John Cryan

Council President John Cryan operates in campaign HQ on Wednesday afternoon.

MORRISTOWN – Council President John Cryan’s focused on the 2nd Ward as part of his at-large re-election bid where he runs on a Democratic Primary ticket with Mayor Donald Cresitello, Council President Anthony Cattano and former Councilman Chris O’Brien.

The onetime destination dropzone for a public works garage, which Cresitello says is now bound for Hanover Twp., the 2nd Ward remains the battleground in Morristown.

The council president’s opponents argue that Cryan’s hedging his bets by erecting lawn signs that feature only his name, or his and Cattano’s names, a strategy allegedly born of fear from standing with the controversial Cresitello, whose challenger in the mayor’s race is Zoning Board Chairman Tim Dougherty. 

Cryan says it’s not true.

“I got those signs ordered before the filing deadline,” he said. “We’ve got lawn signs coming that have all our names on them. I’m running with Donald because we want to continue to keep Morristown the envy of New Jersey.”

Mayoral candidate Tim Dougherty, right, with Councilwoman Michelle Harris-King and Kevin Gsell.

MORRISTOWN – Three challengers in the Morristown municipal race tell a story about how they walk halfway up a voter’s driveway, eager to make their pitch, when the homeowner waves them off and says, “I don’t care who you are, I’m voting for you. Just make sure you get him the hell out of there.”

The "him" in question is Mayor Donald Cresitello, running for his second straight term in a row in the June 2nd Democratic Primary with a team of incumbents that includes At-Large Council President Anthony Cattano and At-Large Councilman John Cryan (cousin of Democratic State Chairman Joe Cryan). 

Whatever other dynamics exist – the bad overall economy, a general voter dissatisfaction with incumbents, or new pay-to-play reforms regulating the way candidates can raise money – this contest comes down to a referendum on Cresitello, that sometimes lovable, sometimes irascible creature of  politics. 

“Tax increases in Morristown have been zero, zero and 1.7% over the course of the last three years – that’s two percent less than any other Morris County town in 16 years,” says the mayor, 63, sitting in his campaign headquarters cattycorner to a fenced-off condo project, where the sounds of hardhat labor spill into the plaza.

Morristown Council President John Cryan

He’s up for re-election this year, and no one knows whether Morristown Mayor Donald Cresitello will run. However, Council president John Cryan, who four years ago ran on the Democratic Party line with Cresitello, said he believes the mayor is likely to pursue reelection. 

“I don’t know what he’s going to do,” said Cryan, a first cousin of State Democratic Party Chairman Joseph Cryan.  “But I can’t see him walking away when things are starting to click, when development projects are starting to take off in Morristown. I can’t see him turning down ribbon cutting ceremonies. So my money is on him running.” 

Sources say Cresitello at one point told former Councilman Timothy Dougherty that he wouldn’t run for mayor again. Dougherty was poised to run. 

But now the trypically headstrong Cresitello isn’t sure.

Fomer New Jersey and Essex County Democratic Party Chairman Ray Durkin, and his son, Essex County Clerk Chris Durkin

At Mayfair Farms Restaurant in West Orange on Saturday, the St. Patrick’s Guard of Honor of New Jersey hailed Ray Durkin, or the chairman, as they call him here in a nod of respect to his many years of service to the Democratic Party. 

Full-blooded and hybrid and old and new country Irish fathers and their sons - Giblin, Byrne, Stack, Barrett, McCarthy, Baroni, Mac Donald, O’Toole and Codey – for one afternoon absorbed any and all of New Jersey’s other ethnic groups into the arms of Durkin’s Irish-America.  

Durkin, who led the Essex County Democratic Organization from 1980 to 1992 in addition to serving as chair of the state party from 1985 to 1989, was the 68th St. Patrick’s Guard of Honor on a list going back to 1940 that includes President John F. Kennedy, Justice William J. Brennan, Jr., and governors Richard J. Hughes, Brendan Byrne and Richard Codey.  

In accepting the award, the former Newark City Firefighter and head of the West Ward Young Democrats who has been lowkey politically over the course of the past 12 years, said he was most proud of his wife and five sons, including Essex County Clerk Chris Durkin, who introduced his father on Saturday.

One of the classic stories of the New Jersey Legislature in 1968 were allegations that a Newark Assemblyman wanted to cancel a hearing on organized crime under pressure from a "lobbyist" representing Geraldo (Jerry) Catena, one of the state's most powerful mob bosses.

Senate Law and Public Safety Committee Chairman Joseph Woodcock held a news conference in December 1968 to say that his aide was told by Assembly Law and Public Safety Committee Chairman Richard Fiore that he was being pressured by Catena to stop legislative proposals to create the State Commission of Investigation, and to legalize wiretapping, and to permit certain witnesses to receive immunity from prosecution.

Claire Curran Johnson, a former New York Mirror crime reporter who worked for Woodcock, told investigators for the state Attorney General's office that Fiore, a 36-year-old substitute teacher and Recreation Director for the Newark Board of Education, claimed he wanted to head the Assembly panel "to stop these kind of things." "There is a lot of pressure. You just don't know how much pressure. Jerry is unhappy about it," Curran quoted Fiore as telling her.

Robert Yudin, a 67-year-old appliance store owner from Wyckoff, could be one day away from becoming the Bergen County Republican Chairman – a post that up until about six years ago was one of the most powerful positions in New Jersey politics.  Yudin will face incumbent Rob Ortiz in a runoff election tomorrow night.  Over the last few years, the former Wyckoff Board of Education member has made three unsuccessful bids for Freeholder.

Yudin's first campaign for public office came 41 years ago, when the 26-year-old Navy lieutenant who had just left active duty was recruited by Essex County Republicans as their candidate for Assemblyman.

In honor of the late John Cryan, a former Essex County Sheriff and Assemblyman who passed away in 2005, the public library in Castelrea, Ireland, the town where Cryan was born, will dedicate the new John F. Cryan Wing. Cryan's son, Assemblyman Joseph Cryan, will attend the dedication, along with Assemblyman Thomas Giblin (who is hosting the event), Democratic strategist Tom Barrett, North Ward Cultural Center Executive Director Steve Adubato, Sr., and other members of the Cryan family. The dedication will be on August 4.

Less than two weeks after taking office, Morristown Councilman John Cryan was arrested for assault and burglary in a 2AM incident at a local bar. Cryan has apologized to the man he punched, described as a friend. Some local Democrats have called for his resignation. Cryan, a Democrat, is the cousin of Assemblyman Joseph Cryan, the new Democratic State Chairman.