Jack O'Leary

Middlesex County Democrats will hold a special convention on September 2 to replace Jack O'Leary as their candidate for State Assembly in the 19th district.   O'Leary dropped out on Monday after a series of ethical woes made Democrats nervous, especially since he was looking to replace an incumbent under federal and state indictments.  The leading candidate continues to be former Superior Court Judge Mathias Rodriguez of Perth Amboy.  Woodbridge Councilman Charles Kenny is also reportedly mulling an Assembly bid.  O'Leary, who is not happy with his fellow Democrats over the circumstances that led to his withdrawal, has not endorsed a candidate in the race.

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SOUTH AMBOY - Mayor John "Jack" T. O'Leary ended his troubled 19th Legislative District race this afternoon, citing corruption allegations he doggedly denies but that nonetheless have pinned him down and prevented him from waging an all-out campaign to represent this blue collar Middlesex County district anchored by Woodbridge and filled out by riverside and maritime towns like his own South Amboy.

"I just need time," said the 6 ft. 5 O'Leary, 54, sitting in the City Hall conference room here on South Broadway a few blocks away from the Raritan Bay and the waterfront he began rebuilding over two decades ago.

"I can take you on a walk right now and you'll see people giving me the thumbs-up sign and honking their horns at me and encouraging me to run - 100 people have reached out to me telling me to run -but I need time," he added. "Time is on my side when it comes to vetting this thing out."

The bulk of the Democrat's problem as a candidate derived from a state Attorney General's investigation of O'Leary's insurance work in addition to an anonymously authored and disseminated 82-page document which targets the veteran mayor's insurance business - the public insurance work he does and has done in the district and in Middlesex County - and an alleged no-show job at the Housing Authority held by his brother.

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If Democrats think Christopher Christie was wrong when he discussed his interest in running for Governor with Karl Rove, how will they react when Superior Court Judge Mathias Rodriguez enters the race for State Assembly in the nineteenth district?   Rodriguez notified the Administrative Office of the Courts yesterday of his intention to retire today; he is expected to seek  the Democratic Assembly nod after South Amboy Mayor Jack O'Leary drops out of the race - something that could happen within the next five days.  Middlesex County Democratic Chairman Joseph Spicuzzo told the Home News Tribune last month that he had discussed the Assembly post with the Judge.

"I have already spoken with Judge Rodriguez and he is definitely interested in the position, but only after Jack O'Leary decides what he is going to do," the HNT reported Spicuzzo as saying.

This puts Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine in a potential bind: can he back Rodriguez for the Assembly while making an issue of career discussions between old friends?  For Corzine, the timing of this is unfortunate, and could push him into a position of slapping Spicuzzo and Rodriguez.

While the Code of Judicial Conduct prohibits a judge from engaging in any political activity, it might be up to the appropriate ethics panel to decide if private conservations about a prospective candidacy constitutes political activity.

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Superior Court Judge Mathias Rodriguez notified state judiciary officials that he will retire from the bench effective tomorrow, a move that increases speculation that he will replace embattled South Amboy Mayor Jack O'Leary as the Democratic candidate for State Assembly in the nineteenth district.   Rodriguez, a Perth Amboy resident, has spent twenty years on the Superior Court.

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SOUTH AMBOY - Middlesex County remains on Jack O'Leary alert following an anonymous opposition research dump earlier in the summer, which proclaimed to have dredged up the worst political history on the long-serving South Amboy mayor in the middle of his 19th Legislative District campaign for the seat vacated by indicted Assemblyman Joe Vas (D-Perth Amboy).

O'Leary initially dug in against the tide of party officials privately telling him to abandon his campaign in this 2-1 Democratic district after a packet of materials titled "O'Leary Crime Family Syndicate" hit the streets in this dockside town, alleging O'Leary's brother's establishment of the South Amboy Democratic Club to solicit contributions from "active and potential businesses and individuals wishing to obtain employment or do business with the city or housing authority," charging the mayor with giving his brother a no-show job as director of the South Amboy Housing Authority, and with personally profiting from public insurance work countywide.

While professing no wrongdoing, on reflection these past few weeks, Mayor O'Leary said he hardly feels as though he's reached a conclusion about whether or not he intends to run.

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Sources say that embattled South Amboy Mayor Jack O'Leary is digging his heels in and remaining in the race for State Assembly in the nineteenth district.  There had been speculation early last week that Middlesex Democrats would push him out of the race for Joseph Vas' seat and replace him with Mathias Rodriguez, a Superior Court Judge since 1989.

 

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CARTERET - The barges and freighters come through here on their way to Raritan Bay and passing on the Friday before the Fourth of July, some of them give a blast to the crowd gathered at the Carteret Municipal Marina where Staten Island almost seems a strong sidearm throw away but where the band plays the obligatory Springsteen cover - lest anyone doubt this is the Jersey side of the river.

In this case it's "Pink Cadillac" as Gov. Jon Corzine heads through the corridor of tents mobbed with revelers eager for nighttime.

An old factory town literally split in half by the Turnpike, Carteret occupies a point on the Arthur Kill that looks like it could crack off with the weight of reinforced concrete and rustbelt reject silos, warehouses stacked almost to the water's edge and now clusters of condos. The feeling in the working class crowd Friday is more than upbeat on the eve of Independence Day, with plates of ethnic food reflective of more mixed culture than any one definable or dominant strain.

Politically it's not as commingled. 

While 12 of Middlesex County's 25 towns have more registered voters than Carteret, the 10,797 registereds here are 4-1 Democrat over Republican with half unaffiliated. 

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While South Amboy Mayor John O'Leary battles to prove he's done nothing wrong, the Middlesex County Democratic Party has made moves to replace him as a 19th Legislative District Assembly candidate --  just in case his efforts prove futile.
 
The state Attorney General's Office is reportedly investigating work with area towns by O'Leary's insurance brokerage firm, and work allegedly performed in South Amboy by the Baltimore-based insurance company Federal Hill Risk Management.  O'Leary has denied that the firm has any affiliation with the one he operates with his brother.

A replacement candidate for three term incumbent Joseph Vas (D-Perth Amboy), who backed out of running for re-election amid federal and state corruption indictments, O'Leary received a subpoena last week - the result of an anonymous letter circulating in the district, which charges the 23-year mayor with abusing his office.

Insisting he's innocent, O'Leary has vowed to weather the bad news cycle and to clear his name. But sources close to party leaders say the Democrats don't want a firestorm in a safe Democratic district. Some Democrats want O'Leary to withdraw, an outcome that to some could prove fortuitous, given the early demands and subsequent frustration of the powerful Latino Leadership Alliance (LLA).

"I don't know the particulars about the O'Leary situation, but I have spoken in the past with (Middlesex County) Democratic Party Chairman Joe Spicuzzo indicating to him the importance of replacing Joe Vas with another Latino," said Martin Perez, the alliance's founder and executive director.

That didn't happen when the party nominated O'Leary without a challenge.
 
For the moment, "Mayor O'Leary maintains he hasn't done anything wrong, and right now there is no reason to believe he's going to get out of the race," said Spicuzzo. "He's talking it over with family and friends, but he maintains that he is in the race."

When Vas's re-election candidacy went belly up with the impact of corruption charges earlier this year, his conqueror in last year's mayoral race, Perth Amboy Mayor Wilda Diaz, faced the prospect of working with party leaders to select a successor to Vas from the district's second most populous town.

Insiders, including members of the LLA, told Diaz to field a Latino candidate from Perth Amboy, but the new mayor instead backed cross-the-river veteran O'Leary.

Now sources say Middlesex County Superior Court Judge Mathias Rodriguez is interested in running - in the event that O'Leary abandons his candidacy, and party leaders like him. Read More >

There is some discussion among Middlesex County Democrats that Jack O'Leary will drop out of the race for State Assembly in the nineteenth district, although the suddenly embattled South Amboy Mayor seems to be standing firm in his desire to remain a candidate.  O'Leary has been fighting the political effects of a widely-distributed nine-page anonymous letter that accuses him and members of his family of numerous corrupt acts.  O'Leary strongly denies the allegations, but admitted that South Amboy received a subpoena from the state Attorney General's office regarding aspects of his insurance business, according to The Home News' Rick Malwitz.

O'Leary was unopposed for the Democratic nomination after the incumbent, Joseph Vas (D-Perth Amboy), withdrew following his indictment on federal and state corruption charges.  If O'Leary does exit the race, look for Democrats to replace him with a Latino.

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