Jerramiah Healy

State Sen. Jennifer Beck (R-Red Bank) spent Saturday night in Jersey City, where she attended a fundraiser for Mayor Jerramiah Healy's slate, Team Jersey City. Beck was a guest of Paul Parmar, a friend who was honored at the fundraiser, which raised money from the South Asian community.  U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone co-hosted the fundraiser, which was chaired by lobbyist/Jersey City Housing Authority Commissioner Raj Mukherji.  Parmar, who was being recognized for his philanthropy, called Beck up to say a few words.  The Republican Senator spoke briefly and did not mention Healy, who is also the Hudson County Democratic Chairman.

Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy has raised nearly $3.1 million for his re-election bid.

Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy has raised 10 times more money than his closest opponent, according the latest filings with the State Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC).  

Healy’s campaign has raised a total of almost $3.1 million and has spent just shy of $2.3 million for his reelection in this city of 240,000, along with another $443,000 in donations to other campaigns and local non-profits.  Of the total raised, $620,000 was left over from Healy’s previous campaign, while $2.49 million was taken in during the current cycle.  

No report was available online for former Assemblyman Lou Manzo, but he said he raised about $300,000 as of the filing deadline, and has spent somewhere between $270,000 and $280,000.  Manzo said he was not daunted by the mayor’s huge fundraising advantage. 

JERSEY CITY -- State Sen. Sandra Cunningham (D-Hudson) today formally endorsed Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy for reelection at a press conference at City Hall today.

“Let us do the residents of this city a favor and put politics aside, put personalities aside, and join with me and put Jersey City first,” Cunningham said. 

The endorsement is important for Healy, who is counting on Cunningham, the widow of the late former mayor Glenn D. Cunningham, to deliver him a substantial portion of the city’s African-American vote in the non-partisan May 12 election. 

Jersey City Ward B council candidate Phil Kenny, who is on Mayor Jerramiah Healy’s slate for the May election, is now an incumbent, the Jersey Journal reports.  

Kenny was appointed by the City Council last night to fill in for Councilwoman Mary Spinello, who was tapped by Healy to run the city’s parking authority.  

The controversial move has been expected since Spinello’s appointment was announced. 

Charles Mainor, a 42-year-old Jersey City police detective, appears headed for the State Assembly.  He has emerged as the likely candidate of the Hudson County Democratic Organization in the 31st district, where Assemblyman L. Harvey Smith (D-Jersey City) is giving up his seat to run for Mayor.  He is expected to run with Assemblyman Anthony Chiappone (D-Bayonne), who has cut a deal with Democrats to keep his seat.  Mainor’s chief advocates were State Sen. Sandra Bolden Cunningham and longtime Democratic insider Joseph Cardwell, but Democrats say he has a solid relationship with the Mayor of Jersey City, Jerramiah Healy.  Sources say Mainor got the nod over Oren Dabney, who runs the Jersey City Incinerator Authority.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg will host a $1,000-per-person fundraiser at his home this month in support of the re-election campaign of Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy.  That creates the possibility that Healy, the Hudson County Democratic Chairman, will back Bloomberg for re-election and not the Democratic mayoral nominee.  There is no word if Healy will host a similar fundraiser for Bloomberg at his Jersey City residence.

Assemblyman Anthony Chiappone (D-Bayonne) cut a deal to keep his seat in the Legislature, agreeing that he will not challenge Mayor Mark Smith in 2010.  In order to enforce the deal, Smith allies insisted that Chiappone give up his seat on the City Council – a move that keeps him out of city hall and distances him from local politics.   As part of the agreement for Chiappone to receive the Hudson County Democratic Organization line, State Sen.  Sandra Bolden Cunningham (D-Jersey City) is now expected to endorse the re-election of Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy, and Bayonne Democrats will continue to back Healy for Hudson County Democratic Chairman.

JERSEY CITY – Mayor Jerramiah Healy wants his constituents to know that he has a friend in Barack Obama.  

“As most of you know I was the first elected official in the State of New Jersey to endorse [Obama]. He hasn’t forgotten that,” said Healy in his opening statement at tonight’s mayoral debate.  “We’ve been awarded over $20 million in economic stimulus.”

For the first time, all five men who want to run New Jersey’s second largest city met to debate at an elementary school in the city’s Heights neighborhood tonight.   It was the second debate of the campaign season, but the first that Healy attended.  He refused to participate at yesterday’s forum at the Landmark Loew’s Jersey Theatre on the grounds that some of the moderators were biased against him.  This was the second appearance for the four other candidates: good government activist Dan Levin, former Assemblyman Louis Manzo, Assemblyman L. Harvey Smith and police detective Phil Webb.  

During the forum, which was sponsored by The Heights Coalition, Healy frequently burnished his relationship with elected officials, from the city council all the way up to the President, arguing that they had helped him secure funds and other types of outside government support for the city.

Jerramiah Healy is headed toward a landslide re-election as Mayor of Jersey City, if his own campaign polling is accurate.

Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy has a 41-point lead over former Assemblyman Louis Manzo in his bid for re-election to a third term, according to an internal poll conducted for the Healy campaign and obtained by PolitickerNJ.com.  The Benenson Strategy Group poll has Healy leading Manzo 55%-14%, with 12% for Assemblyman L. Harvey Smith and 5% for a fourth candidate, Dan Levin.

In a two-way race with Manzo, Healy leads 62%-22%.

The poll shows Healy with favorable of 74%-20%; Manzo’s favorable are at 48%-20%.  Nearly six out of ten Jersey City voters (57%) say the city is headed in the right direction, and 77% say Jersey City “is a city on the move.”