Jerramiah Healy

Jerramiah Healy has won three campaigns for Mayor of Jersey City in five years without ever being forced into a runoff election - the first Mayor to do that since the legendary Frank Hague won his last election in 1945. The Healy slate also won six of the seven Council seats decided in yesterday's vote, with the chance to pick up two more when Ward A Councilman Michael Sottolano and Ward F Councilwoman Viola Richardson run in a June 9 runoff election. 

Healy won 53% of the vote in a five-candidate field, besting two well-known challengers: Louis Manzo, a former Assemblyman and Hudson County Freeholder who was making his fifth bid for Mayor; and Assemblyman L. Harvey Smith, a former Acting Mayor, State Senator, and City Council President. 

But one frequent critic of the Mayor remains in office: Ward E Councilman Steven Fulop won a massive 63% of the vote against four opponents, including Guy "Squab" Catrillo, who ran on Healy' slate.  The Healy campaign, sensing Fulop's strength, essentially pulled out of the Ward E race a few weeks ago.

Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy appears headed toward winning reelection without needing to go through a runoff.

As of right now, the Hudson County Clerk’s Web site puts Healy just shy of 53% -- three points more than he needs to win a first ballot victory.  His closest rival, Lou Manzo, appears to have lost his fifth mayoral campaign with just over 26% of the vote.

Assemblyman Harvey Smith got about 13%, while good government activist Dan Levin earned somewhere north of 5% of the vote and police detective Phil Webb won a little over 2%.  

Most of Healy’s running mates for council appear to be doing well, too.  Mariano Vega, Peter Brennan, Willie Flood, Michael Sottolano, Phil Kenny, Nidia Lopez and Bill Gaughan all appear headed toward victory, though two will have to compete in a runoff. 

In Ward E, independent Steven Fulop appears to have easily won reelection.  Healy’s candidate, Guy Catrillo, got about 23% of the vote to Fulop’s 63%. 

If Jerramiah Healy tops the 50% mark today, he will become the first Mayor of Jersey City to win three elections without a runoff since the legendary Frank Hague.

Healy won a 2004 special election 28%-24% over Assemblyman Louis Manzo, with Acting Mayor L. Harvey Smith running a strong third with 22%.  When he ran for re-election in 2005, he won 75% of the vote against former City Councilwoman Melissa Holloway.

Runoffs have been common in Jersey City elections in recent years.  In 2001, former U.S. Marshal Glenn Cunningham led City Council President (now Hudson County Executive) Thomas DeGise 38%-24% in the May election, and won the runoff 53%-47%.  Bret Schundler elected in a nineteen-candidate 1992 special election, won re-election with 68% in 1993.  But in 1997, he fell two votes short of winning 50% and after a court battle, beat Healy 59%-41% in the runoff.

When Dr. Paul Jordan, a reformer who toppled the Jersey City Democratic machine when he won a 1971 special election for Mayor, ran for Governor six years later, City Clerk Thomas F.X. Smith beat Jordan's handpicked successor.  Smith won 50% against William Macchi, the Jersey City Director of Human Resources.  That effectively ended Jordan's gubernatorial campaign and caused the defeat of Jordan allies in the State Senate (Walter Sheil ousted two-term State Sen. James Dugan, the Democratic State Chairman) and Assembly in the primary election a few weeks later.  Smith served one-term and unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for Governor in 1981.

Sources say that tracking polls taken by Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy's campaign show the incumbent around 53%, and around 55% with leaners.  His closest rival, former Assemblyman Louis Manzo is holding at around 15%, and Assemblyman L. Harvey Smith is running third.  Healy needs to win 50% of the vote tonight to avoid a runoff.

Non-partisan local elections will be held in 28 municipalities today, and Republican gubernatorial candidates Christopher Christie and Steven Lonegan will hold their first official televised debate tonight.

Key mayoral races will be held in Jersey City, where the popular incumbent, Jerramiah Healy, must win 50% of the vote in a five-man field to avoid a runoff; in Passaic, where newly-elected Mayor Alex Blanco faces voters for the second time in six months; in Hoboken, where David Roberts is stepping down after two terms; and in Hillside, Robbinsville, and West Windsor.

New Jersey Network (NJN) will air the debate, sponsored by Gannett New Jersey and the Philadelphia Inquirer, at 8PM.  It will be available on streaming video at njn.net.  NJN News anchor Jim Hooker will be the moderator, and NJN reporter Zach Fink will offer debate commentary on Twitter.

NJN Senior Political Correspondent Michael Aron will host a post-debate analysis on NJN2 and njn.net will Seton Hall University Prof. Joe Marbach, Rutgers University Prof. Ingrid Reed, former EPA Regional Administrator Alan Steinberg, and former State Sen. Richard LaRossa.  Marbach, Steinberg and LaRossa are unpaid contributors for PolitickerNJ.com.

A second GOP debate, sponsored by the League of Women Voters of New Jersey, will be held at 11AM on Sunday, May 17 on WABC-TV/Channel 7 in New York and on WPVI-TV/Channel 6 in Philadelphia. 

A third candidate, Assemblyman Rick Merkt (R-Mendham), will join Christie and Lonegan in two other debates: New Jersey 101.5 on May 26 at 7PM, and WOR 710 on May 27 at 4PM.

Voters in ten municipalities going to the polls to elect a Mayor: Jersey City, Hoboken, Passaic, Hillside, West Windsor, Robbinsville, Byram, Stafford, Tinton Falls, and Island Heights.  Municipal elections will also be held in Asbury Park, Avalon, Audubon Borough, Bordentown City, Cedar Grove, Collingswood, Evesham, Hackensack, Haddonfield, Lyndhurst, Millville, Monmouth Beach, Pohatcong, South Orange, Tavistock, Verona, West Cape May, and Wildwood Crest.

If Jerramiah Healy wins re-election as Mayor of Jersey City tomorrow, it would be excellent news for Newark Mayor Cory Booker.  Healy and Booker are close political allies (and friends), and the conventional wisdom is that Healy, the Hudson County Democratic Chairman, will support Booker for the Democratic nomination for Governor in 2013.

About 31% of the statewide Democratic primary vote comes out of Essex and Hudson counties - a good base for Booker if he decides he wants to run statewide.

2nd Ward Councilwoman Beth Mason

HOBOKEN – Councilwoman Beth Mason’s just left her campaign headquarters, and if anyone ever needed evidence that big money moves in and out of this narrow front door, in her absence, the candidate’s mobile face on a flat screen TV speaks to passersby on Washington Avenue. 

She’s on cable TV, too, and a Brian P. Stack-sized banner hangs on the side of campaign headquarters. Overlooking Washington Avenue in fullblown Diego Rivera glory stand Mason and her three crusading running mates. 

Circulating on these same streets, meanwhile, a Mason mailer shows Councilman Peter Cammarano’s head with rabbit ears popping in less than auspicious fashion out of a hat held by exuberant magic man Mayor David Roberts.

The implication is that Cammarano represents an elongation of the now gasping Roberts era. But the larger campaign implication is just as telling from this and a constant barrage of counterpunching mailers targeting Cammarano and not Mason’s other chief competitor in a six-person field:  if there must be a runoff, the Mason campaign wants to eliminate Cammarano now and deal one-on-one with Councilwoman Dawn Zimmer later.

U.S. Senator Robert Menendez (D-Hoboken) will endorse Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy for re-election a rally today in Journal Square, and will announce his support for Healy's entire slate of City Council candidates.  Nidia Lopez will introduce Menendez, offering some valuable exposure to the Ward C Council candidate.  Lopez faces former Jersey City Park Authority Director Jimmy King, who is running on Louis Manzo's ticket.  The two are seeking the seat of Steven Lipski, who decided to retire after being charged with public urination.

Healy: basking in GOP affection

The wave of GOP Healy love continued in West New York last night, but famously conservative state Sen. Gerald Cardinale (R-Demarest) said his was hardly a Specter-sized appearance at a fundraiser for Democratic Mayor Jerramiah Healy and his running mates.

“I was invited to speak in support of (Council candidate) Guy Catrillo, who’s a Republican,” said Cardinale. “County Chairman Jose Arango invited me, and the municipal party chair asked me to show the flag for him. Look, the bottom line is if you don’t run on the Healy ticket in Jersey City, can’t get elected. From time to time I go to Jersey City to support Republican candidates."