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<font face=arial size=2>: Hudson Dem train wreck </font> <font face=arial size=2>: Peter Weiss</font> <font face=arial size=2>: Jersey Journal</font> <font face=arial size=2>: 02/13/02</font> <font face=arial size=2>: What a difference a week and a train ride make.</font> <font face=arial size=2>: Hudson County Democrats, who last week looked like they'd be celebrating Valentine's Day with hearts and flowers and a peaceful primary, now may opt for slings and arrows.</font> <font face=arial size=2>: What the heck, the Hudson Dems did enjoy one whole week of peace. How much more can one ask for?</font> <font face=arial size=2>: Last week's annual state Chamber of Commerce train trip to Washington, which is supposed to be a fun outing for state pols, turned into a freightload of bad feelings among the Hudson Dems as simmering rivalries and mistrust bubbled over.</font> <font face=arial size=2>: That was manifested at reception that Jersey City Mayor Glenn D. Cunningham and Hudson County Executive Bernard Hartnett Jr. hosted for Assembly Speaker and West New York Mayor Albio Sires.</font> <font face=arial size=2>: The problem was, Sires didn't attend. In fact, his office communicated to Cunningham and Hartnett aides that they shouldn't hold the reception, billed as being co-sponsored by the county Chamber of Commerce , because it conflicted with a shindig Sires was hosting at the very same time. But Cunningham and Hartnett nonetheless went ahead with invites, irking Sires. It was even touted on the Internet.</font> <font face=arial size=2>: Many of the other Hudson pols who made the D.C. trip chose to attend the Sires event over the Cunningham/Hartnett party, something which some in the mayor's camp now say was instigated by the county Democratic chairman, Rep. Robert Menendez, D-Union City. Menendez's office emphatically denies that.</font> <font face=arial size=2>: Menendez and Cunningham are fiercely battling for county Democratic leadership, no matter what they might say publicly.</font> <font face=arial size=2>: Is all of this a portent of things to come in June, where there may be a primary fight this year, after all?</font> <font face=arial size=2>: Last week, it appeared that all the incumbent freeholders would get the party nod - the possible exception being if Freeholder/Union City Mayor Brian Stack decides he doesn't want to run again, in which case he'd choose a successor - and that Hartnett would be the consensus Democratic organization candidate in the special election for the one year remaining on the term of former County Executive Robert Janiszewski.</font> <font face=arial size=2>: Now that's thrown into question.</font> <font face=arial size=2>: In a related development, one traveler on the Chamber train reports overhearing Cunningham and Secaucus Mayor Dennis Elwell getting into it. The gist of it was Cunningham reminding Elwell that Secaucus is a small town in need of bigger political allies and Elwell telling Cunningham that Secaucus Dems can take care of themselves. </font>

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