Lou Manzo

Angered by former Assemblyman Lou Manzo’s legal action to try to get Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy removed from office, Healy chief of staff Dominick Pandolfo issued a scathing response, characterizing Manzo as a lawsuit-mad wannabe mayor.

“Four time loser Louis Manzo is an embittered and disgruntled individual who spends his time filing frivolous lawsuits," said Pandolfo (Manzo has sought the mayor's office four times in the past, and narrowly lost to Healy in a 2004 runoff). "He is angered that the mayor did not endorse him in his recent run for the Senate, which he lost by an overwhelming margin to our candidate, Sen. Sandra Cunningham. He is also upset that the mayor refused to re-hire his close friend who had been terminated by a prior administration due to unexplained and excessive absenteeism.”

Former Assemblyman Lou Manzo, a potential mayoral candidate in Jersey City next year, filed a petition with Monmouth County Superior Court to ask them to weigh whether Mayor Jerramiah Healy’s conduct during his 2006 Bradley Beach arrest should trigger him to forfeit his office.

No hearing date is set yet, and Manzo can’t release details until all parties have been served.

Healy was convicted of disorderly conduct in Bradley Beach last year, and has sought unsuccessfully to reverse the decision several times. He’s currently appealing it in the state Supreme Court.

But after an Essex County judge ruled that former Newark Councilwoman Dana Rone must forfeit her office earlier this summer, Manzo started digging and hired legal counsel to see whether the same standard should apply to Healy. Healy and Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio said it shouldn’t, since Healy never invoked his office during his arrest.

DENVER -- Assemblywoman Joan Quigley (D-Jersey City) is candid about her feelings on the upcoming Jersey City mayoral race.

She’s with Mayor Jerramiah Healy. Not that it’s unusual, considering he’s chairman of the Hudson County Democratic Organization (HCDO). She wasn’t in 2004, however, when he ran to replace the late Glen Cunningham.

“He was a dark horse at that point and I didn’t know him well,” she said. And while his status as the head of the powerful Democratic organization could certainly win him friends, Quigley said that’s not the reason.

“I learned to like him a lot better before that happened.”

Daniel Levin, founder and past president of Civic JC, a citywide good government organization, announced today that he is a candidate for Jersey City mayor.

"I am running for mayor of Jersey City as a clear and distinct alternative to both the past administration and current candidates," said Levin, who is challenging Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy.

"I will bring the public back into the decision-making processes of Jersey City government, lead a more open, transparent, responsible government accountable to constituents, reduce conflicts of interest through campaign finance and ethical code reforms, advance an alternative economic vision for the city that will provide needed jobs for our inner-city residents, and make Jersey City a better employer through sound management practices," Levin added.

He said in the coming months, he intends to build a coalition of reform-minded council candidates and run with a full council slate.

Former Assemblyman and potential Jersey City mayoral candidate Lou Manzo plans to air three commercials for his public advocacy office this month.

Two of the commercials explain the role and accomplishments of the office he set up last year, which occupies his old legislative office space. The other ad will take a critical look at Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy.

“I don’t know that it’s negative on Healy. It’s just pointing out that he’s not attentive to conducting business as a mayor and if you have a problem you can always get us.”

Former Assemblyman Lou Manzo, a potential Jersey City mayoral hopeful for next year, thinks he might have a short cut to kicking Mayor Jerramiah Healy out of office.

Manzo plans to hire an attorney through his public advocacy office to review whether a judge’s decision that Newark Councilwoman Dana Rone should forfeit her office after her obsruction of justice conviction parallels that of Mayor Jerramiah Healy, who was convicted of disorderly conduct over a 2006 incident in Bradley Beach.

“My advocacy office is actually going to review it and see if it does apply. And if it does, we’re going to take a civil action on it,” said Manzo.

Former Mayor Bret Schundler's political future is the talk of Jersey City political circles this week because of polling phone calls being received in the area.

Schundler, a conservative Republican who served as Mayor of this ultra-Democratic town from late 1992 until 2001, would not confirm or deny putting a poll in the field, but responded by e-mail that he has not decided whether or not to run again.

The polling questions, however, have set off speculation that Schundler is leaning towards making a run for it, while others doubt what kind of support Schundler can get after leaving the city's political scene altogether and running twice as a firmly right wing gubernatorial candidate.

Hudson County is deep Frank Lautenberg territory, but Democratic Senate candidate Rob Andrews came to the heart of Jersey City’s downtown today to hold a town hall meeting.

“We will expand the campaign anywhere people will have us,” said Andrews before holding court at a gazebo in the city’s Hamilton Park. “There’s one rule in the Andrews campaign – you have to be young at heart, you have to be willing to support us.”

The meeting was organized by the local councilman, Seven Fulop – a likely mayoral candidate next year and frequent critic of Jersey City Mayor/HCDO Chairman Jerramiah Healy, who supports Lautenberg.

It was less than a year ago that Sandra B. Cunningham won the Democratic nomination for state Senate in the 33rd District, aided by Jersey City Mayor and newly christened Hudson County Democratic Organization Chairman Jerramiah Healy.

But less than six months after she assumed the office, Cunningham is considering joining the crowded quadrennial field of Jersey City mayoral candidates to run for the seat that her late husband, Glenn Cunningham, held just four years ago.

Cunningham did not respond to multiple requests for comment, but some of her recent actions have suggested that she's leaning towards making a run next year.

A poll showing Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy’s approval rating at 71% has two of his rivals skeptical.

Former Assemblyman Lou Manzo and Jersey City Councilman Steve Fulop are both considering making a bid for the seat in 2009. And based on what they’ve seen across town, they don’t believe it’s possible for Healy to have an approval rating of 71%, or a favorability rating of 66%.

“Taxes are up 35%, crime is still an issue. A reasonable person would ask if that poll is valid,” said Fulop. “It was likely conducted at the Astor Bar between the hours of 11(p.m.) and (2a.m.) – then it would make sense.”