Brian Stack

Republican Senate Primary - Distrtict 24

STEVE OROHO
Raised: $ 266,480
Spent: $ 62,812
Cash-on-Hand: $ 213,667

GUY GREGG
Raised: $ 218,336
Spent: $ 83,875
Cash-on-Hand: $ 134,661

Republican Assembly Primary - District 26

ALEX DECROCE
Raised: $ 363,922
Spent: $ 226,536
Cash-on-Hand: $ 137,386

LARRY CASHA
Raised: $ 250,798
Spent: $ 179,873
Cash-on-Hand: $ 70,925

JAY WEBBER
Raised: $ 93,422
Spent: $ 44,494
Cash-on-Hand: $ 48,927

Democratic Senate Primary - District 28

RONALD RICE
Raised: $ 273,252
Spent: $ 281,381
Cash-on-Hand: $ 32,830

BILAL BEASLEY
Raised: $ 99,400
Spent: $ 29,156
Cash-on-Hand: $ 67,243

Democratic Senate Primary - District 31

SANDRA CUNNINGHAM
Raised: $ 69,605
Spent: $ 47,797
Cash-on-Hand: $ 21,807

LOUIS MANZO
Not available

Democratic Senate Primary - District 33

BRIAN STACK
Raised: $ 81,426
Spent: $ 67,825
Cash-on-Hand: $ 13,600

SAL VEGA
Not available

Republican Senate Primary - District 40

KEVIN O'TOOLE
Raised: $ 185,463
Spent: $ 88,649
Cash-on-Hand: $ 96,713

TODD CALIGUIRE
Raised: $ 46,407
Spent: $ 14,255
Cash-on-Hand: $ 31,925

Source: New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission

In the sea of Hudson County politics, all of those beleaguered sailors set adrift out there in the face of June 5th, Election Day, depending on their loyalties either fear or embrace the perfect storm, envisioned by that upstart pirate skipper Brian P. Stack.

Stack, the mayor of Union City and an Assemblyman, jumped out in front of the Hudson County Democratic Organization when he announced his intentions of supplanting State Sen. Bernie Kenny, who later said formally he would retire.

Now Stack is favored to win the Democratic Primary in the 33rd District, which includes Union City, West New York, Weehawken, Hoboken, Guttenberg and part of Jersey City. He already has an ally in Weehawken Mayor Richard Turner. The candidate’s also pumped money into the municipal re-election bids of the young Turks in Hoboken, who are restlessly jockeying for position to succeed Mayor David Roberts.

BRIAN P. STACK
33RD DISTRICT STATE SENATE CANDIDATE

What’s at Stake: A textbook example of a guy who was taken in by the machine, who realized early the only way to survive in Hudson County politics is to build your own machine as a leveraging force, the Union City mayor (and assemblyman) stands to become the most powerful elected official in Hudson County if he prevails against the Hudson County Democratic Organization.

What makes him tick: Stack is a poor man’s strongman, who possesses one modern convenience that Jersey City Mayor Frank Hague lacked; a cell-phone.

Chief Liability: Even as he storms Hudson County, Stack has to look over his shoulder at U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie, who’s bearing down on him with his Christmas Tree probe, and a Hudson County Democratic Organization determined to make him pay for his boss tactics.

Best quote of the campaign: Asked if he was related to the old Irish Republican Army revolutionary Austin Stack, the mayor of a city that contains the second largest Cuban population in the country replied bluntly, "Was he Hispanic?"

X Factor: Veteran public relations artiste Paul Swibinski and his corner are throwing a blitzkrieg of punches - the left hook to the liver (Stack’s alleged acceptance of campaign dollars from a contractor dragging his heels on a school project), the right to the rib-cage (tape recordings of Stack promising financial favors to rivals if they would back away from their efforts to oppose him), the uppercut (charges that Stack gave a retroactive raise to his girlfriend). Meanwhile, the unflappable Stack just stands there with a rock jaw. But will Team Swinbinski connect to Stack’s chin with two weeks remaining and finally drop him?

Conventional Wisdom: Acknowledging the government men laying siege to the Stack machine, Hudson County insiders hearken back to Union City Mayor (and State Senator) William Musto, who was led away in handcuffs on racketeering charges even as he won re-election in 1982. It’s customary to describe the terrain of a front-runner as "safe, barring a bombshell." But in this case, striding through a mine field all the way up to Election day, Stack wins unsafely - and big - in District 33.

SILVERIO VEGA
33rd DISTRICT STATE SENATE CANDIDATE

What’s at stake: A Silverio "Sal" Vega victory in the 33rd District means the Hudson County Democratic Organization can keep the roughneck Stack at least partially in his cage.

What makes him tick: A proud Cuban-American, the West New York Mayor (and Assemblyman) Vega is all heart.

Liability: A proud Cuban-American, Vega is all heart. Yes, repetition intended. Vega’s decision to block the Cuban Independence Parade could years from now in the annals of Hudson County history be cited as the reason he lost the election, but the truth is the biggest handicap for Vega all along has, of course, been Stack and the Stack machine. A freeholder with years of experience on that front, Vega came late to the game of state and municipal office, having been appointed to the mayoral and assembly posts he now holds just last year. He has shown fighting pluck as expected, but without the deep Rolodex of his rival he just doesn’t have the traction or name recognition of... you guessed it: Stack!

X Factor: It was supposed to have been the Freedom Wagon, which Vega is driving around his opponent’s turf in an effort to connect with "la gente." The trouble is the luxurious, gas-guzzling RV gives Vega the appearance of a bewildered mid-western tourist in search of the Turnpike on the back-roads of Union City, and hardly conveys Hudson County populism.

Best quote of the campaign: Asked about the "triple dipper factor," the fact that he has three government jobs stacked (there’s a variation on that word again) on top of one another in his roles as school athletic director, mayor and assemblyman, Vega shot back, "My father worker in a factory, a restaurant, and sold jewelry on the side. He was a triple dipper, too. That’s where I learned it."

Conventional Wisdom: The embattled star of an ongoing miniseries called "The Public Transgressions of Brian P. Stack," which is tanking in the ratings, Vega has two weeks to go of running around with desperation moves before Stack puts him down for the count on Election Day.

U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez won’t pick a horse in the Hudson County Democratic primaries. But the Senator was in Jersey City today with Tom DeGise to tour the new St. Joseph’s School for the Blind facility, and he had some kind words for the Hudson County executive.

Menendez praised DeGise’s use of federal Community Development Block Grants to help build new facilities like the one he toured today.

These two Union City streetworkers, Francisco Ortiz, left, and Adrian Medino, may look apolitical at first glance:: -- until they turn around. Needeless to say, they both claim to be big Stack supporters.

West New York Mayor (and Assemblyman) Silverio “Sal” Vega stands in front of the Pathmark in Weehawken, under a Unite Here! baseball cap, talking about how preventing his fellow Cuban Americans from marching through West New York in celebration of Cuban Independence Day on June 3rd is a principled stand he’s taking over his advisors’ desperate entreaties to the contrary.

It just keeps getting nastier in the race for the 33rd district State Senate seat.

Barely a week after accusing Brian Stack of bribing County Committee candidates who were running opposed to him to get off the ballot, Silverio “Sal” Vega held another press conference, this time accusing Stack of intimidating and “abusing” several Union City employees who refused to support his prior runs for office.

There’s little physical difference between the North and South sides of 49th street, the border between Union City and West New York. But when Sal Vega, the current Mayor of West New York and a 33rd district Assemblyman, looks south at Union City, he might as well be looking at the Berlin Wall.

”I come from Cuba. Union City reminds of Red Square or Plaza de Revolucion, where everywhere you look is Lenin or Che Guevara,” said Vega, who likens Mayor and fellow-Assemblyman Brian Stack’s political grip on Union City to that of a totalitarian dictator.

On Wednesday, Vega first crossed that border in his newly christened “Freedom Wagon,” a rented RV that he uses to campaign by day all over the 33rd District in and sleep at night in Union City, in an attempt to take some of those votes from Stack, his rival in the State Senate race. It’s been a nasty fight so far, with both candidates accusing each other of being corrupt machine politicians. Vega is backed by the Hudson County Democratic Organization, while Stack runs a powerful organization of his own.

West New York Mayor Sal Vega continues to assail Brian Stack’s political allies.  Today he’s calling for the Hudson County Board of Elections to be fire Freddy Gomez for pressuring hair salon owner Angie Espinal to sign an affidavit taking her name off the ballot.