Tony Chiappone

Bayonne Democratic Committee Chairman Jason O'Donnell

Solomon Dwek mostly talked about his five kids when Bayonne Democratic Party Chairman Jason O'Donnell met with him last year in the lead-up to the Bayonne mayor's race, O'Donnell recalled.

But Dwek also mentioned his interest in building two towers in Bayonne, said O'Donnell, who at the time was working as the campaign manager for eventual winner Mark Smith.

When they later went out to the parking lot of the restaurant where they met, Dwek offered O'Donnell $5,000, according to the chairman.

"I obviously told him to go take a walk," O'Donnell said.

Until Thursday, when Dwek's name leaked as the confidential witness who helped the feds nail 44 public officials, rabbis and political operatives as part of a corruption and money laundering bust, "I never thought of it again - I just thought it was a fast and loose play from Manhattan," added the chairman.

Assemblyman Tony Chiappone (D-Bayonne)

BAYONNE - Assemblyman Tony Chiappone (D-Bayonne) confirmed that he's the state assemblyman identified in the federal complaint against Lou and Ronald Manzo who JC Official #1 describes inadvertently running into as he and Ronald Manzo met confidential witness Solomon Dwek in the parking lot of the Lighthouse Restaurant. 

According to the Manzo complaint, "On or about April 23, 2009, at approximately 4:26 a.m., FBI agents intercepted an incoming call to the consultant's cellphone from JC Official #1. During that call, JC Official #1 said, 'Hey, you now after we left the Bayonne meeting, me, me, Ronald Manzo and the CW was in the uh, uh, parking lot... guess who we run into?'"

The complaint puts the words "state assemblyman" in brackets.

"I didn't want nothing to do with the guy," JC Official #1 says, according to the feds. "I didn't even want him to see me."

Assemblyman Tony Chiappone (D-Bayonne) and state Sen. Sandra Cunningham (D-Hudson)

BAYONNE – It was a bruising fight for Assemblyman Tony Chiappone (D-Bayonne), one he wanted badly to win, but his ally in last week’s mayoral election lost, and now Chiappone must look ahead to his own re-election bid next year and the grim prospect of running off the line.

Whether on or off, Chiappone makes it clear.

 “I’m running,” he said.

The Jersey Journal’s Political Insider points out that Mark Smith’s defeat of Pat Conaghan on Election Day gives the Hudson County Democratic Organization (HCDO) the necessary leverage to dump Chiappone, who comes from that part of the 31st Legislative District composing a third of what is otherwise dominated by Jersey City.