Hillside

Menza (left) gets sworn-in last week.

Independent Joe Menza's surprise victory has created an early uproar in Hillside Township, with both sides reaching for war metaphors to describe the ongoing and rocky transition of power in this Union County town where the local Democratic Party machine still controls the council. 

"Let's just say the war's started," said John O'Shea, the mayor's former campaign manager whom Menza now wants as his mayoral aide at a salary of $70,000.

New Council President Edward Brewer argued that it was the new mayor who "fired the first salvo over the bow of the ship of state" when he sought to appoint O'Shea by executive order, in addition to attorney Joseph Greer as acting business administrator for a period of 90 days at a salary not to exceed $50,000, the Cliffside Park law firm of Diktas, Schandler & Gillen as “general counsel” at the rate of $150.00 per hour, and the Fairlawn accounting firm of Lerch, Vinci and Higgins as auditor and financial advisors.

Menza stood by taking no action on the contract expiration of Democratic Party appointee Township Attorney Christine Burgess, which took effect last night, according to O'Shea.

Menza addressses the crowd.

HILLSIDE - This little, oft-dispected town practically buried under a criss-cross of highways in the muscled-up arms of Newark on one side and Elizabeth on the other today showed little sign of breaking a four-year standoff between mayor and council as Joe Menza assumed the oath of office several hours before the council's reorganization meeting this evening.

Real estate developer Menza beat the local Democratic Party machine on May 12th when he defeated At-Large Councilman Jerome Jewell, a staunch ally of local party chair Charlotte DeFilippo, who also runs the county party.

DeFillipo allies still controls five seats on the seven-member governing body, but Menza kicked off his mayoralty by letting the crowd of 150 people here know that under the Faulkner Act, it is his responsibility to prepare and submit an annual operating budget and to sign all contracts, and he doesn't intend to abdicate those powers.

On the contrary, "The buck stops right here, you can expect that from me," announced the new mayor, moments after taking the oath at the prompting of substitute Township Judge Geoffrey Gechtman.

Union County GOP Chairman Phil Morin

Stepping over the stunned, melted-down infrastructure of a Democratic Party machine that failed to elect Jerome Jewell in the Hillside mayor's race yesterday, Union County Republican Chairman Phil Morin seized on real estate developer Joe Menza's victory as a symbolic statement in the "backyard" of Union County Democratic Chair Charlotte DeFilippo.

The fact that GOP gubernatorial nominee Chris Christie poured bodies into the Union County town, and personally cut a robocall on Menza's behalf even as the Democratic Governor's Association (DGA) channeled dollars into the Union County town to buttress Jewell gave Morin a special pride in the unofficial outcome.

"While Menza's slate didn't win, his victory sent a message to Union County that Union will be a battleground in 2009," said Morin. "We're very proud of the fact that Union County Republicans and Chris Christie were able to assist the Menza campaign in getting him across the finish line in this runoff."

Morin had reached out personally to Menza campaign strategist John O'Shea to see if there was any way in which his organization could assist in Menza's independent battle with Jewell and DeFilippo, who lives in Hillside and serves as the town's municipal Democratic Party chair in addition to her county party duties.

Joe Menza of Hillside

HILLSIDE - Independent mayoral candidate Joe Menza, an unsuccessful candidate in 2005, today claimed victory over the local Democratic Party machine.

The Union County Board of Elections this afternoon counted the provisional ballots in the Hillside mayoral contest and determined that real estate developer Menza defeated At-Large Councilman Jerome Jewell in the runoff by eight votes.

The final tally, scheduled to be certified tomorrow, is 1,710 to 1,702.

"We had a team of volunteers that was unstoppable," Menza said. "As we kept going in this campaign it was truly a community effort. We were very successful at identifying (Councilwoman Shelley) Bates and (former School Board Member Andre) Daniels supporters and making sure they came on board with us. This was a total community effort."

Joe Menza of Hillside

HILLSIDE - Unofficial results in Hillside now show real estate developer Joe Menza ahead of At-Large Councilman Jerome Jewell by six votes after machine and absentee vote tallies.

Provisionals remain to be counted, but right now, Menza has 1,705 votes and Jewell has 1,699.

At-Large Councilman Jerome Jewell

HILLSIDE - The forces of At-Large Councilman Jerome Jewell claim to have beaten real estate developer Joe Menza by six votes, but Menza says he's up by three votes with the city clerk counting absentee ballots right now.

Joe Menza of Hillside

HILLSIDE - It's good news early for the team of mayoral candidate Joe Menza's, who's generating solid numbers in his stronghold.

If At-Large Councilman Jerome Jewell's campaign nurses worry, it's over the weather. If it rains, and rains hard in the after-work hours, they're concerned that the core of their voters might not flood the polls as they've planned.

This is likely a close election. Menza missed by 208 votes in his 2005 challenge. He came in second behind Jewell on May 12th to make the runoff, winning 1,167 to Jewell's 1,368. Both sides believe they're now working a universe of about 2,800 to 2,900 likely voters in this election.

Menza has good command of the senior vote in Hillside, but the African-American working class is Jewell's bet, and so he and his campaign workers keep looking up at the sky, trying to discern what the clouds are doing or will do with the passage of time.

They stifle laughter at the suggestion that Menza could win. They believe the independent real estate developer who's running against Union County Democratic Committee Chairwoman Charlotte DeFilippo and her candidate, Jewell, made a boneheaded miscalculation when he allowed GOP gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie to do a robocall on Menza's behalf.

At-Large Councilman Jerome Jewell (right) campaigning in Hillside in the lead-up to the May 12th election.

HILLSIDE - The mayoral campaign of real estate developer Joe Menza today demanded that At-Large Councilman Jerome Jewell explain the reason behind large dollar Democratic Party campaign contributions coming from outside Hillside to elect Jewell mayor.

Menza campaign spokesman John O’Shea cited a $10,400 gift from the Democratic Governors Association (DGA) and $5,000 from something called the USPO on North Broad Street, Elizabeth, in Jewell's Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC) report.

“One might ask what possible interest could the National Democratic Governors Association have in little Hillside,” wondered O’Shea. “Once it’s determined who the USPO is, a determination of the reason for their involvement can also be made.”

Real estate developer Joe Menza, left, and former School Board member Andre Daniels

HILLSIDE – The losing candidates in the Hillside mayoral race these past few days intensified their support for independent candidate Joe Menza, who’s in a runoff with At-Large Councilman Jerome Jewell.

In a show of solidarity on Saturday, former mayoral candidate Andre Daniels joined Menza for a hot dog social outside Daniels’s former campaign headquarters on Maple Avenue, which Menza will use as his cross-town HQ for the remainder of his runoff campaign with At-Large Councilman Jerome Jewell.

Also defeated in the May 12th mayoral contest, Councilwoman Shelley Bates sent out an email blast to her supporters, officially notifying them of her support for Menza and his slate against the local Democratic Party machine, which backs Jewell.

From left: Joe Menza, Councilwoman Shelley Bates, and former School Board member Andre Daniels

The two losing mayoral candidates and their supporting casts intend to back real estate developer Joe Menza over At-Large Councilman Jerome Jewell in the Hillside muncipal runoff, according to Councilwoman Shelley Bates and a spokesman for former School Board member Andre Daniels. 

Menza’s an independent. 

Jewell has the backing of the local Democratic Party headed by Union County Democratic Party Chair Charlotte DeFilippo.

“Of the two candidates who are running, I definitely support Joe Menza,” said Bates, a grassroots Democrat and Obama activist whose running mate, former School Board member Sip Whitaker, was the target of a mailer initiated in the final days of the campaign by the Jewell organization, highlighting a domestic battery charge from the 1980s.