Sandra B. Cunningham

Former Assemblyman Lou Manzo, a potential mayoral candidate in Jersey City next year, filed a petition with Monmouth County Superior Court to ask them to weigh whether Mayor Jerramiah Healy’s conduct during his 2006 Bradley Beach arrest should trigger him to forfeit his office.

No hearing date is set yet, and Manzo can’t release details until all parties have been served.

Healy was convicted of disorderly conduct in Bradley Beach last year, and has sought unsuccessfully to reverse the decision several times. He’s currently appealing it in the state Supreme Court.

But after an Essex County judge ruled that former Newark Councilwoman Dana Rone must forfeit her office earlier this summer, Manzo started digging and hired legal counsel to see whether the same standard should apply to Healy. Healy and Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio said it shouldn’t, since Healy never invoked his office during his arrest.

DENVER -- State Sen. Sandra B. Cunningham still hasn’t made a decision about whether she’ll run for mayor of Jersey City.  And that’s as much as she’ll say on the subject.

“I don’t know yet,” she said.  “I’d rather not answer any of the stuff relating to that right now.”

Although Cunningham is staying in the same hotel as incumbent Mayor Jerramiah Healy, both said that they had not discussed anything about the mayor’s race during their time at the convention or, for that matter, ever (whether people close to them are talking about it is a different matter). 

DENVER -- Assemblywoman Joan Quigley (D-Jersey City) is candid about her feelings on the upcoming Jersey City mayoral race.

She’s with Mayor Jerramiah Healy. Not that it’s unusual, considering he’s chairman of the Hudson County Democratic Organization (HCDO). She wasn’t in 2004, however, when he ran to replace the late Glen Cunningham.

“He was a dark horse at that point and I didn’t know him well,” she said. And while his status as the head of the powerful Democratic organization could certainly win him friends, Quigley said that’s not the reason.

“I learned to like him a lot better before that happened.”

Bret Schundler has been tightlipped with the press about whether he's made a decision to run for mayor of Jersey City, but some Hudson County Republicans are under the impression that the former mayor has just about made up his mind to run again for the big office on Grove Street.

Schundler, who was mayor between 1992 and 2001 before running two unsuccessful gubernatorial bids, attended the party's reorganization meeting earlier this month in his role as a committeeman and, according to one person present, unofficially announced his intention to run.

"He basically said that he was interested in running, and that he will announce it at a later date," said Hudson County Republican Chairman Jose Arango. "He said that maybe in the future he'll announce that he'll run for mayor. I know he's meeting with people."

For a town where politics is a blood sport, Jersey City is pretty quiet today.

One thing’s clear in Ward F – whether it’s because Mayor Healy appeased Joe Cardwell with a spot on the Municipal Utilities Authority or for some other reason, there does not appear to be a serious push from or State Sen. Sandra B. Cunningham on behalf ofRob Andrews in this heavily African-American section of town.

Driving through Martin Luther King Drive, which cuts through state Cunningham’s strongest constituency, you’re hit with two blocks approaching Freeholder Director Jeffrey Dublin’s headquarters that are plastered with sign’s bearing Dublin’s face, and where Lautenberg posters adorn about every lamp post. But one block farther south, campaign signs disappear almost completely.

The Hudson County Freeholder candidates are the only ones with significant troops canvassing the city and standing outside of polling places. For the most part, their campaign literature makes no mention of Senate candidates, even if they share a line. And altogether, turnout seems to be quite low across the board.

Standing in front of city hall to honor a World War II veteran, Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Heavy laughed off a question about whether he appointed political consultant Joe Cardwell to a position on the board of the Municipal Utilities Authority (MUA) in order to keep him from working too hard for Rob Andrews.

Cardwell is the closest advisor to state Sen. Sandra B. Cunningham, who in April announced her support for Rep. Rob Andrews for Senate and is considered a potentially strong mayoral challenger to Healy next year.

“I appointed Joe to the MUA because we had a vacancy, and I know Joe will do a really good job down there,” said Healy, who is also the chairman of the Hudson County Democratic Organization.

Former Mayor Bret Schundler's political future is the talk of Jersey City political circles this week because of polling phone calls being received in the area.

Schundler, a conservative Republican who served as Mayor of this ultra-Democratic town from late 1992 until 2001, would not confirm or deny putting a poll in the field, but responded by e-mail that he has not decided whether or not to run again.

The polling questions, however, have set off speculation that Schundler is leaning towards making a run for it, while others doubt what kind of support Schundler can get after leaving the city's political scene altogether and running twice as a firmly right wing gubernatorial candidate.

It was less than a year ago that Sandra B. Cunningham won the Democratic nomination for state Senate in the 33rd District, aided by Jersey City Mayor and newly christened Hudson County Democratic Organization Chairman Jerramiah Healy.

But less than six months after she assumed the office, Cunningham is considering joining the crowded quadrennial field of Jersey City mayoral candidates to run for the seat that her late husband, Glenn Cunningham, held just four years ago.

Cunningham did not respond to multiple requests for comment, but some of her recent actions have suggested that she's leaning towards making a run next year.

            TRENTON – Senator Sandra B. Cunningham, D-Hudson, who serves on the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee, today released the following statement regarding Governor Jon Corzine’s fiscal year 2009 budget address:

            “I commend Governor Corzine for taking courageous steps to address the State’s financial woes. I understand that crafting a budget that helps to reduce the spending, while also maintaining necessary programs is a difficult task.  Even harder still is coming up with a plan that has broad voter approval.