Louis Manzo

Steve Fulop won't run for Mayor of Jersey City next year. Instead, he'll seek re-election to the City Council.

Jersey City Councilman Steven Fulop has decided against a bid for Mayor of Jersey City in 2009, according to sources close to the reform Democrat.  Louis Manzo, a former Assemblyman and Hudson County Freeholder who has made four unsuccessful bids for Mayor, is expected to enter the race to unseat Jerramiah Healy.  The incumbent, the Hudson County Democratic Chairman and an early supporter of Barack Obama's campaign for the presidency, is viewed as the favorite to win re-election in the May non-partisan municipal race.

State Sen. Sandra Cunningham (D-Jersey City) could face a primary when she seeks re-election in two years.

The primary is a year and a half away, but state Sen. Sandra B. Cunningham (D-Jersey City) is in danger of being tossed off the Hudson County Democratic Organization's (HCDO) line in 2011.

That development could spark an intra-party fight like the one that engulfed Hudson County politics two and a half years ago, when a challenge by then-Assemblyman and Union City Mayor Brian Stack to former Senate Majority Leader Bernard Kenny's (D-Hoboken) had county-wide implications.  Back then, Cunningham kept the seat of former state Sen. Joseph Doria (D-Bayonne) for the HCDO, fending off a challenge by former Assemblyman Louis Manzo (D-Jersey City), who was backed by the rival Democratic organization led by Stack. 

That conflagration died down after the 2007 primary election, but Cunningham's decision in June to block Gov. Jon Corzine's appointment of Hudson County Executive Tom DeGise to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has - at least for the time being - turned the party apparatus against her.

"I've seen smaller things spark forest fires here in Hudson County," said DeGise.

DeGise said he had the support of all 12 Hudson County mayors for the Port Authority spot.  With so much of the Port Authority's infrastructure in Hudson County - the Lincoln Tunnel, the Holland Tunnel, the Bayonne Bridge, most of the New Jersey portion of the PATH system, the Auto Marine terminal in Bayonne - DeGise said that the county should have a representative on the board of commissioners.

"Just one person - I think it's a curious system that allows for one person to block the will of a ton of others. But that's the system," he said.

Speculation that Corzine would appoint Elizabeth Mayor J. Christian Bollwage to the post instead - a political ally of state Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D-Elizabeth), who is Cunningham's Trenton mentor - did not come to fruition.

There is no love lost between DeGise and Cunningham.  In 2001, Cunningham defeated DeGise in a non-partisan contest for mayor of Jersey City.  Glenn Cunningham died four years later, but the hard feelings between DeGise and Sandra Cunningham remained - so much so that it was considered no small feat for Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy and HCDO operatives to get them to run on the same ticket in 2007.

Still, while he doesn't hide his anger at Cunningham, DeGise thinks a public fight can be avoided.

"Diplomacy should always be used before a sledgehammer," he said.  "I can remember back now to '07, and the spark between Bernie Kenny and Brian Stack over the Senate seat just blew up into a county-wide fight, and I really to this day believe that better diplomacy could have been used to avoid that."

Former Assemblyman Louis Manzo (D-Jersey City) and his brother, Ronald, pleaded not guilty to corruption charges today.

The Jersey Journal covered the arraignment.  

The two are accused of taking $27,500 in bribes from FBI informant Solomon Dwek during Louis Manzo’s mayoral campaign earlier this year.  They are also accused of promising Dwek that they would promote former Jersey City Department of Health and Human Services Deputy Director Maher Khalil to a higher position in city government.  

Khalil, who set up meetings between Dwek and several other officials charged in the massive July corruption sting, pleaded guilty last month to taking $72,500 in bribes from Dwek.  

Louis Manzo, who ran for Mayor of Jersey City five times, was indicted today on federal corruption charges

Former Assemblyman Louis Manzo (D-Jersey City), who was arrested on July 23 as part of Operation Bid Rig, was indicted today on charges that he took a $27,500 bribe from a government witness - believed to be Solomon Dwek - in exchange for help on a development matter after he became Mayor.  Manzo lost his bid to unseat incumbent Jerramiah Healy last spring by a wide margin.

Manzo's brother, insurance executive Ronald Manzo, was also indicted.

The Manzo's are accused of conspiring with two then-Jersey City officials, Edward Cheatam and Maher Khalil, and with a "now-deceased political consultant" - believed to be Jack Shaw.  Cheatam and Khalil have already pleaded guilty.

The two accepted envelopes with cash outside a Staten Island restaurant, according to the indictment.

From the  U.S. Attorney's press release:

Former Assemblyman Louis Manzo (D-Jersey City), who was arrested last month for allegedly taking bribes from an FBI informant, still faces a civil suit from a former fundraiser who says he owes her $40,000 for his unsuccessful bid for the Democratic State Senate nomination in 2007.

Dannielle Transue Leigh says that Manzo paid her $2,000 per month but skipped out on the 12% sum of total money raised he agreed to pay her once the campaign was over.

The two sides are set to meet for arbitration in Superior Court tomorrow morning, but it is unlikely to resolve the dispute.  Both plan to appeal if the arbitrator rules against them, continuing a case that has dragged on since shortly after state Sen. Sandra B. Cunningham (D-Jersey City) defeated Manzo in the June, 2007 Democratic primary.

Monthly payments to Transue Leigh appear in Manzo's ELEC reports, but Manzo in an affidavit denied that he entered into a contract for fundraising services with her.

"He's under criminal investigation and he's perjured himself.  It just boggles the mind," said Transue Leigh, who originally sued for $15,000 in small claims court because she wanted to get the case over with quickly but said that, after repeated delays, she decided to go to trial for the larger sum that more accurately reflects her losses.

District 22 GOP Assembly candidate Martin Marks this afternoon doubled down on his criticism of Assemblywoman Linda Stender (D-Fanwood) for accepting campaign contributions from three men charged last Thursday with corruption.

During her failed District 7 Congressional run last year, Stender received money from Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano, former Assemblyman Lou Manzo, and Manzo's brother, Ronald, all of whom were charged in federal court last week with taking cash bribes related to their own 2009 campaign bids.

"Linda Stender cites technicalities in explaining why she should not
return nearly $4000 in dirty money donated to her by three machine Democrats now under indictment," fumed Marks.

Assemblyman Tony Chiappone (D-Bayonne)

BAYONNE - Assemblyman Tony Chiappone (D-Bayonne) confirmed that he's the state assemblyman identified in the federal complaint against Lou and Ronald Manzo who JC Official #1 describes inadvertently running into as he and Ronald Manzo met confidential witness Solomon Dwek in the parking lot of the Lighthouse Restaurant. 

According to the Manzo complaint, "On or about April 23, 2009, at approximately 4:26 a.m., FBI agents intercepted an incoming call to the consultant's cellphone from JC Official #1. During that call, JC Official #1 said, 'Hey, you now after we left the Bayonne meeting, me, me, Ronald Manzo and the CW was in the uh, uh, parking lot... guess who we run into?'"

The complaint puts the words "state assemblyman" in brackets.

"I didn't want nothing to do with the guy," JC Official #1 says, according to the feds. "I didn't even want him to see me."