Steve Fulop

Things appear to be getting a little prickly between Jersey City Councilman Steve Fulop and former Mayor Bret Schundler – two prospective candidates in next year’s mayoral election who share the same base of voters downtown.

At issue are the two ballot initiatives Fulop plans to put on the ballot in November – one which enacts a pay-to-play ban and another that bars city council members from accepting more than one public salary.

The initiatives also work as an organizing tool for Fulop, who’s used dozens of volunteers in the effort and hopes that it will increase his name recognition outside of his own Ward E.

After Fulop turned in enough signatures to get the initiatives on the ballot, Schundler came out wholeheartedly in support of them, and mentioned that he’d be willing to hold a joint press conference with Fulop in support of them.

Fulop, however, shot down that idea.

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Former Jersey City mayor and two-time gubernatorial candidate Bret Schundler, who’s mulling a return to City Hall, said today that he supports the ballot initiatives championed by Steve Fulop, another prospective mayoral candidate, and would go as far to hold a press conference supporting it.  

“They very much follow in the footprints of the ethics reforms I proposed during my gubernatorial campaign in 2001,” wrote Schundler in an email to PolitickerNJ.

The initiatives, which are likely to be in the November general election ballot, ban city officials from accepting campaign contributions from vendors with business before the city within a year of the contract’s start date and force City Council members to accept only one taxpayer funded salary. 

Jersey City Heights businessman Michael Yun, a long time friend political ally of Bret Schundler, said that the former mayor and gubernatorial candidate will seek to reclaim the city's top office in 2009.

“He’s definitely going to run, yes, and we’re organizing,” Yun told PolitickerNJ in a phone interview this morning.

Schundler has spent the last couple weeks attending neighborhood meetings and asking local politicians for support, aided by Yun. He recently announced his mayoral intentions to a gathering of Hudson County Republicans at their reorganization meeting, though in less definite language.

BAYONNE - U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews (D-1) arrives in Bayonne.

State Sen. Sandra Cunningham (D-Hudson), U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews (D-1), and Jackie Andrews. 

BAYONNE - When U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews gets out of his car in front of the Catholic War Veterans Post 1612 on 23rd Street, his allies greet his appearance with an enthusiasm that runs into a wall of Lautenberg motley across the street.

The two sides have been trading scattered verbal chest thumps for about a half an hour, with the level of public discourse never rising above the likes of, "Who’s washed up? Lautenberg. Who’s washed up? Lautenberg," versus "Who’s going to lose? Andrews. Who’s going to lose? Andrews!"

Now that U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg’s (D-NJ) challenger in Tuesday’s Democratic Senate Primary lands on the scene, the smaller Andrews camp tries unsuccessfully to drown out a renewed frenzy of put-downs coming from the other side.

BAYONNE - Speaking to a crowd of about 60 Bayonne residents at the Catholic War Veterans Post on 23rd Street Saturday, state Sen. Sandra Cunningham (D-Hudson) explained why she's supporting Andrews for U.S. Senate.

Moments later, Andrews recognized his daughter, Jackie, and told the crowd he had brought her along in part to meet women of courage like Cunningham. 

BAYONNE - Jersey City Councilman and Iraq War Marine Corps. veteran Steve Fulop talks about the war in the context of U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews's U.S. Senate campaign.

Sources familiar with Jersey City politics say that an interesting alliance is in the works: if Sandra Cunningham runs for Mayor in 2009, then Louis Manzo  will drop his plan to run for Mayor and support her – with the implied promise that she would support him for her State Senate seat.  And if City Councilman Steven Fulop joins the Cunningham camp – instead of running for Mayor – he would be rewarded with Cunningham’s endorsement for the Democratic nomination for Congress against Albio Sires in the 2010 primary.   Manzo, sources say, has not ruled out a bid for Councilman-At-Large on the Cunningham ticket, although he could not serve as Councilman and Senator at the same time.