A big winner in the race for three seats on the Jersey City Board of Education was City Councilman Steven Fulop, who continues to gain political strength as he prepares to run for mayor in 2013.  Three Fulop-approved school board candidates were elected on Tuesday against a slate of incumbents that included former Mayor Gerald McCann and one candidate who had the backing of the powerful local teachers union.  A tough and savvy reformer, Fulop’s approvals among establishment Democrats appears to be growing – a sign that his ascension to the mayoralty in three years is becoming increasingly inevitable.

One bit of empirical evidence that the establishment is beginning to embrace Fulop: Michael Soliman, U.S. Senator Robert Menendez's state director, attended a Fulop fundraiser.  Fulop challenged Menendez in the 2004 Democratic congressional primary.

The race to watch tonight is in Jersey City, where controversial former mayor Gerald McCann is seeking re-election to his second term on the Board of Education.  McCann was mayor from 1981 to 1985, and again from 1989 until 1992, when he was removed from office following his criminal conviction.  McCann and incumbents Terry Dehere and Angel Valentin face a massive field of thirteen challengers.   McCann and Dehere are running together, while the Jersey City teachers union is backing Valentin and challengers Sterling Waterman and Sebastian “Chips” D’Amico.  Jersey City Councilman Steven Fulop, who has emerged as a serious contender for mayor in 2013, is supporting Valentin, Waterman and Carol Lester.

An ordinance to limit Jersey City council members from reintroducing failed agenda items to once every six months brought comparisons to a totalitarian state by the councilman the item appears to target. 

Councilman Steven Fulop said the ordinance was an attempt to silence him, and compared its sponsor, Council President Peter Brennan, to a Soviet premier. 

“I suspect that it will pass… Brennan believes that this is the Communist Republic of Jersey City. No televised meetings, all political deals in smoky back rooms with the few connected getting wealthy, everything on the agenda must be monitored closely, and all enemies must be eliminated,” he said.  "I understand the next ordinance he wants to propose is to send me to Siberia to break big rocks into little rocks"

Fulop, a reform advocate who is the only council member not politically aligned with Mayor Jerramiah Healy, has been pushing a reform package that would eliminate health benefits for appointees to the Municipal Utilities Authority and Incinerator Authority, televise city council meetings, and put decals on city-owned cars issued to employees. 

The items failed to pass last month, but Fulop put them back on the agenda and said he would continue to do so until they passed.

Brennan could not immediately be reached for comment.

Jersey City Councilman Steven Fulop, a reformer who insiders increasingly view as a leading candidate for mayor in 2013 (or earlier), last week proposed: the elimination of health benefits for part-time political appointees in the Incinerator Authority and at the Municipal Utilities Authority; televising Council meetings as a means of enhancing transparency; and placing the city seal on municipal vehicles driven by City Council members and Mayor Jerramiah Healy’s appointees.  The Council voted down all of Fulop’s proposals. In an attempt to prevent future votes that might embarrass them in the future, Council President Peter "Stalin" Brennan is considering a new ordinance that will limit an individual councilmember (read: Fulop) from placing an item on the agenda.

Jersey City Councilman Steven Fulop held the biggest fundraiser of his political career tonight, packing 350 donors at $250 a head into Puccini’s Restaurant. 

Fulop said that he expects to net a little over $70,000 from the event, adding to the $245,000 he has in his election fund for a 2013 mayoral candidacy.

“Five years ago we couldn’t fill a phone booth,” said political consultant Tom Bertolli, Fulop’s political point man. 

Most candidates don’t open their fundraisers to the press, but Fulop, a reform advocate who is the only one of Jersey City’s nine council members not allied with Mayor Jerramiah Healy, invited reporters. There was a clear message: with Healy making frequent cameos on FBI informant Solomon Dwek’s version of “Candid Camera,” there could be a mayoral race earlier than anticipated, and the smart money was going to Fulop. 

“You can see the shift,” said Bertolli. 

Among the crowd was former Senate Majority Leader Bernard Kenny (D-Hoboken), the predecessor to Healy as Hudson County Democratic chairman.

Jersey City Councilman Steven Fulop says he’ll ask his colleagues to withhold funding for the Jersey City Incinerator Authority until Mayor Jerramiah Healy removes ex-Mayor Gerald McCann from his $50,000-a-year city job.

“The idea that the City would hire a convicted felon to its payroll during the same time period that key members of the administration are being tried in Federal court is incomprehensible,” said Fulop. McCann was Mayor from 1981 to 1985 and again from 1989 to 1992, when he was terminated from office following his criminal conviction.

Fulop noted that McCann’s hiring comes at a time when Jersey City is laying off and furloughing city employees amidst a proposed property tax hike.

“At a time when the Administration should focus on how to keep money in the pockets of its hard working residents, it moves to put an old time politician to the payroll,” said Fulop. “Let’s call this exactly what it is, this is pay back for McCann delivering his nephew Sean Connors into the Healy organization and in exchange for the Connors endorsement during the election. Every politico in the city knows this quid pro quo to be the truth when Connors endorsed Healy in the election and received his new position in the police department”

Jersey City Councilman Steven Fulop announced today that he will introduce legislation to move the city’s elections from May to November.

“This will not only save Jersey City significant cash, but it makes sense. It is challenging to get the people to come out for each election, when they are held at incongruent times,” said Fulop in a written statement. “We should move the elections to the people. I have been watching this legislation for the past year and believe it could fundamentally change how cities like mine are run. This is crucial for Jersey City to reach beyond the political machine to have a more representative election.”

The state assembly yesterday passed legislation giving municipalities the option to change the dates of their non-partisan elections to November, which will concur with the November general election.  It had already been passed by the senate and is expected to be signed into law by Gov. Jon Corzine.

About 30,000 Jersey City residents voted cast votes in the May municipal election, versus about 39,000 who turned out for the November general election. 

Eighty-six of New Jersey’s 566 municipalities hold non-partisan elections in May. 

The law would likely benefit Fulop, a reform advocate long at odds with the power structure in Jersey City who has his eye on running for mayor in 2013.  Increased turnout would allow him to appeal to voters less connected to the city’s political machinery.

Jersey City Councilman Steven Fulop has decided against a bid for Mayor of Jersey City in 2009, according to sources close to the reform Democrat.  Louis Manzo, a former Assemblyman and Hudson County Freeholder who has made four unsuccessful bids for Mayor, is expected to enter the race to unseat Jerramiah Healy.  The incumbent, the Hudson County Democratic Chairman and an early supporter of Barack Obama's campaign for the presidency, is viewed as the favorite to win re-election in the May non-partisan municipal race.

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.

The most sought after endorsement of the 2009 gubernatorial campaign might be Brian Stack, a Democratic State Senator and the Mayor of Union City, who says he remains undecided in the contest between Jon Corzine and Christopher Christie.  Both candidates showed up in Union City last night to kiss the ring of a local party boss who can deliver 70% of the vote to the candidate of his choice.  Christie came bearing a gift: a strong suggestion that Stack is not the target of any federal investigation.  Clearly Stack was appreciative of the personal endorsement, although it is possible that he won't reciprocate in November. Stack has told people he will make up his mind soon, but he's more likely to extend the courtship, and see where the race is going in October.

It is unlikely that Christie would be so effusive in his praise if he thought Stack was going to get busted.  If that happened, the Corzine campaign would have his comment on YouTube within minutes.  But Christie has an insurance policy: if Stack was in trouble, it makes claims of politically motivated federal prosecutions less credible.  This is a win-win for the former United States Attorney.