Paul Jordan

Jersey City is expected to consider a change to their form of government that would move from May non-partisan elections to partisan elections, with a June primary and a November general, according to sources close to the Hudson County Democratic leadership.  Democrats were slightly alarmed earlier this year when former Mayor Bret Schundler, a conservative Republican, was emerging as the strongest potential challenger to Mayor Jerramiah Healy, the Hudson County Democratic Chairman.  A partisan election would make only the Democratic primary relevant.

Sources say that the idea to switch from non-partisan to partisan was initially offered to Healy by George Norcross, the South Jersey Democratic leader.  Camden and Gloucester Township have also moved from non-partisan to partisan local elections.  Democrats feel their Gloucester Township mayoral candidate, former Assemblyman David Mayer, has a better chance to oust Republican incumbent Cindy Rau-Hatton in November than he would have in May.

Former Bayonne City Commissioner John Januszewski passed away on Thursday at the age of 91.  Januszewski was elected City Commissioner in 1959 and ran for Mayor of Bayonne in 1962.  He made it to a runoff, but lost by 2,755 votes, 55%-45% to Francis Fitzpatrick. 

Fitzpatrick was famous was the leader of a reform movement in Hudson County that helped topple a pair of legendary political bosses and Jersey City Mayors, Frank Hague and John V. Kenny.  He served as a Hudson County Freeholder from 1945 to 1951, and Bayonne City Commissioner from 1959 to 1962.  In his runoff victory against Januszewski, he carried in all five of his City Commissioner running mates, including future Mayor Dennis Collins and future Assembly Speaker and Congressman Joseph LeFante.

If Jerramiah Healy wins re-election in 2009, he would become the first Democratic mayor of Jersey City to win a second consecutive four-year term since Thomas Whelan was re-elected in 1969.