Jersey City

Senate Republican Leader Tom Kean called on Governor Corzine to order an immediate meeting of the state's Local Finance Board. The board should consider exercising emergency control of cities in turmoil because their mayors and other key officials haven't stepped down after their arrests on corruption charges.

QUIGLEY STATEMENT ON DEATH OF JERSEY CITY POLICE OFFICER MARC DINARDO

(JERSEY CITY) - Assemblywoman Joan Quigley (D-Hudson) today praised the valor of Jersey City Police Officer Marc DiNardo, who died from injuries sustained during a Thursday shootout in which five other officers also suffered gunshot wounds.

Senators Steven Oroho and Marcia Karrow, Republican members of the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee, expressed dismay that Governor Jon Corzine's Local Finance Board decided to award $5 million to Jersey City this morning under the "Special Municipal Aid" program.

Jersey City Municipal Court Judge Wilson Campbell faces ethics charges for allegedly having an affair with his bailiff, who attempeted suicide after they broke up.

An ethics complaint has been filed against Jersey City Municipal Court Judge Wilson Campbell, who allegedly had an affair with a bailiff assigned to his courtroom.  The bailiff attempted suicide last June after breaking up with the Judge, according to the complaint filed by the Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct.  The bailiff has been reassigned to another courtroom and Campbell continues to serve on the bench.

The incident occurred just weeks before former Jersey City Municipal Court Chief Judge Wanda Molina was indicted for fixing parking tickets.   Molina is accused of dismissing eight parking tickets for a female companion. She stepped down last year during the initial investigation over ticket fixing, which netted half of Jersey City's municipal judges. 

Three other Jersey City Judges have been charges with misconduct as part of the ticket fixing scandal: Victor Sison, Pauline Sica and Irwin Rosen.  Also indicted was Virginia Pagan, a former court administrator who allegedly fixed 215 parking tickets for herself and her daughter.

Hopefully Jersey City Councilman Steve Lipski treats his constituents better than he treats Washington, DC concert goers.

Lipski was arrested Friday night at a Washington nightclub after he allegedly urinated on a crowd during a concert by a Grateful Dead tribute band, the Daily News reports.

Apparently, this wasn’t the first run-in Lipski has had with the 9:30 Club's staff, who described Lispki to the paper as never having peed on anyone before Friday, but of typically being “really belligerent and drunk.”

Lipski, who ran for mayor in 2004, is also the Executive Director/School Administrator/CEO of CREATE Charter School.

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. -- Jersey City’s two delegates at the Republican National Convention are not sold on Bret Schundler for mayor.

Schundler, who was mayor between 1992 and 2001, ran for Governor twice as a Republican.  But the May, 2009 municipal elections in Jersey City are non-partisan, and ideology doesn’t necessarily mean much there. 

“At this juncture I haven’t made up my mind yet. As funny as it sounds, it is non-partisan, and I don’t think the whole field has been flushed out,” said delegate Joseph Turula after the delegation breakfast.   “Certainly he’s a fine, smart and honest man, but I haven’t made the decision, and our county chairman said recently that he has to evaluate it.”

Bret Schundler, who served as mayor of Jersey City from 1992 to 2001, will challenge incumbent Jerramiah Healy in 2009
In 1999, the late William F. Buckley recognized a rising star in conservative Republican circles named Bret Schundler, who had been mayor of Jersey City for six years. Seeing Schundler as a potential presidential prospect, he wrote in the New York Post: "Look for him in 2008."

Nine years and two gubernatorial losses later, any presidential dreams Schundler once harbored are gone. But we can look for him in 2009, because Schundler has all but made it official, acknowledging that he plans to run to return to Grove Street next year, eight years after he left the office.

"This is not a formal kickoff announcement, but I do plan to run," said Schundler in a phone interview.

Schundler served between late 1992 and 2001, when he decided to forego reelection to run for governor. But the Schundler of 2009 will likely bare little resemblance to the conservative candidate who unsuccessfully sought the highest office in the state in 2001 and 2005 - at least not if he can help it.

"I think I'm pretty much done with partisan politics," he said.

Jersey City Councilman Steve Fulop hasn’t announced his candidacy for mayor next year, but he’s already begun cobbling together a slate.

Former Hudson County Sheriff Joseph Cassidy today announced that he will join a ticket headed by the 31-year-old Fulop in next year’s election. Cassidy, 67, plans to run as a council candidate along with James Carroll, who hopes to run in Ward D.

Jersey City has nine council seats – six from different wards and three at-large. Cassidy has not yet determined whether he will run for an at-large seat or for the Ward A spot currently occupied by Michael Sottolano.

Jersey City Heights businessman Michael Yun, a long time friend political ally of Bret Schundler, said that the former mayor and gubernatorial candidate will seek to reclaim the city's top office in 2009.

“He’s definitely going to run, yes, and we’re organizing,” Yun told PolitickerNJ in a phone interview this morning.

Schundler has spent the last couple weeks attending neighborhood meetings and asking local politicians for support, aided by Yun. He recently announced his mayoral intentions to a gathering of Hudson County Republicans at their reorganization meeting, though in less definite language.

Bret Schundler has been tightlipped with the press about whether he's made a decision to run for mayor of Jersey City, but some Hudson County Republicans are under the impression that the former mayor has just about made up his mind to run again for the big office on Grove Street.

Schundler, who was mayor between 1992 and 2001 before running two unsuccessful gubernatorial bids, attended the party's reorganization meeting earlier this month in his role as a committeeman and, according to one person present, unofficially announced his intention to run.

"He basically said that he was interested in running, and that he will announce it at a later date," said Hudson County Republican Chairman Jose Arango. "He said that maybe in the future he'll announce that he'll run for mayor. I know he's meeting with people."