Jersey City—Superior Court Judge Arthur D’Italia threw out the Hudson County Democratic Organization challenge to the primary election victory of the Cunningham ticket. Jersey City Mayor Glenn Cunningham running for 31st District Senate Seat and Assembly candidate running mates Louis Manzo and Anthony Chiappone swept the primary in a stunning upset that unseated 24-year Assembly veteran Joe Doria and another lesser-known HCDO incumbent. Doria remains Mayor of Bayonne.

Cunningham was expected to win easily over a virtually unknown opponent, Jersey City Council President, L. Harvey Smith. Manzo and Chiappone, separated by only about a dozen votes, stunned politic experts with a convincing 600 vote plurality each over incumbent Doria. Doria began his challenge to the election as soon as the law allowed, immediately after the official tally confirmed his defeat.

Weeks later, apparently at the goading of HCDO strategists, losing Senate candidate Smith and Assembly incumbent Elba Perez Cinciarelli filed a me-too lawsuit on the heels of Doria’s complaint that the election was rife with fraud and that Cunningham’s organization had violated spending limits in the campaign.

D’Italia’s ruling threw out the HCDO case on the first count claiming illegal votes because there were too few illegal votes to have made the diffence in the outcome even if every vote challenged had proven invalid. On the second count of excess campaign spending, D’Italia ruled that the limits apply to general elections and not to primaries like the one contested in this case.

Strategists for the Cunningham organization said, “It is hard to see how we could have spent too much, when they outspent us by at least five-to-one. We spent, all together, just about $350,000 and they spent $2 Million, that we know about. In the court case just now, they cost us $150,000 or so, and with the legal team they brought to court, I cannot see how it could have cost them anything less than a half-a-mill. Money means nothing to them when it comes to hanging on to offices. If they win, they can just steal some more, so what do they care? That’s why we call them Organized Crime. They are organized and they consistently commit extensive white collar felonies. Of course, they can always appeal this ruling, though their chances appear minimal. What’s another half-a-million?”

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