Jose Arango

JERSEY CITY -- Both gubernatorial No. 2s were in New Jersey's second biggest city today, speaking to very different audiences.

Republican lieutenant governor candidate Kim Guadagno hosted Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele at the Christie campaign's canvassing headquarters on Martin Luther King Drive in the heart Ward F -- the most important cog to Jersey City Democratic turnout machine. 

It was, as one supporter noted, the first time Republicans had opened any kind of headquarters in that neighborhood since the Eisenhower era. 

"Jon Corzine has turned his back on you. Chris Christie will not and he has not," Guadagno told a group of about 20 - mostly local Republican activists and candidates - who packed the tiny room. 

Steele cut a ribbon to signify the headquarters' opening, although Hudson County Republican Chairman Jose Arango said it had been open for about one and a half months.

Steele said that, as the former lieutenant governor of Maryland, he appreciates Guadagno's.  He said Christie was "the only candidate on the ticket who's come to your communities, who's goin to do something for your community to make it safer."

Steele, who also planned to join Guadagno at a campaign stop at Bergen County Republican headquarters, did not take any questions from the press. 

For the Christie camp, it was another push to show that they're making a real effort in the inner-city - even if that backfired last month, when they opened a campaign headquarters in Newark with much fanfare.

One minor error on Assemblywoman Nilsa Cruz-Perez's press release announcing her retirement from the State Assembly: she was not the first Hispanic to serve in the State Assembly.  That was Jorge Rod, a Republican from Ocean who was elected in 1981.  The second was Jose Arango, a Republican from Hudson County who was elected in 1985. The first Hispanic Democrat to serve in the Assembly was Robert Menendez, who won in 1987. Jose Sosa was elected in 1991, and Rudy Garcia was elected in 1993.   Cruz-Perez was the first woman when she was elected in 1995.

Hudson County Republican Chairman Jose Arango doesn’t want to see any member of his party indicted, but he did not take offense at U.S. Attorney Chris Christie’s recent joke at the expense of the Hudson County Republicans. 

Shortly after announcing his December resignation, Christie joked in a radio interview  that “a Hudson County Republican would love to be indicted.  It would show they were relevant.”

Maybe a more sensitive Republican county chair would take offense at a joke that calls his or her party irrelevant, but Arango has heard similar jokes before. 

“It doesn’t bother me.  It’s something that’s a reality. It’s a tough deal to be a Republican in Hudson County,” said Arango. 

Hudson County Republican Chairman Jose Arango supported Bret Schundler in his past gubernatorial bids, but whether he’ll support the former Mayor’s bid to return to Grove Street is an open question.

“I have to go to the Jersey City Republican Party and ask them what they want to do,” said Arango during a phone interview.

The mayoral elections in Jersey City are non-partisan, which made it possible for a Republican like Schundler to win in a crowded field in 1992. Now, with Schundler looking to run again, Arango finds himself with a tough decision. He’s the city’s Director of Economic Development, and has given significant campaign contributions to Mayor Jerramiah Healy, a Democrat.

But he’s also found Schundler to be a loyal ally in the past.

“Schundler always supported me, and I always supported him. I have to do what’s right for the people,” he said.

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."

In the state's most Democratic county, Hudson County Republican Chairman Jose Arango today announced that his organization is awarding the primary ballot line to U.S. Senate candidate Andy Unanue.

“Andy Unanue is the change New Jersey needs in the U.S. Senate,” Arango said.  “He brings youth and energy along with the traditional Republican principles of lower taxes and smaller government.  Hudson County is proud to endorse Andy Unanue for U.S. Senate.”  

Atlantic County Republican Chairman Keith Davis and Hudson County Republican Chairman Jose Arango both joined Anne Estabrook’s U.S. Senate campaign committee today.

“Change is coming,” said Davis in a press release.  “Anne Estabrook is the leader we need to provide a common-sense approach to finding solutions for New Jersey’s affordability crisis.”

The late John Renna would have viewed the lack of filing day activity by the Hudson County Republicans as a lost opportunity.  As the on-and-off Essex County Republican Chairman between 1977 and 1996, Renna had a few wins by watching the Democratic primary from the sidelines and then figuring out his ticket over the summer.  That's what happened in 1986, when Essex County Executive Peter Shapiro's popularity plummeted -- especially among Democrats.  Sensing an opportunity, Renna pulled aging former Assemblyman Carl Orechio off the ticket and replaced him with Nicholas Amato, who had won three terms as Surrogate as a Democrat before Shapiro dumped him from the party line a few months earlier.  For Surrogate, Renna ran another party switcher: Earl Harris, the Newark City Council President.  The result was a GOP landslide.