Sandra Cunningham

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."

The race for Mayor of Jersey City is four year away, but someone is already in the field with a poll. In a computer automated poll, voters are asked how they would vote for mayor "in light of the recent corruption arrests."  Four potential candidates were named: Sean Connors, Sandra Cunningham, Steven Fulop, and incumbent Jerramiah Healy.  Additional choices included other and undecided.

Veteran Democratic operative Joe Cardwell was arrested in July as part of Operation Bid Rig

It wasn't exactly a clandestine meeting.

Senate Majority Leader Stephen Sweeney (D-West Deptford) -- who could be the next Senate President -- was spotted last night at the Liberty House Restaurant in Jersey City dining with state Sen. Sandra B. Cunningham (D-Jersey City) and political operative Joseph Cardwell, who was arrested in July on corruption charges.

While the three ate in the restaurant's dining room, Freeholder Bill O'Dea held a low-dollar fundraiser in the catering room next door.  Two sources who attended the fundraiser reported seeing Cardwell handing out cards for his legal defense fund to guests who trickled into the restaurant's bar from the O'Dea event.   

Reached by phone, Cardwell said he ate with the two senators, but declined to elaborate on what they talked about.   

"The Senator was discussing business. I was just there," he said. 

Sweeney has been campaigning hard for the Senate Presidency, and this morning announced that he has the votes needed to topple incumbent Richard Codey (D-Roseland).  Cunningham, however, was not among the thirteen Democratic Senators he listed as supporting his bid. 

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.

TRENTON – A measure sponsored by Senators Sandra Bolden Cunningham and Teresa Ruiz, which prohibits the sale and purchase of more than one handgun per person, within a 30-day period, was signed into law today.

According to the sponsors, the law will help to prevent “straw purchasing,” or purchasing a firearm for someone who is not legally allowed to buy one.

Union City Mayor/State Sen. Brian P. Stack (D-Union City), last year.

UNION CITY - Union City Mayor/state Sen. Brian P. Stack has not endorsed a candidate for governor.

Somewhere a crowd gathers in Bergen, but here in a gazebo in Hudson County, a solitary figure in white shirt sleeves stands at the precipitous edge of the palisades with the maw of the river and Hoboken and Jersey City and Manhattan below as he talks on a cellphone.

It's Stack.

"I didn't even know there was a rally today," he says, folding the phone in one hand, referring to Gov. Jon Corzine's rollout of running mate, state Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck). "Where is it? What's going on?"

It's not as though Stack's home turf is stagnant in the blaze of summertime, or as if Stack ever really has a tendency to gravitate away from Union City.

"I'm always here," he says with grin, but on this occasion it looks like an especially lonely vantage point, considering the fact that on Thursday, sections of the Democratic Party infrastructure caved with the FBI arrests of numerous political operatives and officials, most of them from Jersey City. 

If Stephen Sweeney (D-West Deptford) is successful in his bid to replace Richard Codey (D-Roseland) as Senate President in November, Senate Democrats will have to decide who will replace Sweeney as Majority Leader.   And if Sweeney challenges Codey and loses, he could face a fight to keep the job he has now.  Either way, there could be a contested race for Senate Majority Leader.

Less than two years ago, Sweeney narrowly won the #2 Senate leadership post, defeating Paul Sarlo (D-Wood-Ridge) by a 14-9 vote after Bernard Kenney (D-Hoboken) did not seek re-election.  Sarlo had Codey's strong endorsement.

Sweeney won by assembling a coalition of six South Jersey Senators, along with support from Democratic Senators in Middlesex and Union,  and Sandra Cunningham (D-Jersey City),  Brian Stack (D-Union City), and Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck).  Raymond Lesniak (D-Elizabeth) was Sweeney's kingmaker; he helped deliver five votes on the day of the election.

But Sweeney would not necessarily have the same coalition against Codey as he did against Sarlo.  He does not yet have the votes of Cunningham, Stack, Weinberg, and Joseph Vitale (D-Woodbridge), although Theresa Ruiz (D-Newark) is probably with him.

State Sen. Sandra Cunningham (D-Jersey City), vice chair of the Senate Labor Committee.

TRENTON - State Sen. Sandra Cunningham (D-Jersey City) admitted today that she was irritated with Gov. Jon Corzine for not calling her personally to discuss Corzine's nomination of County Executive Tom DeGise to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

"Let's just say I wasn't asked," Cunningham told PolitickerNJ.com moments after state Sen. Fred Madden (D-Gloucester) gaveled out today's Senate Labor Committee hearing.

Sources say DeGise discussed his nomination with Cunningham, but Cunningham allies say the senator wanted the governor to confer with her personally, which she says never happened.

Asked who she favors as a candidate for lieutenant governor on a ticket topped by the governor in his re-election bid, Cunningham said she has not considered the issue.

Asked who she could sell in Jersey City as a candidate, Cunningham said, "I haven't thought about LG. I will have a hard enough time selling the governor."

Jerramiah Healy has won three campaigns for Mayor of Jersey City in five years without ever being forced into a runoff election - the first Mayor to do that since the legendary Frank Hague won his last election in 1945. The Healy slate also won six of the seven Council seats decided in yesterday's vote, with the chance to pick up two more when Ward A Councilman Michael Sottolano and Ward F Councilwoman Viola Richardson run in a June 9 runoff election. 

Healy won 53% of the vote in a five-candidate field, besting two well-known challengers: Louis Manzo, a former Assemblyman and Hudson County Freeholder who was making his fifth bid for Mayor; and Assemblyman L. Harvey Smith, a former Acting Mayor, State Senator, and City Council President. 

But one frequent critic of the Mayor remains in office: Ward E Councilman Steven Fulop won a massive 63% of the vote against four opponents, including Guy "Squab" Catrillo, who ran on Healy' slate.  The Healy campaign, sensing Fulop's strength, essentially pulled out of the Ward E race a few weeks ago.