Donald Cresitello

Council President John Cryan operates in campaign HQ on Wednesday afternoon.

MORRISTOWN – Council President John Cryan’s focused on the 2nd Ward as part of his at-large re-election bid where he runs on a Democratic Primary ticket with Mayor Donald Cresitello, Council President Anthony Cattano and former Councilman Chris O’Brien.

The onetime destination dropzone for a public works garage, which Cresitello says is now bound for Hanover Twp., the 2nd Ward remains the battleground in Morristown.

The council president’s opponents argue that Cryan’s hedging his bets by erecting lawn signs that feature only his name, or his and Cattano’s names, a strategy allegedly born of fear from standing with the controversial Cresitello, whose challenger in the mayor’s race is Zoning Board Chairman Tim Dougherty. 

Cryan says it’s not true.

“I got those signs ordered before the filing deadline,” he said. “We’ve got lawn signs coming that have all our names on them. I’m running with Donald because we want to continue to keep Morristown the envy of New Jersey.”

Morristown Mayor Donald Cresitello in his campaign HQ.

MORRISTOWN – If he doesn’t win the Democratic Primary on June 2nd, Mayor Donald Cresitello intends to support the challenger from his own party in November’s general election.

“I don’t plan on losing, but if it should go down that way, I’d back Timmy, of course - the Democrat,” said Cresitello, who’s lined up on column three under Gov. Jon Corzine. 

But Tim Dougherty – who runs with his team on column five - is not saying publicly who he’d support should Cresitello beat him in the primary.

“I’m not looking past June 2nd,” Dougherty told PolitickerNJ.com. “It depends on my opponent’s actions over the next two weeks.”

Mayoral candidate Tim Dougherty, right, with Councilwoman Michelle Harris-King and Kevin Gsell.

MORRISTOWN – Three challengers in the Morristown municipal race tell a story about how they walk halfway up a voter’s driveway, eager to make their pitch, when the homeowner waves them off and says, “I don’t care who you are, I’m voting for you. Just make sure you get him the hell out of there.”

The "him" in question is Mayor Donald Cresitello, running for his second straight term in a row in the June 2nd Democratic Primary with a team of incumbents that includes At-Large Council President Anthony Cattano and At-Large Councilman John Cryan (cousin of Democratic State Chairman Joe Cryan). 

Whatever other dynamics exist – the bad overall economy, a general voter dissatisfaction with incumbents, or new pay-to-play reforms regulating the way candidates can raise money – this contest comes down to a referendum on Cresitello, that sometimes lovable, sometimes irascible creature of  politics. 

“Tax increases in Morristown have been zero, zero and 1.7% over the course of the last three years – that’s two percent less than any other Morris County town in 16 years,” says the mayor, 63, sitting in his campaign headquarters cattycorner to a fenced-off condo project, where the sounds of hardhat labor spill into the plaza.

Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy

TRENTON - Street people help in an election year, and Gov. Jon Corzine may have a few more of them in the form of those in the political establishment arguably most naturally resistant to the Wall Street outsider who leapfrogged over all of them to become governor: mayors.

Ticked last year when Gov. Jon Corzine made substantial cuts to state aid for municipalities, big city and suburban Democratic Party execs warmed to the governor’s plan this year to cut municipal aid by less than 2%, even as he slashed 850 line items to repair a long-term budget gap of $7 billion.

Morristown Mayor Donald Cresitello mixes with supporters prior to his speech at the Hyatt.

MORRISTOWN - Running on a platform of continuing Morristown's forward progress, Mayor Donald Cresitello announced his reelection bid here tonight at the downtown Hyatt Hotel in front of a crowd of about 100 supporters. 

“I make things happen,” said the 63-year old Cresitello, who’s had a career in public life spanning 37 years, and who plans to make experience the issue as he attempts to stare down Democratic Party Primary challenger Tim Dougherty, a 50-year old zoning board chairman and former councilman. 

Known less for scripted sound-bites than for a style that both delights quote hounds and gives his detractors ample room to try to brand him as a Town Hall Napoleon, Cresitello jumped onto the podium with no notes in his hand as he launched into a candid speech, at once vigorous and confessional. 

“It was a difficult decision for me to make,” the mayor said of his gutcheck moment to pursue a second straight term (he also served as mayor from 1977-1981). “I have said a number of times that I wouldn’t run again."

Mayor Donald Cresitello

MORRISTOWN – For several weeks now, the signs have been solid in the form of friends circulating petitions and allies receiving phone calls: Mayor Donald Cresitello is running for reelection.  

On Thursday evening, he intends to make it official at the Hyatt Hotel, according to sources on the ground here.

To some a brazen creature of intolerance based on his stand against illegal immigrants, to others the embodiment of Lyndon Johnson on the local level with his hard mechanical understanding of government and politics and old fashioned work ethic, Cresitello is reportedly ready for a Democratic Party primary showdown with former Councilman Tim Dougherty.

“I’m full of energy” said Cresitello, 63. “I don’t play golf. I’m not into sport. Running government is not just business, it’s enjoyment. When I’m done with my sport, which I call politics, I’ll have a record of accomplishment that people can see.”

U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg, who began his fifth term in the U.S. Senate in January 2008, has beaten fifteen Democrats, five Republicans and 20 Independents on his path to becoming the longest serving Senator in New Jersey history.

There are now two Democrats who say they will challenge Jon Corzine in the Democratic gubernatorial primary in June: former Glen Ridge Mayor Carl Bergmanson and Perth Amboy Councilman Ken Balut.  So far, neither seems to pose a real threat to the incumbent, who despite struggling approval numbers still has a 66%-24% job approval rating among Democrats.  Bergmanson and Balut have not raised money or announced any endorsements. 

For Balut, it will be interesting to see if he can secure the backing of his chief political ally, Perth Amboy Mayor Wilda Diaz.

Perth Amboy Mayor Wilda Diaz might have to decide if she'll back her own running mate for Governor or the incumbent, Jon Corzine.

There is no sign that Perth Amboy Councilman Kenneth Balut can do any better against Jon Corzine in the Democratic gubernatorial primary than the six percent that Morristown Mayor Donald Cresitello won in his campaign for the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination against Frank Lautenberg last year.  Balut will have a hard time qualifying for public financing, and even if he did - which he won't - Corzine would not be compelled to debate him since Corzine is not accepting public funds for his re-election campaign.

Gov. Richard J. Hughes won 91% of the vote in the 1965 Democratic gubernatorial primary, when he sought re-election to a second term.

Only twice have incumbent statewide officeholders lost primary elections.  They were both Republicans: in 1973, U.S. Rep. Charles Sandman defeated Governor William Cahill by a 58%-41% margin; and in 1978, when four-term U.S. Senator Clifford Case lost to Jeffrey Bell, a 35-year-old former speechwriter for Ronald Reagan, by a 51%-49% margin.

In 1977, Governor Brendan Byrne had ten opponents in the Democratic primary, including two Congressmen, a State Senator, and his own Commissioner of Labor.  Byrne won with 30% of the vote; U.S. Rep. Robert Roe came in second with 23%.

The most high profile primary against an incumbent came in 2008, when 84-year-old U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg faced a major challenge from U.S. Rep. Robert Andrews.  Lautenberg won 59% of the vote in the Democratic primary, with 35% for Andrews and 6% for Morristown Mayor Donald Cresitello. 

Lautenberg has faced two minor challenges as an incumbent.  He won 81% against Bill Campbell and Lynne Speed in 1994 and 80% against Elnardo Webster (the father of a powerful Democratic lawyer) and Harold Young in 1988.