Today is the last day in office for seven members of the State Assembly: Nilsa Cruz-Perez (D-Camden), Sandra Love (D-Laurel Springs), Richard Merkt (R-Mendham), Joseph Roberts (D-Camden), John Rooney (R-Northvale), L. Harvey Smith (D-Jersey City), and Joseph Vas (D-Perth Amboy).  Merkt have up his seat to seek the Republican gubernatorial nomination, and Smith ran unsuccessfully for Mayor of Jersey City; the others did not seek re-election.

Roberts, the Assembly Speaker, announced in September that he would not seek re-election to the seat he has held since replacing the late Francis Gorman (D-Gloucester City) in a 1987 special election.  Rooney is the most senior member of the Legislature; he won a 1983 special election after Joan Wright took a job in the Kean administration.  Vas dropped his re-election bid after federal and state corruption indictments, and Smith was arrested in July in connection to Operation Bid Rig.

Anthony Bucco, Jr. (R-Boonton), Craig Coughlin (D-Woodbridge), Domenick DiCicco (R-Franklin Twp.), Angel Fuentes (D-Camden), Charles Mainor (D-Jersey City), Donald Norcross (D-Camden) and Robert Schroeder (R-Washington) will take office tomorrow.  Bucco replaces Merkt, DiCicco won Love’s seat, Fuentes and Norcross will assume the seats left open by the retirements of Roberts and Cruz-Perez, Mainor replaces Smith, and Schroeder succeeds Rooney.

Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts (D-Camden) has no plans to change the seating chart for the Legislature's lame duck session, which will leave three indicted Assemblymen sitting in their old seats.  That will leave Democrats Linda Greenstein (D-Plainsboro) and Wayne DeAngelo (D-Hamilton) sitting in between the indicted three - Joseph Vas (D-Perth Amboy) to their right, and Harvey Smith (D-Jersey City) and Anthony Chiappone (D-Bayonne) to their left. 

Assemblywoman-elect DiAnne Gove (R-Long Beach), who will be sworn in this month to replace another indicted legislator, Daniel Van Pelt (R-Ocean Twp.), will set next to Chiappone.

Jersey City good government activist Dan Levin, who ran unsuccessfully for mayor in May, wants Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy to resign and the municipal government to install a host of reform measures in the wake of this week's corruption bust that gutted the city's political scene.  

“Given Mayor Jerramiah Healy’s confirmation that he is indeed the “JC Official 4” cited in FBI criminal complaints, we call for his immediate resignation, as well as that of Council President Mariano Vega.  The implication that both men have engaged in activities that compromise their ethical responsibilities to their constituents warrants their immediate removal from office,” said Levin.  

Healy was not arrested, but is mentioned frequently in the federal government’s complaint against Deputy Mayor Leona Beldini, city official Ed Cheatam and political consultant Jack Shaw, who allegedly solicited money from a federal informant to funnel into Healy’s reelection fund.

Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy has raised 10 times more money than his closest opponent, according the latest filings with the State Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC).  

Healy’s campaign has raised a total of almost $3.1 million and has spent just shy of $2.3 million for his reelection in this city of 240,000, along with another $443,000 in donations to other campaigns and local non-profits.  Of the total raised, $620,000 was left over from Healy’s previous campaign, while $2.49 million was taken in during the current cycle.  

No report was available online for former Assemblyman Lou Manzo, but he said he raised about $300,000 as of the filing deadline, and has spent somewhere between $270,000 and $280,000.  Manzo said he was not daunted by the mayor’s huge fundraising advantage. 

SMITH/CONNERS/CRUZ-PEREZ/QUIGLEY/TUCKER BILL TO HELP CHILDREN OF MILITARY FAMILIES CLEARS SENATE PANEL

NJ Would Adopt ‘Interstate Compact on Educational Opportunity for Military Children’

(TRENTON) – Assembly-approved legislation Assembly members L. Harvey Smith, Jack Conners, Nilsa Cruz-Perez, Joan Quigley and Cleopatra Tucker are sponsoring to help children of military families who frequently move has cleared a Senate committee.

The bill (A-2640) would permit New Jersey to enter into the “Interstate Compact on Educational Opportunity for Military Children,” which aims to eradicate disadvantages often encountered by military children because of frequent interstate moves and deployments.

Jersey City Mayoral candidate Lou Manzo issued a release today unveiling the first three of nine city council candidates committed to running on his slate.

Those candidates are attorney/cop Jim Carroll in Ward D; civic association leader Jimmy King in Ward C; and Public Schools Principal Account Clerk Lori Serrano for an at-large seat.

“These three candidates represent samplings of our diverse city,” said Manzo, a former assemblyman who ran for the state senate in 1997 and lost to state Sen. Sandra Cunningham (D-Hudson). “Clearly, this ticket will be composed of leaders who are not afraid to fight for Jersey City. I am proud to stand alongside these three individuals, as we move forward to make Jersey City a better place to live, work and raise families."  

QUIGLEY/SPENCER/SMITH INTRODUCE BILL TO REQUIRE PROPER BEDBUG EXTERMINATION IN MULTI-UNIT RESIDENCES

Measure Stems From July Outbreak of Bedbugs in Hudson County Apartment Complexes; Would Make Landlords Legally, Financially Responsible for Ending Infestations

(TRENTON) - Assembly members Joan M. Quigley, L. Grace Spencer, and L. Harvey Smith have introduced legislation that would make landlords entirely responsible for keeping apartment complexes free of bedbug infestations.

Former Mayor Bret Schundler's political future is the talk of Jersey City political circles this week because of polling phone calls being received in the area.

Schundler, a conservative Republican who served as Mayor of this ultra-Democratic town from late 1992 until 2001, would not confirm or deny putting a poll in the field, but responded by e-mail that he has not decided whether or not to run again.

The polling questions, however, have set off speculation that Schundler is leaning towards making a run for it, while others doubt what kind of support Schundler can get after leaving the city's political scene altogether and running twice as a firmly right wing gubernatorial candidate.

CHIAPPONE, SMITH TAKE OATHS OF OFFICE ON JANUARY 8
New Legislative Teammates Strong Advocates for Hudson County

(TRENTON) – Hudson County residents gained two new advocates in state government when Assemblymen-elect Anthony Chiappone and Harvey Smith took their oaths of office on January 8 to represent the 31st Legislative District in the General Assembly.