like ‘em or not new mold Hobokenites on the field.

Whoever gets elected must confront a financial wreck as residents here still reel from the effects of a 47% tax hike in one year, and hours before the first mayoral debate tonight at Our Lady of Grace Church, the slow-moving contest threatens to intensify.

To date, few have been willing to venture a guess as to who’s in the lead, but 4th Ward Councilwoman Dawn Zimmer has relished blowing up the old model of what Hobokenites are supposed to be and framed herself as the do or die reformer. 

State Sen. Christopher Bateman (R-Branchburg) has won a seat on the Senate Judiciary Committee

State Sen. Christopher Bateman (R-Branchburg) will get a new seat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Senate Minority Leader Thomas Kean, Jr. (R-Westfield) will take the new seat on the Senate Education Committee, sources say.

Last month, the Senate expanded the size of the Judiciary Committee from eleven to thirteen members, adding an eighth Democrat and a fifth Republican.  Senate President Richard Codey (D-Roseland) has already named State Sen. Brian Stack (D-Union City) to fill the new Democratic seat.

The Senate Labor Committee was also expanded from five to seven members.  Codey named State Sen. James Beach (D-Voorhees) to that post.

Senate Republicans have agreed to a rules change that will expand the size of two Senate committees.  The Judiciary Committee will go for eleven to thirteen (eight Democrats and five Republicans), and the Labor Committee will increase from five to seven (four Democrats and three Republicans).  Brian Stack (D-Union City) will get the Judiciary post, and James Beach (D-Voorhees) will get the Labor seat. 

On the Republican side, things are a little more complicated.  Sean Kean (R-Wall), a pro-Labor Republican, is expected to get the new Labor Committee seat.  For the Judiciary seat, Senate Minority Leader Thomas Kean, Jr. might be forced to choose between two Senators who want the assignment:  Christopher Bateman (R-Branchburg) and Kevin O'Toole (R-Cedar Grove).  This puts Kean in the uncomfortable position of possibly passing over O'Toole, the Essex County Republican Chairman and the Chairman of the GOP County Chairmen, for the second time this year.  Kean picked Anthony Bucco (R-Boonton) to serve as the ranking Republican on the Appropriations Committee after Leonard Lance resigned to take his seat in Congress.

State Sen. Brian Stack (D-Union City) is expected to get a seat on the Senate Judiciary Committee under a plan to expand the size of two committees.  Senate President Richard Codey wants to increase Judiciary from eleven to thirteen members - about one-third of the Senate - adding an eighth Democrat and a fifth Republican. 

Codey is also adding an additional seat on the Senate Labor Committee to be filled by State Sen. James Beach (D-Voorhees).  The Labor Committee currently has three Democrats and two Republicans.

Councilman Peter Cammarano

HOBOKEN – Sources close to At-Large Councilman Peter Cammarano say the attorney plans to formally enter the race for mayor sometime next week.  

Councilwoman Dawn Zimmer is already in the contest, and sources say Councilwoman Beth Mason will roll out her campaign shortly with the endorsement of Union City Mayor/Sen. Brian P. Stack. 

Stack wouldn’t comment this week when PolitickerNJ.com asked him who he’s supporting for mayor in Hoboken. He simply said he’ll have an answer probably in the next couple of weeks.

U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez, shown campaigning with President Barack Obama, crushed Rudy Garcia, right, in a 2000 Union City political war.

Nine years after a civil war ravaged local politics in Union City and across Hudson County, there is no question who won and who lost.  Robert Menendez is now a United States Senator and Chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and Rudy Garcia is still working for a Trenton lobbying firm.  Arrested on racketeering charges in 2007, a Monmouth County grand jury decided last year not to charge him in connection to a gambling ring sting by the New Jersey State Police.

Menendez and Garcia were once close political allies, but their relationship developed into a civil war between two Democratic stars from the same hometown. Menendez, a former Union City Mayor and State Senator before his election to Congress in 1992, was the key backer of Garcia in his first Assembly victory in a February, 1993 special election, and following the death of Union City Mayor Bruce Walter in January, 1997, was responsible for Garcia's election as Mayor of Union.

State Sen. Brian Stack, the Mayor of Union City, is upset that political enemy Rudy Garcia was invited to Jerramiah Healy's campaign kickoff.

Sources say that Union City Mayor Brian Stack is off the charts livid that two of his political rivals, former Senate Majority Leader Bernard Kenny and former Union City Mayor Rudy Garcia were invited to stand on the stage when Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy announced his re-election bid last week, and that the feud is getting so out of hand that a Stack endorsement of former Assemblyman Louis Manzo for Mayor is now a possibility.  Their best hope to avoid a Second World War between the two Hudson County Democrats may be to convince U.S. Senator Bob Menendez to mediate.

The two went at it two years ago when Healy, the Hudson County Democratic Chairman, backed West New York Mayor Sal Vega for Kenny's Senate seat.  Stack beat Vega in the primary by a 4-1 margin.  Garcia, who was tossed as Mayor and as an Assemblyman (Stack took his seat) after a public feud with Menendez, remains on the outs with the Union City powerbrokers.

An ethics reform bill that will require greater financial disclosure from legislators has won the support of State Sen. Brian Stack (D-Union City), whose own family's income came under scrutiny last year.

Stack, who’s also the mayor of Union City, hasn’t always been one to vote for ethics reforms legislation. He abstained on the dual office-holding ban, even though it grandfathered in legislators like him, who already held more than one elected office.

The bill Stack just signed on to would require legislators to disclose income that both they and their families receive from public sources or private companies with government contracts,

“We must act quickly and boldly to clean up our own house, to set the highest standards for the entire legislature – and this bill goes a long way toward getting that done,” said Stack in a press release “Legislators are here to serve the people, not their own personal interests. Any income sources relevant to their official duties, as well as the income sources of their immediate family members, should be on the table for the public to see.”