Nicholas Sacco

The Hudson County peace agreement was meant to be formalized in Jersey City today, with virtually every major elected official in the county coming together the put the Hudson County Democratic Organization (HCDO) together again.

This morning, citing scheduling conflicts among several officials, the HCDO postponed the event to an unscheduled time next week. But multiple sources say that the real reason the presser was cancelled was because the most important player – Union City Mayor and State Sen. Brian Stack – refused to attend.

Hudson County Democratic Organization Executive Director Craig Guy said, however, that Stack did not refuse to attend the press conference.

A big whoop rose from the mostly Latino crowd when a woman held aloft a doll of Sen. Hillary Clinton in Schuetzen Park in North Bergen on Wednesday night. But that was low-key compared to the raise-the-roof response elicited a few minutes later when the New York senator and Democratic presidential candidate actually appeared on stage.

"I know how incredibly important family is to the Latino community," Clinton told several hundred cheering supporters. "Let’s take care of families with real resources."

Barack Obama may have rallied thousands of Jersey City residents on Mayor Jerramiah Healy's turf last week, but the Hillary Clinton campaign sought to make one thing clear today: the bulk of Hudson County public officials are with them, even if Healy, the mayor of the county's biggest city and chairman of its party, is not.

Governor Jon S. Corzine and Sen. Bob Menendez headlined a press conference today at The Turning Point restaurant in their hometown of Hoboken, emceed by Democratic State Chairman Joe Cryan and attended by over two dozen elected officials, at least a few of whom occupy different sides of the Hudson County Democratic split.

And while Clinton wasn't there today, Menendez promised that she would be in New Jersey before the February 5th.

When you’re a mayor in a heavily Latino district it helps to have someone around who speaks Spanish, and if you’re looking to offer favors in exchange for hogtying political rivals it is also helpful to have someone in a service organization who can help deliver those favors.

Union City Mayor Brian Stack has both in the form of Christopher Irizarry, according to mayors allied with the Hudson County Democratic Organization (HCDO), which continues to battle Stack for control of the politically-charged county, and which refuses to cede any ground to the 33rd district insurgent and presumptive state senator who ran against the organization and won the Democratic Primary in June.

This latest stanza in the Stack saga has its roots that primary, in fact, when a roomful of skeptical reporters listened as Assemblyman ( and West New York Mayor Sal Vega) played a tape he said was his opponent in the race for senate.

Already through the assembly, a bill banning dual office holding passed in the state senate on Thursday, 33-2.

Upset that the bill grandfathers legislators who currently hold two or more offices, the GOP was circling in the senate chamber, taking bites at the bill when an infuriated Sen. Ron Rice let them have it.

Emerging from the wreckage of Election Day, State Senator (and North Bergen Mayor) Nicholas Sacco, said only time can heal the political wounds in Hudson County.

Known for his blunt talk and his executive ability to convincingly say "no" in a roomful of beseeching voices, the 32nd district senator, who chairs the Senate Transportation Committee, said the civil war between Assemblyman (and Union City Mayor) Brian P. Stack and the Hudson County Democratic Organization never had to happen.

"If Stack would have simply waited for (State Senator) Bernie Kenny to retire, there would have been one ticket," said Sacco, who enjoys close ties to the organization. "I think the reality now is we all have to work together and for the people of New Jersey.