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Posted by Manolo
on February 27, 2003 at 04:53:00:
Redistricting plan: Home Free or Behind Enemy LinesUrban Times News
Volume 41, Issue 130
February 14 - February 20, 2003 By Steven Glazer
(Jersey City) A redistricting plan
that will determine governmental districts
for the next ten years may push disaffected Democrats into Republican ranks. One
plan will be selected from competing
plans sponsored by Republicans and
Demucrats within the next week or two.
Warfare within the Hudson county democratic organization, mostly over patronage
jobs. contracts and appointments, may
have made strange bedfellows.
Remembering that politics makes strange
bedfellows and that the enemy of my
enemy is my friend, Cunningham
Democrats who now find themselves
under continual hostile fire from Hudson
democrats may find a warmer welcome in
the camp of Republic sponsors of a redistricting plan. The Republic redistricting
plan vcould essentially leave existing districts as is in most of Jersey City, giving
Jersey City Mayor Glenn Cunningham a
good shot at the State Senate Seat in the
31st District. If the districts are redrawn the
way the Hudson County Democrats want,
the new district boundaries would cut
Cunningham off from his base of political
support, the mostly African-American
Ward F. The Democratic redistricting plan
would put nearly al I of Ward F in the 31st
Congressional District. Glenn
Cunningham would find himself in the
32st District according to the Democratic
proposal. That 31st District now runs
along and East of Kennedy Boulevard and
includes all of Bayonne and continues
Jersey City, about 60% of Jersey City, up to Montgomery Street. If Cunningham can
run for the Senate seat from his political
base in the 31st District, his chances are
very good, according to political analysts.
Cunningham lives at Society Hill on
Route 440, west of Kennedy Boulevard.
If the Democratic proposal is adopted
Cunningham would find himself, in effect,
stranded behind enemy lines, away from
the 31 St District. Then, those same analysts say, Cunningham's chances are drastically less. "Let's put it this way. You
know the way the state cut aid to Jersey
City under the Distressed Cities program?
The difference would be something like
that," the same source said. The state
reduced aid to Jersey City under the
Distressed Cities program from $10.5
Million last year to $2 Million this year, an
80% reduction. Political setbacks like the cut in
State aid is exactly why Cunningham
~tiants to run for the Senate seat that may
be left open by Senator Joseph Charles, if
Charles chooses not to run to accept an
appointment to the Hudson County
Superior Court bench. Cunningham says
that he would be the strongest possible
voice the Jersey City government could
have. Nobody could make the City's case
the way that Cunningham would and
could if the scenario plays out that way.
Cunningham is quick to preface these
statements that if Senator Charles does
choose to run for the Senate Seat again
then Cunningham would support Charles
wholeheartedly and never consider opposing him. "We go back 30 years together in
politics and we are friends. I would never
run against Senator Charles."
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