Thomas Cowan, who died on Sunday at age 82, was a labor leader from Jersey City who faced a multitude of tough campaigns on his path to a sixteen-year career in the New Jersey Legislature. 

Cowan first went to the Assembly in 1977, the beneficiary of the collapse of Jersey City Mayor Paul Jordan’s campaign for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination and the election of a Jordan rival, Thomas F.X. Smith, in the May race for mayor.  Cowan had Smith’s support in the June Democratic primary; he ran on a ticket with David Friedland, a former Assembly Minority Leader, and Robert Janiszewski, who would later become Hudson County Executive.  Friedland beat incumbent Joseph Tumulty in the Senate primary, and Cowan and Janiszewski unseated Michael Esposito, a five-term Assemblyman, and Alina Miskiewicz, a freshman Assemblywoman, in the primary.

Cowan faced no primary opposition when he ran for a second term in 1979, but beat back a rival Democratic Solidarity Coalition Team slate in 1981.  Friedland left the Senate following his criminal conviction, and redistricting put State Sen. Frank Rodgers into the new 32nd district. Rodgers beat former Assemblyman Michael Marino by a 2-1 margin, while Cowan and Janiszewski beat Marino’s running mates, John McAuley and Irene Zubruckyj, by 3-1 margins.

In 1983, Jersey City Democrats, anxious to reclaim the Senate seat, cut a deal for the 73-year-old Rodgers, who was the mayor of Harrison from 1947 to 1994 (48 years, a national record) to run for Hudson County Clerk.  Cowan, with the backing of Jersey City Mayor Gerald McCann, became the Hudson County Democratic Organization’s Senate candidate; in the Democratic primary, he defeated Jersey City Councilman Anthony Cucci by a 58%-42% margin, 4,248 votes.   In the Assembly primary, the HCDO dumped Janiszewski from the line and ran Paul Cuprowski and Anthony Vainieri.  Cuprowski and Vainieri (the father of Assemblywoman Valerie Huttle) defeated Janiszewski and Theodore Digiammo of North Bergen, by more than 3,000 votes.  Cuprowski and Vainieri served one term; they lost re-election to Republicans Frank Gargiulo and Charles Catrillo in the Kean landslide of 1985.

Two years later, Cucci ran for mayor and beat McCann.  In 1987, the HCDO dropped Cowan from their line and backed Cuprowski for the Senate.  Cowan ran his own line and won a narrow 529 vote victory, 51%-49%.  Cowan’s Assembly running mates, Anthony Impreveduto and David Kronick, beat HCDO candidates Arnold Bettinger and Carmine Pellechio, by less than 1,000 votes.  Republicans made a play for the District 32 seat in 1987 with Catrillo giving up his Assembly seat to run for the Senate, but Cowan beat him 67%-33%. 

The ’87 Democratic primary featured one of the best civil wars of modern Hudson County politics.  Glenn Cunningham came within 1,049 votes of ousting incumbent Edward O’Connor (who was on the HCDO line) in the District 31 Senate primary, while incumbent Christopher Jackman, running  off the line, beat the HCDO candidate, beat former Assemblyman Robert Rainieri by a 63%-47% margin. In that primary, HCDO Assembly candidates Sixto Macias and Leonard Altamura were defeated by two off-the-line Democrats, Robert Menendez and Bernard Kenny.  Janiszewski, running with Cunningham, Cowan and Jackman, won the Democratic nomination for Hudson County Executive.

There have been few clues as to Paul Fishman's plans for key posts in the U.S. Attorney's office after he takes the oath tomorrow morning.  For the time being, Acting U.S. Attorney Ralph Marra will return to his old post as First Assistant (Marra took over when Christopher Christie resigned on December 1), and Marc Larkins, who became Acting First Assistant following Michelle Brown's departure, will be the Executive Assistant U.S. Attorney.  Larkins has held both posts since Brown left last month.

Fishman is not expected to make any immediate announcements regarding key personnel, but new U.S. Attorneys typically assemble their own team.  That may or may not affect Marra, a career federal prosecutor.

Eight years ago, the appointment of a First Assistant U.S. Attorney was part of the deal to convince then-U.S. Senators Robert Torricelli and Jon Corzine, to sign off on Christie's nomination.  Torricelli and Corzine reportedly insisted that they have input on the selection of Christie's second in command.

Excerpts from an interview between legendary Jersey City political insider Paul Byrne and New Jersey Network senior political correspondent Michael Aron on NJN's On the Record, aired on Sunday, June 15, 2003.  Byrne had been indicted on charges that was the bagman for Hudson County Executive Robert Janiszewski, who later went to jail for accepting bribes. He later pleaded guilty to tax evasion and extortion charges and faced 30 to 37 months in a federal prison.  Byrne died in May, 2005 at age 59, just days before a federal judge was set to sentence him.

"There are two things that all men want to keep during the course of their lives: those are their sport jackets and their best friends.  I'm now reduced to just my sport jackets.  I'm very upset about what's happened to him, but it was foreseeable."

"Practically five years ago he started losing interest in the government itself.  But when we came to the period that everyone in New Jersey calls the Twelve Days of Torricelli, and he was on the losing end, he just gave up.  He didn't want to be in public office anymore and he started drinking heavily."

"I didn't know there was $100,00 in his file cabinet.  Sadder than that, during the period when he had the $100,000 in his filing cabinet, both his children were in distress and trouble and on welfare and he didn't help them."

"We started during the '77 period.  Thomas F.X. Smith was expected to become the Mayor [of Jersey City] and we expected to win on the first round ballot.  So what I did was convince Mayor Smith to put Janiszewski on the ballot as an Assembly candidate because we needed a bright Polish guy to fill out the ticket.  That's normal in urban politics.  So that's how he became an Assemblyman.  But he became a star real quick.  He became an outstanding legislator while in the New Jersey Assembly.  I think he was named legislator of the year at one time."

"During the entire period of our association and friendship -- and I admit I was his best friend his entire life -- he was great at public policy.  He was great at the politics of it, but had the other side to him and the other side was the dark side.  I spent most of my career, aside from advising him, cleaning up after him.  I felt like the guy with the big broom behind the two elephants.  I include [Janiszewski's wife] Beth in that too.  So essentially I would be helping to eliminate the problems that would in any way affect his public personality."

"He only had two people on his staff he could count on.  His executive secretary, Janet Lauro, who's still on the county [payroll] and she was essentially his younger sister and she tried to keep him from falling off the edge."

"He should have quit, and we talked about it many times.  He would tell me 'I don't want to do this anymore.'"

"Hudson is no different than any other county in the state.  I was amused by his public comment about the brazen bribers.  Picture this, if you will: the county courthouse in Hudson County.  Brazen bribers arrive at the county building.  They knock down the front door.  They evade the Sheriff's officers. The break into the County Exec's [office].  They disarm his personal security, and they throw him up against the wall and stuff his pockets with $100 bills.  That's not real."

"You have to understand that both he and Beth controlled the entire operation.  So when he didn't want to participate, Beth would become the CEO and all the directors would report to her. She would decide what was going on."

"If you recall the Los Angeles Convention -- he called me up and was on the verge of tears and said 'nobody wants to talk to me, even Ray Lesniak.'"

"He didn't even fight.  He was totally for [James E.] McGreevey until [Robert] Torricelli made it known that he had an interest in running [for Governor].  And by the way, I supported that.  Torricelli walks on water.  When it came time to fight for the nomination, he and Beth went off sailing in Key West.  We couldn't get him.  The didn't even recharge the battery.  It was like 'OK, we're going to do this, but it's not going to work anyhow.'"

"The joke in Hudson County is he had all this money in his file cabinet but he never picked up the tab in his life.  If you went to dinner with Bob -- and I still care about him even though it's a weird relationship -- but if you went out to dinner with him there was no chance you were going to see his credit card.  None.  None whatsoever."

"You can't do this stuff by yourself.  You need helpers.  You can't have any CEO put themselves in a position where they're going to be able to accept bribes."

"This incident in Hudson itself has to deal with Bobby Janiszewski, not the county itself.  It depends who's the boss, who's in charge."

"I was upset that I spent my entire life with him and he would just throw my name in the hopper.  Everybody's part of the food chain.  He's following in the footsteps of [convicted ex-State Sen.] David Friedland."

"I'm one of his closest friends and advisors, but when I talk about helpers, I'm talking about the structure of the government.  No County Executive or leader can do anything unless he has  people in place that will follow his lead without him having to issue an order."

Eight years ago, the last time the two United States Senators from New Jersey signed off on a candidate for U.S. Attorney, the appointment of a First Assistant U.S. Attorney was part of the deal.  That was when the new Republican President, George W. Bush, wanted to name Christopher Christie as the new federal prosecutor.  Because Christie had no criminal law or prosecutorial experience, Democratic Senators Robert Torricelli and Jon Corzine only agree to sign off on his appointment if they had input into the selection of Christie's number two.

Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Walter Timpone was widely expected to get the First Assistant post; he was the one Torricelli and Corzine (mostly Torricelli; Corzine was a freshman) had been pushing.  He also became Christie's choice, and the new U.S. Attorney went to Washington to lobby on his behalf.  But Timpone's chances faded after FBI surveillance revealed that while acting as the defense attorney for former Hudson County Executive Robert Janiszewski, who had allegedly been recruited by federal prosecutors to be a witness against Torricelli, was visiting Torricelli at his home.  There was a feeling that Timpone had tipped off the senior Senator, and while he avoided prosecution for tampering, his prospects of becoming First Assistant were over. 

Nine years after a civil war ravaged local politics in Union City and across Hudson County, there is no question who won and who lost.  Robert Menendez is now a United States Senator and Chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and Rudy Garcia is still working for a Trenton lobbying firm.  Arrested on racketeering charges in 2007, a Monmouth County grand jury decided last year not to charge him in connection to a gambling ring sting by the New Jersey State Police.

Menendez and Garcia were once close political allies, but their relationship developed into a civil war between two Democratic stars from the same hometown. Menendez, a former Union City Mayor and State Senator before his election to Congress in 1992, was the key backer of Garcia in his first Assembly victory in a February, 1993 special election, and following the death of Union City Mayor Bruce Walter in January, 1997, was responsible for Garcia's election as Mayor of Union.

One name that probably won't receive much consideration for United States Attorney, if Barack Obama wins the presidency:  Walter Timpone, a politically connected ex-federal prosecutor who has coveted the job for years.  Timpone gave the maximum $4,600 to Rob Andrews' campaign for the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination earlier this year, and his contributions in the presidential race went to Hillary Clinton and John Edwards, not Obama.  Timpone spent eleven years as an Assistant U.S. Attorney, and was named by a panel of Judges to monitor elections in Passaic County.  He currently represents Laborers International Union of America (LIUNA), which backed Andrews against Lautenberg in the Senate primary.

If old friends -- and new friends -- want to correspond with former Hudson County Executive Robert Janiszewski, he is at the Federal Correctional Institution in Ashland, Kentucky -- a minimum security prison in northeastern Kentucky, about 123 miles east of Lexington. Janiszewski, who is scheduled to be released on April 25, 2008, can be reached at:

Robert C. Janiszewski #25038-050
FCI Ashland
Federal Correctional Insititution
P.O. Box 6001
Ashland, Kentucky 41105

Hudson County Executive Tom DeGise: Corrupt Vendor Can't Hang On To
Ill-Gotten Gains By Slandering Senator Bob Menendez
Latest attempt by disgraced psychiatrist who bilked taxpayers to avoid
re- paying residents of Hudson is doomed to failure says DeGise.

Jersey City, NJ � Hudson County Executive Tom DeGise reacted with anger
today at the latest attempts by Dr. Oscar Sandoval to muddy the fight
between the disgraced psychiatrist and the people of Hudson County.

Hudson County filed a $26.8 million civil lawsuit against former County Executive Robert Janiszewski in an effort to reimburse taxpayers for the cost of corruption. Assemblyman Richard Merkt says that Attorney General-designate Stuart Rabner should follow Tom DeGise's lead and file a similar civil suit against John Lynch. DeGise, who now holds Janiszewski's old job, filed similar suits against two corrupt ex-Hudson County Freeholders.

"Why should an admitted crook like Lynch get to keep the ill-gotten gains he obtained by betraying those he was supposedly serving? A civil suit to recover stolen booty should be an automatic response any time a public official gets caught with his hand in the public cookie jar," said Merkt.