Charles Mainor

Assembly Anthony Chiappone (D-Bayonne) wants his committee assignments back.

Chiappone, charged with allegedly cashing legislative aides' checks for personal and campaign use, was stripped of his membership in three committees by Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts (D-Camden) immediately after he was indicted by the state Attorney General's Office.

But Chiappone insists he's innocent, and news of his indictment did not doom his reelection in a district where Democrats outnumber Republicans eight-to-one.  Chiappone and running mate Charles Mainor - a police detective who was narrowly the top vote getter - got nearly three times the vote totals of their two Republican opponents. 

"Naturally I'd like to have [the committee assignments] back," said Chiappone.  "What the people basically said is what I've been asking them: give me the benefit of the doubt, give me the presumption of innocence."

The cover of today’s Jersey Journal has a picture of Assemblyman Anthony Chiappone (D-Bayonne) next to the words “I’ll win.”

Chiappone, indicted along with his wife in August by the State Attorney General’s Office for allegedly cashing staffers’ checks for his personal and campaign bank accounts and  subsequently stripped of his legislative committee assignments, expects to be re-elected on Tuesday.  And the conventional wisdom is that he’s probably right.  He’s running in the Democratic column in a district where his party outnumbers Republicans eight-to-one.  

That’s part of the reason leaders of the Hudson County Democratic Organization (HCDO) – which saw several of its own members arrested in an unrelated federal corruption sting in July – did not make much of a fuss about forcing Chiappone to resign (with the notable exception of Bayonne Mayor Mark Smith, already a fierce rival of Chiappone’s).  Although Chiappone is not cozy with most of Hudson County’s top Democrats, HCDO Chairman Jerramiah Healy, the mayor of Jersey City, might have found it awkward if he called on Smith to resign but refused to do the same for corruption-charged Jersey City Council President Mariano Vega.

But the HCDO has kept its distance from Chiappone.  His running mate, police detective Charles Mainor, attends political events with the top HCDO brass, but Chiappone has not been not invited to join them.

So how does Mainor feel about having a running mate who has been indicted?

“As a police officer, I truly believe that everyone is innocent until proven guilty, and I extend that much courtesy to Mr. Chiappone,” he said.

If Assemblyman L. Harvey Smith (D-Jersey City) resigns following his indictment on federal corruption charges today, the special election convention to fill the remaining six months of his term is likely to be uneventful.  Since Smith gave up his Assembly seat to run unsuccessfully for Mayor, Democrats already have a candidate: Charles Mainor, a 42-year-old Jersey City police detective who was picked to run by the Hudson County Democratic Organization last April. 

The Jersey City mayoral campaign has spilled into a legislative race.

Former Assemblyman Louis Manzo, who is running for mayor in Jersey City's non-partisan election, has fielded two Assembly candidates to run in District 31, which he used to represent.

Ronnie Meadows, a former Hudson County freeholder candidate, and Monique Snow, a paralegal, are bracketed together with the same slogan Manzo is using for his mayoral campaign: "Change to Believe in."

Meadows and Snow are challenging Hudson County Democratic Organization (HCDO) backed incumbent Anthony Chiappone and Jersey City police detective Charles Mainor, who replaces incumbent L. Harvey Smith on the ballot.  Smith is also running for mayor.

Charles Mainor, a 42-year-old Jersey City police detective, appears headed for the State Assembly.  He has emerged as the likely candidate of the Hudson County Democratic Organization in the 31st district, where Assemblyman L. Harvey Smith (D-Jersey City) is giving up his seat to run for Mayor.  He is expected to run with Assemblyman Anthony Chiappone (D-Bayonne), who has cut a deal with Democrats to keep his seat.  Mainor’s chief advocates were State Sen. Sandra Bolden Cunningham and longtime Democratic insider Joseph Cardwell, but Democrats say he has a solid relationship with the Mayor of Jersey City, Jerramiah Healy.  Sources say Mainor got the nod over Oren Dabney, who runs the Jersey City Incinerator Authority.