Vincent Prieto

Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy, right, with Assemblywoman Joan Quigley (D-Jersey City) and Assemblyman Vincent Prieto (D-Secaucus)

HARRISON - Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy agrees that North Hudson will be selfishly motivated to land decent numbers for Gov. Jon Corzine next Tuesday. 
 
But South Hudson?
 
"Corzine will be fine," said the Jersey City mayor, refusing to go into detail. "I think he wins the election by two points."
 
At the heart of North Hudson Democratic Party turnout is a fierce warlord rivalry between state Sen. Nicholas Sacco (D-North Bergen) and state Sen. Brian P. Stack (D-Union City) for northern bragging rights.
 
In addition, operatives are confident that a mayoral race in Hoboken will drive numbers up in that overwhelmingly Democratic town and help the incumbent governor.

But broken local infrastructure in South Hudson (Jersey City and Bayonne), owing to summertime corruption busts; and political standoffs taking the heart out of intraparty rivalry mere months after local elections in Jersey City, dog the party, despite county coordinator Jason O'Donnell's best attempts to revitalize those towns for the governor and despite Obama hoopla.

Gov. Jon Corzine arrives Thursday night in Harrison.

HARRISON - Shoved into the swamps of Hudson and for years all but forgotten except to post-industrial artifact watchers on passing trains, disgruntled people whose cars got towed from Newark to the impound lots, and the clutch of blue collar workers who live between bridges, Harrison welcomed Gov. Jon Corzine tonight to the Polish National Hall.

"What's he doing here?" wondered a hard-nosed party insider observing the governor as Corzine pressed into the packed crowd with Mayor Ray J. .McDonough and a band of Hudson diehards, including Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy, County Executive Tom DeGise, Assemblyman Vincent Prieto (D-Secaucus), and Assemblywoman Joan Quigley (D-Jersey City).

After distributing 1,000 pumpkins to North Bergenites, state Sen. Nick Sacco (D-North Bergen) arrived at the event when Corzine, Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine, McDonough and attendant dignitaries were already onstage.

He offered an explanation.

Referring to the disparity between Democrats and Republicans in the town (2,835 to 276), Sacco told the cheering crowd, "You know, I've always said the best organization is in Harrison, which continually turns out the largest plurality of Democrats in the state."

WISNIEWSKI / PRIETO / RAMOS BILL TO PROTECT MOTORISTS BY REQUIRING ICE OR SNOW BE REMOVED FROM VEHICLE NOW LAW

(TRENTON) – Legislation sponsored by Assemblymen John Wisniewski, Vincent Prieto and Ruben J. Ramos Jr. to protect motorists by making it a violation to not remove accumulated ice or snow from a motor vehicle has been signed into law by Gov. Jon S. Corzine.

Assemblyman Vincent Prieto (D-Secaucus)

Assemblyman Vincent Prieto (D-Secaucus) explained the local Democratic Party's absence of a mayoral candidate in his hometown as conscious response to a political crisis.

"We're trying to take a strategic look here and we have decided the best thing to do is to focus on electing our council candidates," said Prieto of a team that was assembled to run with incumbent Mayor Dennis Elwell.

After getting hit with federal corruption charges in late July, Elwell resigned, leaving the independent candidate, Mike Gonnelli, to now run unopposed, as Republicans also did not submit petitions for a mayoral candidate in front of this afternoon's deadline.

 "I'm running for re-election as the assemblyman and as the leader of the party in Secaucus I want to bring the council candidates together and move forward," Prieto told PolitickerNJ.com today in North Bergen. "I'm leading the party and we're running an aggressive, positive campaign, starting with a rally tomorrow." 

Gov. Jon Corzine, Eva Quntana of North Bergen, and state Sen./Mayor Nicholas Sacco (D-North Bergen)

NORTH BERGEN - When Gov. Jon Corzine goes to the front of the packed room at the annual senior picnic in Scheutzen Park, he embraces state Sen./Mayor Nicholas Sacco (D-North Bergen) and then turns to the crowd and calls Sacco the "best mayor in the State of New Jersey."  

"I love working in North Bergen because he delivers," Corzine shouts.

Sacco grins.

Although they live just a town apart here in Hudson County - which, of course, Corzine made certain to point out - there's more than concrete between Hoboken on the Hudson River side of the county with its Lipton Tea view of Manhattan - and North Bergen, which juts above Secaucus and the swamps of North Jersey.

U.S. Senator Robert Menendez (D-Hoboken) is playing a key role in a statewide effort to increase voter turnout among Latino voters for Gov. Jon Corzine's re-election campaign.  This weekend, Menendez presided over a meeting in New Brunswick that was attended by over 200 statewide Latino leaders, including U.S. Rep. Albio Sires (D-West New York), State Sen. Teresa Ruiz (D-Newark), Assemblywomen Nilsa Cruz-Perez (D-Camden) and Annette Quijano (D-Elizabeth), Assemblyman Albert Coutinho (D-Newark) and Vincent Prieto (D-Secaucus), Perth Amboy Mayor Wilda Diaz, Paterson Mayor Joey Torres, and Passaic Mayor Alex Blanco.

Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts will have no problem keeping his job, if Democrats hold the Assembly and if he wants it. But there is some speculation that Roberts is eyeing Dana Redd's State Senate seat, which is almost certain to open up in January.

Some Democrats think Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts (D-Camden) might be interested in moving up to the Senate in January, if Dana Redd wins her race for Mayor of Camden.  Roberts has been Speaker for nearly four years, and while he is fully engaged in the campaign to retain the Democratic majority in the lower house, more than a few Democrats sense that he's ready to move on.  Redd is an almost certain winner.

Roberts move to the upper house would trigger an election for Assembly Speaker, with Majority Leader Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing), Democratic State Chairman Joseph Cryan (D-Union), and Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D-Sayreville) as the leading contenders. 

Sources say that Louis Greenwald (D-Voorhees), Nellie Pou (D-Paterson), and Sheila Oliver (D-East Orange) are also possible Speaker candidates, although clearly in a third tier category.  Even below them on the list are John McKeon (D-West Orange) and Vincent Prieto (D-Secaucus), who fancy themselves as future Speakers, but appear to be just pretenders to the throne.  (Prieto's own Assembly seat could be in danger in 2011 if Democrats fail to win the Secaucus mayoral race following the arrest and resignation of Dennis Elwell.)

Part of the race for Speaker will be influenced by the results of the gubernatorial campaign and closely tied to the potential contest for Senate President between incumbent Richard Codey (D-Roseland) and Senate Majority Leader Stephen Sweeney (D-West Deptford).

***MULTIMEDIA PACKAGE***

ROBERTS / VOSS / PRIETO ON NEW LAW PROVIDING INSURANCE COVERAGE OF AUTISM, DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITY TREATMENTS

(TRENTON) - Assembly Speaker Joseph J. Roberts, Jr. and Assembly members Joan M. Voss and Vincent Prieto today issued a multimedia package on a new law they sponsored to make New Jersey the 15th state to mandate health insurers cover treatments for autism and developmental disabilities.

The bill was signed Aug. 13 by Gov. Jon S. Corzine during a public ceremony at PSE&G Children's Specialized Hospital in New Brunswick.

ROBERTS / VOSS / PRIETO BILL TO REQUIRE COVERAGE OF AUTISM & DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITY TREATMENTS NOW LAW

(NEW BRUNSWICK) – Legislation Assembly Speaker Joseph J. Roberts, Jr., Assemblyman Vincent Prieto and Assemblywoman Joan Voss sponsored to make New Jersey the 15th state to require health insurers to cover treatments for autism and other developmental disabilities is now law.

“Many New Jersey families already are being stretched to their financial edge – but without health coverage for their loved ones, countless families are bankrupting themselves just to give their child the potential for a bright future,” said Roberts (D-Camden). “This measure offers real and meaningful hope that they will not battle alone.”