Eldridge Hawkins

Eldridge Hawkins, Jr. 

ORANGE - There are no smiles cast across a cold ten feet of space where North Ward Councilwoman Tency Eason faces her rival At-Large Councilman Donald Page as the City Council considers giving the Berg Development Corp. a 20-year tax abatement to redevelop and occupy the old Berg Hat Factory in the valley.

The project was supposed to be completed in January, or a few months after Mayor Mims Hackett marched into federal court in handcuffs on a charge of taking a $5,000 bribe from a phoney insurance contractor.

But the old building with broken windows still juts over the neighborhood and question marks abound about the status of that project and others meant to kick-start this city at the edge of gangland crisis, and now staggered by the Hackett scandal.

"It’s been six years and no major projects are finished," resident Shirley Hendricks reminds the council. "At least five to six buildings should be done over there."

Another resident, Harold Johnson, wants to know if the city has planned appropriately for the impact of 600 condo units - 500 in the historic Valley section, and 100 on Main Street.

"We’re hoping they’re empty nesters," frets Johnson.

Senate President Richard Codey (D-Essex)ORANGE - Senate President Richard Codey (D-Essex) today endorsed Eldridge Hawkins, Jr., for mayor in this city in search of a leader in the aftermath of Mims Hackett’s fall.

"Eldridge Hawkins has the right combination of talent and experience to lead Orange in a new direction," said Codey, who served with the candidate’s father, Eldridge Hawkins, in the General Assembly in the early 1970s.

"Eldridge will bring new ideas, extraordinary competence, and leadership in law enforcement, business management and education to the government of Orange," Codey said. "Eldridge Hawkins is a law enforcement expert who has a sensible plan to make Orange safer. Eldridge is a businessman who understands how to create tight budgets, staff City Hall with seasoned professional managers, attract new tax-paying businesses and hold the line on rising property taxes."

The candidates running for mayor in Orange are schedule toOrange Councilman Donald Page participate in a forum Thursday sponsored by the Rev. Reginald Jackson at St. Matthew’s AME Church.

Local clergy members will pose questions to the six invited candidates at the event, which begins at 7 p.m.

At-Large Councilman Donald Page plans to attend the forum.

"It’s a legitimate debate," said Page spokesman Michael Vieira.

In a battle to succeed Orange Mayor Mims HOrange Councilman Donald Pageackett, mayoral candidate Donald Page formally introduced his three council running mates at a reception in Verona last night.

"My friends – it is time for ‘A New Beginning,’" Page, an at-large councilman, told an audience at the Richfield Regency. "It is time to put an end to politics as usual. It is time to put an end to a city government that only works for special interests and political friends. It is time to do something about property taxes. It is time do something about crime."

The candidate, who last November announced his intentions to run for mayor, last night welcomed Rayfield Morton, Antoine "Tony" Desormes and Andrea Elliot as his running mates.

Orange mayoralCouncilman Ed Marable, Jr. candidate Eldridge Hawkins, Jr today received the endorsement of South Ward Councilman Edward Marable, Jr.

"After considerable thought and prayer, I have concluded that you are Orange’s best hope to restore pride, progress and professionalism in our city," Marable wrote in a letter to Hawkins, a West Orange police officer and son of former Assemblyman Eldridge Hawkins.

Hakwins is one of several people expressing an interest in succeeding embattled Mayor Mims Hackett, who faces federal corruption charges. Others who have picked up the paperwork that needs to be completed by March 20 as a pre-requisite to run in the May 13 race include Councilman Donald Page, Councilwoman Tency A. Eason and Council President Lisa Perkins.

Eldridge Hawkins was first elected to the State Assembly in 1971
Veteran African American leaders backing Sen. Hillary Clinton admit that while she doesn't have great speech-making abilities, she and her husband presided personably over a White House attentive to important issues like urban crime and children's healthcare.

But those who support newcomer Sen. Barack Obama can't forget Clinton's affirmative vote on the war in Iraq, and say their man is better poised to inspire a beleaguered nation.

Either way, each side concedes it's an historic time for the Democratic Party and the 256,059 registered African American voters here, and a chance for New Jersey to play a vital role in its first ever early primary on Feb. 5th.

When Eldridge Hawkins, a 31-year-old African American lawyer from East Orange, won the District 11E State Assembly seat in a politically competitive district in 1971, he was widely viewed as a rising star in Essex County Democratic politics.  Hawkins is no seeking a political comeback of sorts: his son, Eldridge Hawkins, Jr., 28, announced this week that he was a candidate for Mayor of Orange.

Legislative redistricting was in constant turmoil in those days, as New Jersey sought to follow the U.S. Supreme Court's one man, one vote decision.  Districts were redrawn in 1965, 1967, 1969, 1971 and 1973.

The story of District 11E starts in 1967, when Kenneth Wilson, a 31-year-old Social Studies teacher from West Orange and John Dennis, 34, a businessman from Verona whose family owned the Annin Flag Company, were among a group of seven young Republicans elected to the State Assembly.  (That group included future Governor Thomas Kean, 32, and Ralph Caputo, 27, who returns to the State Assembly tomorrow after a 35 year absence.)

Former Assemblyman Eldridge Hawkins, Orange Mayoral candidate Eldridge Hawkins Jr., and Linda Cofer Hawkins on Saturday

Promising good government and economic progress to a city plagued by bloated municipal budgets, gangs, a ghost town economy and charges of political corruption, Eldridge Hawkins Jr., entered the race for mayor of Orange at the Elk’s Lodge on Saturday with the strength of his family name behind him.

Son of his namesake, the former state Assemblyman and respected civil rights attorney who was in attendance, Hawkins reminded a small crowd of supporters that Orange was once a thriving industrial city made up of 34 hat-making factories, including the F. Berg Hat Manufacturing Company Complex.

"Today, these same buildings are nothing more than rundown relics of what once was," said the 28-year old West Orange patrolman and realtor associate. "Such images can no longer exist in our town. For too long we have sat by and watched our city deteriorate and its progress be paralyzed by politicians and citizens that were unable to put their feelings, personal agendas and differences aside for the good of the city."

Orange Mayor Mims HackettOrange Mayor Mims Hackett appeared in council chambers, among the first public officials to arrive, smiling broadly at the young baseball players and haggard clutch of City Hall gadflies alike.

"Happy New Year," he said, and proceeded to wade into the small crowd with a polished politician’s outstretched hand. A month away from standing trial to answer to corruption charges and already deposed from his office as 27th district assemblyman, Hackett carried no aura of the disgraced Roman senator on Wednesday evening. He was all dapper southern sweetness and light.

More bundled bodies floated in from the cold and by now Hackett was at the front of the room.

There would be a special presentation of the recreation league baseball team and the mayor smiled with the news and straightened in his chair. "These talented youngsters are an inspiration to everyone," he beamed, and proceeded to slowly read a full roster of the team’s players.