Dana Rone

Lambertville Police Director Bruce Cocuzza thinks that the 2005 traffic stop of then-U.S. Attorney Chris Christie in his town was “no big deal.”  

New Jersey 101.5 FM reported this afternoon that Christie, now the Republican gubernatorial nominee, was stopped for speeding in what turned out to be an unregistered, uninsured vehicle, but was allowed to drive the car away.

"He was agitated at the prospect of his vehicle being towed away,” said Cocuzza, a Democrat who ran for Hunterdon County Sheriff in 2007, told PolitickerNJ.com’s Max Pizarro in a phone interview. "He was worried about his family being left on the side of the road with no vehicle."

Christie was accompanied by his wife, Mary Pat, his children and former U.S. Attorney staffer Michele Brown, who is Christie’s personal friend.

Sources close to Newark Mayor Cory Booker say that Central Ward Councilman Charlie Bell - who bested Booker-backed Eddie Osborne in a November 2008 special election to replace ousted Councilwoman Dana Rone - has cut a deal to run on the Booker Team's ticket in next year's municipal elections.  The deal was reportedly negotiated a few days ago over golf between Bell, Booker's former law partner and (ex-Pittsburgh Steeler) Elnardo Webster, and campaign manager Pablo Fonseca.

This leaves only one real race in Newark next year, between South Ward Councilman Oscar James and former Councilman Ras Baraka.  Sources say Booker expects to have between $5 and $7 million by the end of the year and is committed to spend as much as necessary to ensure a South Ward victory.  James is a favorite of Booker and Webster.

Carl Sharif

NEWARK – The man Mayor Cory Booker calls his political sensei came out of the South Ward today and made a statement.

Power broker Carl Sharif laughed off the suggestion that because he’s funding Mary Rone’s Central Ward Council campaign, it means Rone is toiling as a mole for Sharif’s old ally and political acolyte, Booker.

The argument on the street is that Rone’s campaigning in those areas or at least among those populations where Booker antagonist Charles Bell is strong, in order to divide the vote and enable Osborne to win.

Mary, left, and former Councilwoman Dana Rone

 NEWARK – Spackled over with “Fight the Power” signs, the sedan cruises up 14th Avenue, and Georgia Maye Ransome’s voice sounds on the intercom, urging residents to get out there for the Rone ticket on Election Day. 

At the wheel of the car sits candidate Mary Rone, longtime community activist and mother of former Councilwoman Dana Rone, whom an assignment judge stripped of her Central Ward Council seat in August after concluding that Rone used her office to try to obstruct justice in a Dec. 2006 traffic incident.

Fifteen people, including her mother, vie to replace Dana Rone in a special election come Tuesday. There were originally 16 candidates but city job counselor Marcell Robinson dropped out of the race and now backs Rone.  

NEWARK – Getting caught in the middle of political theater involving other, bigger antagonists goes with the territory when it comes to the fledgling career of Nakea White, Central Ward council candidate.   

No big deal.

Politics here with all of its intrigue still generally has fewer hard edges than crime.

“The number one issue in our ward is crime, especially with the recent shootings on Boyd, these are the issues affecting people,”  says White, sitting in her gritty, second story campaign headquarters on Springfield Avenue. “People are scared.  A woman told me the other day she’s scared that she might be the next person to get shot.”

Former Councilman Charles Bell: Politicker photo 

NEWARK - The crowded race for a vacant Central Ward Council seat features a veteran with the stalwart backing of Newark’s gray-haired fathers, versus a labor-cash infused newcomer who may or may not receive support from a wobbling Mayor Cory Booker.

Thirteen candidates hope to fill the seat an assignment judge separated from Central Ward Councilwoman Dana Rone after Rone this summer exhausted her appeals process going back to a 2006 obstruction of justice case.

But apparent frontrunner Charles Bell sees his chief challenger - both for Obama affection and for the local council seat - as fellow labor brother Eddie Osborne, whose billboards and signs laden with Obama iconography have hit the Central Ward like an orange blizzard.

The Osborne campaign sizes up the contest similarly.

In their sights, they see Bell, a former councilman, school board member for nearly 30 years and retired labor official with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Workers Union, who combines name ID and an alliance with time-tested political infrastructure.

Sources say that Newark Mayor Cory Booker will endorse Eddie Osborne for the Central Ward City Council seat.  Osborne, a union organizer with close ties to the Booker camp, is seeking the seat of Dana Rone, who was removed from office by a Superior Court Judge after her conviction on charges that she interfered with police during a routine traffic stop of her nephew. 

Bret Schundler is mulling another bid for Mayor of Jersey City, his job from 1992 to 2001.
Count former Jersey City Mayor Bret Schundler as one ally of former Assemblyman Lou Manzo in his quest to force Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy to forfeit his office.

“If what the officer said happened actually happened, then I think Healy should be removed,” he said.

After grand jury testimony surfaced from a police officer alleging that Healy tried to use his political status to “sweep” his 2006 disorderly conduct arrest in Bradley Beach “under the rug,” Manzo filed a lawsuit asking the Monmouth County Prosecutor to look into the matter.

Responding to Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy’s charge that he’s a lawsuit-mad political opportunist, former Assemblyman and potential mayoral candidate Lou Manzo today defended his decision to file a lawsuit seeking to oust Healy from public office.

Healy was convicted over a 2006 disorderly conduct charge stemming from an incident outside of his sister’s Bradley Beach restaurant, which he’s currently appealing in state Supreme Court.  After former Newark Councilwoman Dana Rone was ordered to forfeit her office after her own disorderly conduct conviction, Manzo sought to apply the same standard to Healy.

Healy claims that he never invoked his office to the arresting police officers, as Rone did while trying to get her nephew out of a parking ticket.  The Rone incident, however, was captured on videotape.  Healy’s incident was not, but in grand jury testimony, several police officers involved claimed that Healy mentioned his office several times, along with his friendship with the Bradley Beach chief of police in order to “sweep this under the rug.” 

Below is Manzo’s full statement. 

Former Assemblyman Lou Manzo, a potential mayoral candidate in Jersey City next year, filed a petition with Monmouth County Superior Court to ask them to weigh whether Mayor Jerramiah Healy’s conduct during his 2006 Bradley Beach arrest should trigger him to forfeit his office.

No hearing date is set yet, and Manzo can’t release details until all parties have been served.

Healy was convicted of disorderly conduct in Bradley Beach last year, and has sought unsuccessfully to reverse the decision several times. He’s currently appealing it in the state Supreme Court.

But after an Essex County judge ruled that former Newark Councilwoman Dana Rone must forfeit her office earlier this summer, Manzo started digging and hired legal counsel to see whether the same standard should apply to Healy. Healy and Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio said it shouldn’t, since Healy never invoked his office during his arrest.