Sandra Cunningham

In their State Senate contest, Sandra Bolden Cunningham’s people and Assemblyman Louis Manzo’s forces see the race coming down to which side can amass more votes in their respective monster wards: Cunningham in the predominantly African-American Ward F and Manzo in the white blue collar burgh of Bayonne.

By 1 p.m., 1,165 voters had hit the polls in Ward F, and 1,500 voters had punched in in Bayonne, according to the Manzo people. Cunningham spokesman Dominic Santana disputed those numbers, and says more voters are showing up in Ward F, and fewer in Bayonne.

Shelia Newton-Moses campaigns at the Colonette Diner in Jersey City
It's a long life in public service versus a life of fiesty private enterprise in this district 31 undercard where veteran former Jersey City Mayor, State Senator and Council President L. Harvey Smith will fight today with businesswoman and private school educator Shelia Newton Moses for votes in Jersey City and Bayonne.

Both candidates expect to pull votes in Ward F, which is about 85 percent African-American. Wards A and B also contain a large percentage of the district’s African American voters, particularly A, where Smith is banking on his reputation with his base, and Newton-Moses hopes her community activism and vitality count for some votes.

Senate Majority Leader Bernard Kenny, the Hudson County Democratic Chairman, told the Star-Ledger that Sandra Bolden Cunningham "would be the first African-American Senator from Hudson County, and I think that matters."  Actually, Cunningham would be the fourth African American to represent Hudson in the State Senate, and Kenny has served with the other three: Joseph Charles, a Senator from 2002 to 2003; L. Harvey Smith, a Senator for a brief time in 2003 and 2004; and the late Glenn Cunningham, who held the Senate seat for six months until his death in June 2004.

The story of the day is Tom Moran's Star-Ledger column bashing Sandra Bolden Cunningham, who is called an "insult to voters" who felt "no pain as she banged a hammer on her head over and over" explaining questions over a convicted sex offender on her campaign staff, a mega block party funded by her charitable foundation, a drunk driving conviction, and for riding a train without a ticket.

This is the kind of story that could end a campaign in a competitive district, but as Moran says: "To find the worst that New Jersey politics has to offer, go to the regions where one party dominates. The machines there are so cocky about their winning streaks that they've lost all perspective."

Moran's column is a must-read, and many political insiders have and will. But what about the people who will actually vote in the 31st district State Senate primary next week? The Jersey Journal, the Star-Ledger affiliated newspaper that serves Hudson County, didn't run Moran's column today.

William Ayala, former chief of staff to the late Mayor Glenn Cunningham and a former candidate for the Assembly, has endorsed Assemblyman Louis Manzo for state Senate in district 31, the opponent of the mayor's widow, Sandra Bolden Cunningham.

The public will be allowed to hear judge question jurors about State Senator Robert Martin, Healy’s trial for disorderly conduct set for next month, Harrison Township Committee candidate shares lawyer with town in suit against zoning board, Tom Wilson named in lawsuit, Atlantic County Democrats lead Republicans in fundraising.

With the exception of a courtroom squabble over signatures, the contest for state Senate in district 31 proved mild in May until both sides popped the manhole covers on JFK Boulevard and snorkeled straight to the lower depths of Hudson County for an all-out mud-fest.

Examine recent campaign flyers from both camps.

The Sandra Bolden Cunningham/Hudson County Democratic Organization glossies show pictures of former Jersey City Mayor Gerald McCann interposed with shots of state Senate candidate (and Assemblyman) Louis Manzo. A close-up of McCann in one of these mailings brings to mind all of the fearful malevolence of Peter Lorre in a low budget horror flick, while the pic of Manzo suggests a wannabe desperado spitting sand out of his face after getting bucked off his charge.

The political problems of State Senate candidate Sandra Bolden Cunningham continue to increase. The Jersey Journal is reporting that the foundation she runs has used just $17,000 for charitable purposes, while spending $93,784 on operating and administrative costs. Cunningham and her late husband formed the Glenn D. and Sandra Cunningham Foundation after Glenn Cunningham's election as Mayor of Jersey City in 2001. After his death, Sandra Cunningham became the salaried Executive Director.

Sandra Cunningham has spent the last week on defense after published reports that Russell Wallace, a convicted sex offender, was working on her campaign. Among Wallace's repsonsibilities was circulating petitions door-to-door. The Cunningham campaign initially defended Wallace, but backed off this week.

In the sea of Hudson County politics, all of those beleaguered sailors set adrift out there in the face of June 5th, Election Day, depending on their loyalties either fear or embrace the perfect storm, envisioned by that upstart pirate skipper Brian P. Stack.

Stack, the mayor of Union City and an Assemblyman, jumped out in front of the Hudson County Democratic Organization when he announced his intentions of supplanting State Sen. Bernie Kenny, who later said formally he would retire.

Now Stack is favored to win the Democratic Primary in the 33rd District, which includes Union City, West New York, Weehawken, Hoboken, Guttenberg and part of Jersey City. He already has an ally in Weehawken Mayor Richard Turner. The candidate’s also pumped money into the municipal re-election bids of the young Turks in Hoboken, who are restlessly jockeying for position to succeed Mayor David Roberts.