Doria

In the wake of the abrupt resignation of Community Affairs Commissioner Joe Doria, Senator Marcia Karrow, R-Warren/Hunterdon, urged Governor Jon Corzine to immediately freeze accounts that hold money earmarked for "Special Municipal Aid," also known as "Distressed Cities" aid.

The DEP commissioner has confirmed again that COAH's demands for affordable housing construction are based on sloppily collected and inaccurate data. When will the governor drop this job-killing COAH plan and create a plan for affordable housing that will work in any economy?

Senators Steven Oroho and Marcia Karrow, Republican members of the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee, expressed dismay that Governor Jon Corzine's Local Finance Board decided to award $5 million to Jersey City this morning under the "Special Municipal Aid" program.

CODEY CALLS FOR DOBI INTERVENTION TO THWART NEW POTENTIAL MORTGAGE FRAUD

Senate President Also Seeking DCA Intervention on Rising HMFA Mortgage Rates 

            TRENTON – Senate President Richard J. Codey (D-Essex) today sent a letter to the Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance (DOBI) seeking intervention to thwart a potentially new crisis looming on the horizon for troubled homeowners.  During a meeting of roughly 200 members of the New Jersey Association of REALTORS last week, it was brought to Codey’s attention that a number of homeowners are now contemplating intentionally defaulting on their mortgages in order to qualify for a mortgage restructuring.

Does Mr. Doria think Sen. Codey is grandstanding too? Obviously he and Sen. Paul Sarlo (who offered to cosponsor the legislation) see a downside to COAH-3. So do a lot of others

“Mr. Doria ran Bayonne into the ground, now he has his sights set on destroying Bergen County and making it look like Bayonne.”  

There is a limit to what mortals can attain, and where the mortal strivings of one group fall off, another group begins, so there is never a totality of human endeavor, only the approximation of something whole, captured in a contest of opposing sides.
Such is waterfront politics in Jersey City and Bayonne.

Gearing up for primary season, the Hudson County Democratic Organization (HCDO) presented a “dream team� ticket of district 31 Legislative candidates last Thursday that includes some diehard Sen. Robert Menendez supporters, and the widow of the late Mayor Glenn Cunningham, who warred with the Democratic Party machine.

But in reconciling onetime opposites, the ticket also fails to include some key players, who themselves are mobilizing this week to emerge as part of another “unity ticket,� headed by veteran Assemblyman Louis Manzo.

The organization ticket brings Sandra Bolden Cunningham together with her husband’s old rival, former Jersey City Council President (and interim Mayor and State Senator) L. Harvey Smith; and Bayonne Councilman (and former Assemblyman) Anthony Chiappone, a Cunningham family ally.

Former Jersey City Mayor Bret Schundler says he has no plans to run for State Senate in the 31st district.  There has been considerable speculation that the 2001 Republican candidate for Governor would run for Joe Doria's Senate seat, where Democrats could face a divisive primary to replace him.  Schundler's first bid for public office was for this Senate seat sixteen years ago; his near upset against incumbent Edward O'Connor helped propel him to a victory in his 1992 bid for Mayor.

Sandra Bolden Cunningham, whose late husband served as Mayor of Jersey City and as a State Senator, will be the Hudson County Democratic Organization candidate for State Senate in the 31st district. She is expected to succeed Joseph Doria, who is not seeking re-election to a second term in the Senate.

Running for the State Assembly on the HCDO line will be Bayonne Councilman Anthony Chiappone, who served as an Assemblyman from 2004 to 2006, and L. Harvey Smith, who has served as Acting Mayor of Jersey City, as an interim State Senator, and as the Jersey City Council President.

TEN SENATORS RETIRING IN 2007

So far, ten of the forty Senators who started the year will not return to Trenton in January, 2008.