Joe Menza

Miles Winder, right, is working for independent gubernatorial candidate Christopher Daggett. Some observers say Daggett will play a key role in the outcome of the race for governor between Jon Corzine and Chris Christie

Some political insiders view independent Christopher Daggett as a potential spoiler in the race for Governor.

"I think the race has come down to Daggett," said Newark South Ward leader Carl Sharif, a Democrat and a Corzine supporter. "With Chris Christie and Jon Corzine even (most recent polls register the candidate in the 40% range), the question becomes whether Daggett's 12 to 14 percent is solid support. If it's hard support, Corzine wins. If its soft support, and those voters peel off Daggett in the voting booth, most polls show they're going to vote for anybody but Corzine, and that's where Corzine could have problems. That's where Christie wins."

Democrats like Sharif figure that as long as Daggett's support holds and he drains Christie's independent voter support in southern Morris, Somerset and Hunterdon counties, Democrats can win a GOTV dogfight with their superior party machinery and squeak Corzine back into power.

"Barack Obama is here today as part of a mechanical calculation," said Bill Schluter, a former Republican senator and independent candidate for governor in 2001 who supports Christie for governor. "His presence here is designed solely to motivate a listless Democratic Party base, and it remains to be seen whether that actually works."

Sharif agrees.

"The Democrats have brought in two party sweethearts in as many days - Obama and former President Bill Clinton - and whether that translates is a big question," he said.

Biden, Clinton, Obama - all the big names this week here stumping for Corzine still lead people back to Daggett.

Hillside Mayor Joe Menza

A Superior Court Judge this afternoon in Elizabeth tossed the Hillside Township Council's request for a court injunction and restraining order against Mayor Joe Menza to prevent him from keeping three key cabinet members on the job and attending council meetings - at least until a court date on Sept. 2nd.

In office a little over a month and at odds early with the Township Council, Menza invoked his duty under the Faulkner Act when he selected a township attorney, acting business administrator and auditor.

The council by a 5-2 vote simultaneously maintained its right to oversee those hires, and moved to restrain Menza from making his appointments.   

"They wanted the judge to declare that my appointments were not valid until the court date, but the judge declined to do that, and my appointments will hold," Menza said.

Menza (left) gets sworn-in last week.

Independent Joe Menza's surprise victory has created an early uproar in Hillside Township, with both sides reaching for war metaphors to describe the ongoing and rocky transition of power in this Union County town where the local Democratic Party machine still controls the council. 

"Let's just say the war's started," said John O'Shea, the mayor's former campaign manager whom Menza now wants as his mayoral aide at a salary of $70,000.

New Council President Edward Brewer argued that it was the new mayor who "fired the first salvo over the bow of the ship of state" when he sought to appoint O'Shea by executive order, in addition to attorney Joseph Greer as acting business administrator for a period of 90 days at a salary not to exceed $50,000, the Cliffside Park law firm of Diktas, Schandler & Gillen as “general counsel” at the rate of $150.00 per hour, and the Fairlawn accounting firm of Lerch, Vinci and Higgins as auditor and financial advisors.

Menza stood by taking no action on the contract expiration of Democratic Party appointee Township Attorney Christine Burgess, which took effect last night, according to O'Shea.

Roselle Mayor Garrett Smith

Roselle Mayor Garrett Smith needed this one, and so did the Union County Democratic Organization.
 
Those two mutually exclusive desires added up to one thing: a war.
 
Ever since former Assemblyman Neil Cohen's (D-Roselle) career went belly up amid charges of keeping child porn on his computer, the battle lines for local party control intensified here in his town, which, depending on your perspective, is either a buffer for Westfield against the danger-zone of Elizabeth or a buffer for Elizabeth against the whitebread excesses of Cranford and Westfield.
 
A mild-mannered wonk in Trenton, Cohen could get tough in his hometown as head of the local party. He wasn't beyond delivering full-blown, profanity-laced public dress-downs to recalcitrant committee members as he dealt with the ongoing headache of Smith, a charismatic independent Democrat, originally from Jersey City, who built his name as head of a thriving local basketball league before seeking his first term as mayor in 2003.
 
Smith and Cohen could grudgingly come together to beat on Republicans in presidential or gubernatorial general elections, but mostly they embroiled themselves in a Roselle battle-royale with themselves as chief antagonists.

Menza addressses the crowd.

HILLSIDE - This little, oft-dispected town practically buried under a criss-cross of highways in the muscled-up arms of Newark on one side and Elizabeth on the other today showed little sign of breaking a four-year standoff between mayor and council as Joe Menza assumed the oath of office several hours before the council's reorganization meeting this evening.

Real estate developer Menza beat the local Democratic Party machine on May 12th when he defeated At-Large Councilman Jerome Jewell, a staunch ally of local party chair Charlotte DeFilippo, who also runs the county party.

DeFillipo allies still controls five seats on the seven-member governing body, but Menza kicked off his mayoralty by letting the crowd of 150 people here know that under the Faulkner Act, it is his responsibility to prepare and submit an annual operating budget and to sign all contracts, and he doesn't intend to abdicate those powers.

On the contrary, "The buck stops right here, you can expect that from me," announced the new mayor, moments after taking the oath at the prompting of substitute Township Judge Geoffrey Gechtman.

Hillside Mayor-elect Joe Menza

When Joe Menza defeated Councilman Jerome Jewell by fewer than ten votes to become mayor of Hillside, he did so as a perennial challenger to the local Democratic Party machine, and he remains an outsider even on the day of his swearing-in ceremony tomorrow.

"By law, I have to be appointed by noon," said Menza. "It's 12 o'clock every year, but they made it very clear they want the council re-organization meeting and the mayor's swearing-in separate."

So the council re-organizes at 6 p.m., six hours after Menza takes the oath.

Menza's team blames Clerk Janet Vlaisaljevic, an ally of local party Chair Charlotte DeFilippo, for chopping the ceremonies in half and leaving Menza in the unadvertised early slot without the benefit of a re-ordered local legislature and official town infrastructure to lend support.  

Union County GOP Chairman Phil Morin

Stepping over the stunned, melted-down infrastructure of a Democratic Party machine that failed to elect Jerome Jewell in the Hillside mayor's race yesterday, Union County Republican Chairman Phil Morin seized on real estate developer Joe Menza's victory as a symbolic statement in the "backyard" of Union County Democratic Chair Charlotte DeFilippo.

The fact that GOP gubernatorial nominee Chris Christie poured bodies into the Union County town, and personally cut a robocall on Menza's behalf even as the Democratic Governor's Association (DGA) channeled dollars into the Union County town to buttress Jewell gave Morin a special pride in the unofficial outcome.

"While Menza's slate didn't win, his victory sent a message to Union County that Union will be a battleground in 2009," said Morin. "We're very proud of the fact that Union County Republicans and Chris Christie were able to assist the Menza campaign in getting him across the finish line in this runoff."

Morin had reached out personally to Menza campaign strategist John O'Shea to see if there was any way in which his organization could assist in Menza's independent battle with Jewell and DeFilippo, who lives in Hillside and serves as the town's municipal Democratic Party chair in addition to her county party duties.

Joe Menza of Hillside

HILLSIDE - Independent mayoral candidate Joe Menza, an unsuccessful candidate in 2005, today claimed victory over the local Democratic Party machine.

The Union County Board of Elections this afternoon counted the provisional ballots in the Hillside mayoral contest and determined that real estate developer Menza defeated At-Large Councilman Jerome Jewell in the runoff by eight votes.

The final tally, scheduled to be certified tomorrow, is 1,710 to 1,702.

"We had a team of volunteers that was unstoppable," Menza said. "As we kept going in this campaign it was truly a community effort. We were very successful at identifying (Councilwoman Shelley) Bates and (former School Board Member Andre) Daniels supporters and making sure they came on board with us. This was a total community effort."

Joe Menza of Hillside

HILLSIDE - Unofficial results in Hillside now show real estate developer Joe Menza ahead of At-Large Councilman Jerome Jewell by six votes after machine and absentee vote tallies.

Provisionals remain to be counted, but right now, Menza has 1,705 votes and Jewell has 1,699.

At-Large Councilman Jerome Jewell

HILLSIDE - The forces of At-Large Councilman Jerome Jewell claim to have beaten real estate developer Joe Menza by six votes, but Menza says he's up by three votes with the city clerk counting absentee ballots right now.