Joseph Doria

If Sandra Cunningham wins the Democratic State Senate nomination in the 31st district, she would become the first woman to follow her late husband to the New Jersey Senate, and the first widow to take her husband's legislative seat since Mary Scanlon was elected in 1977.

If he loses, Joseph Doria would become the first former Assembly Speaker to lose his Senate seat in a primary since 1953, when Freas Hess was defeated for re-election in the Republican State Senate primary by Malcolm Forbes. The last former Assembly Speaker to lose a State Senate race was Marion West Higgins, the only woman to ever lead the lower house. She was Speaker in 1965, the year she lost a Senate race and the GOP lost both houses of the Legislature.

Sandra Cunningham, the widow the Jersey City Mayor Glenn Cunningam, is expected to announce her candidacy for State Senator on Thursday at the Liberty House in Jersey City. She will challenge incumbent Joseph Doria in the 31st district Democratic primary, attempting to win the seat her late husband held before his death in 2004. Possible candidates for State Assembly on the Cunningham ticket include former Bayonne Municipal Court Judge Patrick Conaghan (who forced Doria into a runoff last year for Mayor of Bayonne), Jersey City Councilwoman Viola Richardson, Hudson County Sheriff Joseph Cassidy, Jersey City Councilman Steve Fulop, and Bayonne Councilman Anthony Chiappone, who served in the Assembly from 2004 to 2006 after defeating Doria in the '03 Democratic primary.

The Hudson County Democratic Organization will almost certainly dump Assemblyman Charles Epps from their ticket, but party leaders have not yet agreed on who will replace him. Democrats close to Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy (who is expected to become Hudson County Democratic Chairman in June) are pushing Freeholder Jeffrey Dublin for the post, but other Democrats -- especially Assemblyman Louis Manzo -- want former Jersey City Council President L. Harvey Smith, who served briefly in the State Senate (following the resignation of Joseph Charles) and as Mayor of Jersey City (following the death of Glenn Cunningham).

Smith has been angling to run against Healy for Mayor in two years. Healy could use the Assembly seat as a way of ending Smith's City Hall aspirations, or it could backfire by making Smith a more formidable opponent. Smith had the HCDO backing when he lost a 2003 Senate primary to Cunningham, and fared poorly in his bid for Mayor in a 2004 Special Election.

In the 31st district, the HCDO support is no longer tantamount to a primary victory. Sandra Cunningham, the widow of the late Mayor and State Senator, has been mulling a challenge to incumbent Joseph Doria. Possible Assembly candidates on her ticket include Jersey City Councilwoman Viola Richardson, who has a strong base in Ward F and had beaten the organization before, and former Bayonne Municipal Court Judge Patrick Conaghan, who forced Doria into a runoff last year.

Watch for the progressive wing of the New Jersey Democratic Party to mull primary challenges to Democratic legislators who declined to vote in favor of legislation to legalize Civil Unions. But primary challenges to this group of Democratic legislators would be especially difficult, since all come from counties with exceptionally powerful party organizations.

At the top of the list of potential targets is the Rev. Alfred Steele, the Assembly State Government Committee Chairman who is seeking a seventh term in the solidly-Democratic 35th district next year. Steele abstained on the Civil Union vote, and the conservative New Jersey Family Policy Council said that Steele will sponsor the "Equal Benefits Act" -- legislation that would offer civil benefits to same-sex couples but also define marriage as being between a man and a woman. (Steele has not confirmed or denied his agreement to sponsor this bill.)

Also on the possible target list is Assemblyman Joseph Egan, the Assembly Labor Committee Chairman. Egan's political base, New Brunswick (where he has been a City Councilman since 1981), has a large gay population, and Democratic primary voters in Highland Park are considered fairly liberal.

Nilsa Cruz-Perez, a Camden County Democrat, and Gary Schaer, a freshman Democrat who represents parts of Bergen, Essex and Passaic counties, where the other two Democrats to abstain on Civil Unions.

Democratic State Senators Wayne Bryant, Joseph Doria and Ronald Rice also abstained on the vote. There is a strong chance that all three could lose Democratic Party support for re-election next year, but not because of Civil Unions. Bryant is reportedly under investigation by federal prosecutors, Doria has local political problems in Hudson County, and Rice is expected to be replaced at the request of Newark Mayor Cory Booker, who won 75% of the vote against Rice in the May 2006 mayoral election.

Juan Melli, who runs the progressive BlueJersey.com website, agrees that Democratic legislators who failed to support Civil Unions, could face some political problems in next year's mid-term elections. "Legislators who think it is their job to oppose equal rights for all Americans are not doing their job, and these types of politicians -- regardless of their party -- get primaried by people who will," said Melli.

Not including write-in votes, 2,250,070 ballots were cast in the 2006 race for United States Senator in New Jersey, according to the final, certified tally. Democrat Robert Menendez received 1,200,843 votes, defeating Republican Thomas Kean, Jr. by 203,068 votes. Menendez won by nine percentage points -- 53.37% to 44.34%.

Seven independent candidates split the remaining votes: Libertarian Leonard Flynn (14,637), Marijuana Rights advocate Edward "Weedman" Forchion (11,593), Rev. J.M. Carter (7,918), former Camden County Freeholder N. Leonard Smith, who ran as a pro-life candidate and had the tacit support of New Jersey Right to Life (6,243), convicted sex offender Darryl Brooks (5,138), Socialist Angela Lariscy (3,433) and Socialist Greg Pason (2,490).

The last two U.S. Senate races run in non-presidential election years in New Jersey had virtually the same result: in 2002, Democrat Frank Lautenberg defeated Republican Douglas Forrester by ten percentage points -- a 209,754 vote margin. Menendez lost only one county that Lautenberg won: Salem. Lautenberg had carried it by 745 votes, Kean won it by 678.

Comparison of Margins by County, 2002 & 2006
Atlantic: Lautenberg, 6,001; Menendez, 2,467
Bergen: Lautenberg, 28,969; Menendez, 21,365
Burlington: Lautenberg, 6,630; Menendez, 7,063
Camden: Lautenberg, 36,012; Menendez, 33,845
Cape May: Forrester, 2,991; Kean, 5,468
Cumberland: Lautenberg, 3,831; Menendez, 2,706
Essex: Lautenberg, 70,552; Menendez, 77,485
Gloucester: Lautenberg, 9,869; Menendez, 6,207
Hudson: Lautenberg, 48,933; Menendez, 61,160
Hunterdon: Forrester, 11,234; Kean, 8,658
Mercer: Lautenberg, 16,480; Menendez, 21,153
Middlesex: Lautenberg, 32,891; Menendez, 34,464
Monmouth: Forrester, 8,694; Kean, 14,575
Morris: Forrester, 24,392; Kean, 24,225
Ocean: Forrester, 11,264; Kean, 28,198
Passaic: Lautenberg, 13,453; Menendez, 16,335
Salem: Lautenberg, 745; Kean, 678
Somerset: Forrester, 9,114; Kean, 4,478
Sussex: Forrester, 11,426; Kean, 11,346
Union: Lautenberg, 20,842; Menendez, 22,670
Warren: Forrester, 7,379; Kean, 6,226

DORIA: ACCURATE PER PUPIL COSTS CRITICAL TO PROPER SCHOOL FUNDING

TRENTON - Senator Joseph V. Doria, one of the members of the Joint Legislative Committee on Public School Funding Reform, made the follow statement today following today's hearing in which the Committee heard testimony on efforts of the department to determine a per pupil cost of education:

"Establishing a fair level of per pupil educational spending is in my mind the most important issue we've looked at so far.

DORIA CALLS FOR JUSTICE IN WRONGFUL DEATH CASES

TRENTON - Senator Joseph V. Doria announced earlier this week the support of the Consumers for Civil Justice (CCJ) for his bill, S-176, which would amend the "Wrongful Death Act" in New Jersey to provide fairness and justice to families who have lost a loved one due to wrongful death.

"I'm very happy to announce the support of the CCJ in pushing for justice for families grieving wrongful deaths," said Senator Doria, D-Hudson. "In New Jersey, the current law is way too restrictive in terms of recoverable damages, especially in cases where there is no financial loss to the surviving family members, like the death of a small child. I think it's inhumane, and unfair, to tell grieving families that since their loss doesn't hit them in the wallet, that they aren't entitled to some form of compensation to help make them whole."

TURNER WANTS POLICE OFFICERS IN HIGH SCHOOLS AND MIDDLE SCHOOLS

TRENTON - Senator Shirley K. Turner today said New Jersey should respond to the "plague of violence in our society" by placing police officers in every high school and middle school in the State.

"It's a sad, but necessary response to the plague of violence in our society that police officers should be on the job at every high school and middle school in New Jersey," said Senator Turner, the Chair of the Senate Education Committee.

DORIA INTRODUCES RESOLUTION TO HONOR FALLEN POLICE OFFICERS

JERSEY CITY - Senator Joseph V. Doria, Jr. announced today that he would introduce legislation that would rename the Lincoln Highway Bridge as the "Shawn Carson and Robert Nguyen Memorial Bridge" in honor of the two Jersey City police officers who died when their patrol car fell off the bridge last December.

"The accident that took the lives of Officers Carson and Nguyen last Christmas night touched all New Jerseyans and brought our state together to mourn for the families of these two selfless individuals," said Senator Doria, D-Hudson. "These two men died as they lived every day - working to serve and protect those in their community. There is no greater sacrifice."

DORIA - UNREASONABLE FEDERAL MANDATES AND MISPLACED SPECIAL ED. PRIORITIES HURT FUNDING REFORM PROSPECTS

TRENTON - Senator Joseph V. Doria, D-Hudson, a member of the joint legislative panel reviewing school funding reform, issued the following statement on today's hearing regarding federal education mandates and special education:

"Today's hearing showcased the continued resistance that unfounded federal mandates and misplaced special education priorities provide to establishing real school funding reform.