Jerramiah Healy

Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy

TRENTON - Street people help in an election year, and Gov. Jon Corzine may have a few more of them in the form of those in the political establishment arguably most naturally resistant to the Wall Street outsider who leapfrogged over all of them to become governor: mayors.

Ticked last year when Gov. Jon Corzine made substantial cuts to state aid for municipalities, big city and suburban Democratic Party execs warmed to the governor’s plan this year to cut municipal aid by less than 2%, even as he slashed 850 line items to repair a long-term budget gap of $7 billion.

Guy Catrillo, a Jersey City Republican who has found his way onto Mayor Jerramiah Healy's 2009 ticket, is probably hoping he turns out to be a better candidate than he was as an advance man.   

Catrillo was the organizer of Jersey City's 9/11 Memorial Committee back in 2002, when he planned a ceremony on the first anniversary of the terrorist attacks.  The New York Times' Richard Lenzin Jones explained it best:

Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy, who’s seeking reelection this May, is revealing his council slate tonight at the Casino in the Park.  

All but three of the council’s incumbents will run with Healy.

In Ward E – the only seat held by a non-Healy ally, Steven Fulop – the Mayor is putting up Guy Catrillo, a Republican who works for the city’s planning division and has run for legislative office several times.  Catrillo is president of the Dante Alighieri Society and the Historic Preservation Commission.

In Ward C, where incumbent Steve Lipski decided against seeking reelection after being arrested for allegedly urinating on a concert crowd from a balcony, businesswoman and community activist Nidia Rivera Lopez – the wife of former Councilman Benjamin Lopez -- will run on Healy’s ticket

In Ward B, Phil Kenny, an ally of Freeholder Bill O’Dea who works as the , Office Operations Coordinator for the Hudson County Board of Chosen Freeholders, replaces Mary Spinello. 

After turning down multiple overtures to join a mayoral ticket, Jersey City Councilman Steve Fulop will run for reelection to his Ward E seat independently.  

“I had the opportunity to go on the (Mayor Jerramiah) Healy, (Former Assemblyman Lou) Manzo, (Assemblyman L. Harvey) Smith ticket, and at the end of the day, based on who else is on the ticket and the landscape, I thought this was the best route for me,” said Fulop.  

Shelley Skinner, a community and education activist who flirted with a run in Ward E while Fulop was considering a mayoral bid, will be Fulop’s campaign manager. 

Councilman Peter Cammarano

HOBOKEN – Sources close to At-Large Councilman Peter Cammarano say the attorney plans to formally enter the race for mayor sometime next week.  

Councilwoman Dawn Zimmer is already in the contest, and sources say Councilwoman Beth Mason will roll out her campaign shortly with the endorsement of Union City Mayor/Sen. Brian P. Stack. 

Stack wouldn’t comment this week when PolitickerNJ.com asked him who he’s supporting for mayor in Hoboken. He simply said he’ll have an answer probably in the next couple of weeks.

Lynn Schundler, the wife of former Jersey City Mayor Bret Schundler, is reportedly considering a bid for the Jersey City Council.

Former Jersey City First Lady Lynn Schundler has decided against running for the City Council in Ward E after speaking to supporters of Mayor Jerramiah Healy.  Her possible candidacy came just a few weeks after her husband, former Mayor Bret Schundler, dropped his own comeback bid as a challenger to Healy.

Ward E, which is predominantly made up of the city's downtown, is currently represented by Councilman Steven Fulop - one of Healy's most outspoken critics.  Fulop also backed off a mayoral bid and attended Healy's campaign kickoff, but he has declined to run on the Healy slate and will seek re-election on his own.

If Schundler ran, Fulop would likely have forged an alignment with former Assemblyman Louis Manzo, who is making his sixth bid for Mayor. Manzo, sources say, has also courted Schundler as a possible running mate.

Lynn Schundler, an attorney and former Senate Republican staffer, has already met with Hudson County Executive Thomas DeGise, a Healy supporter who was a Schundler ally when he served as the Jersey City Council President.  When Bret Schundler gave up his seat to run for Governor in 2001, he backed DeGise for Mayor in his unsuccessful bid against Glenn Cunningham.

Two sources close to Healy say they were optimistic that she would run, but noted that she has not fully committed.  She did not meet with Healy, as expected, but instead informed members of his political team that she would not become a canddiate.

State Sen. Brian Stack, the Mayor of Union City, is upset that political enemy Rudy Garcia was invited to Jerramiah Healy's campaign kickoff.

Sources say that Union City Mayor Brian Stack is off the charts livid that two of his political rivals, former Senate Majority Leader Bernard Kenny and former Union City Mayor Rudy Garcia were invited to stand on the stage when Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy announced his re-election bid last week, and that the feud is getting so out of hand that a Stack endorsement of former Assemblyman Louis Manzo for Mayor is now a possibility.  Their best hope to avoid a Second World War between the two Hudson County Democrats may be to convince U.S. Senator Bob Menendez to mediate.

The two went at it two years ago when Healy, the Hudson County Democratic Chairman, backed West New York Mayor Sal Vega for Kenny's Senate seat.  Stack beat Vega in the primary by a 4-1 margin.  Garcia, who was tossed as Mayor and as an Assemblyman (Stack took his seat) after a public feud with Menendez, remains on the outs with the Union City powerbrokers.

Jersey City Councilman Steve Lipski, facing charges of public urination, won't seek re-election in May.

Jersey City Ward C Councilman Steve Lipski, who in November made international headlines for allegedly urinating on Washington, DC concertgoers from a balcony, this week formally announced in a letter to the Jersey Journal that he will not seek reelection to his council seat. 

"I need to step back because I did not manage my life well. I let alcohol, at times, become a fix for the stress I was experiencing, and my poor judgment resulted in numerous problems and indescribable embarrassment to the position I hold and to me personally,” he wrote to the paper.  “I am stepping back to deal with these issues.” 

If State Sen. Sandra Cunningham (D-Jersey City) was running for Mayor of Jersey City, then State Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D-Elizabeth) wouldn't have attended Mayor Jerramiah Healy's campaign kickoff last night.

The speculation that State Senator Sandra Cunningham will run for Mayor of Jersey City in 2009 is likely over, even though Cunningham has not yet announced her plans.  The attendance of one of her close friends and political allies, State Senator Raymond Lesniak, at a rally for Mayor Jerramiah Healy last night is a clear signal that Cunningham will not run.