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Posted by Pepe Bonmot () on March 16, 2002 at 11:14:35:
'Absolute' support Peter Weiss Don't get all excited about the possibility that Jersey City Mayor Glenn D. Cunningham may support former Jersey City Mayor Gerald McCann for Congress against U.S. Rep. Robert Menendez, D-Union City. That's the word out of City Hall after a television interview with McCann that might have left a different impression. (We certainly wouldn't want to suggest that maybe it left just the impression that Cunningham allies wanted to leave, without the mayor actually saying it.) In the interview, McCann talked about how if Menendez doesn't agree to Cunningham's choice of interim County Executive Bernard Hartnett Jr. in this year's special election, it could precipitate an all-out primary fight in which Cunningham would want to find another candidate for Congress. What really attracted attention was the interviewer's comment that a Cunningham spokesman said the mayor didn't intend to get involved in the congressional race until after the deadline for filing nomination petitions for the primary. Whoa! Didn't Cunningham just recently say he's supporting Menendez and has no interest in backing McCann? Could that have changed after two tension-filled days between Cunningham and Menendez supporters at the annual state Chamber of Commerce outing in Washington? Bill Ayala, the mayor's chief of staff, said nothing has changed. He explained that the television spot was a misunderstanding. What the mayor's spokesman was saying to the reporter, according to Ayala, was that Cunningham didn't want to get involved in the story about McCann's possible candidacy and that Cunningham still supports Menendez. "Absolutely," Ayala said. Menendez didn't seem overly worried about facing McCann. Nor overly subtle. He remarked that in a democracy, anyone is free to run, even "those who have convictions in their past," referring to McCann's prison stint for bank fraud and tax evasion. McCann contends that doesn't preclude him for running for Congress even though it knocked him out of last year's contest for mayor. Menendez said he remains convinced he'll have Cunningham's support. "The mayor has said publicly and privately that he supports me for Congress or anything else," Menendez said. "Until he tells me otherwise, I take him at his word." Really? "Absolutely," Menendez said. Departing Hudson County Administrator Abraham Antun was honored at Thursday night's meeting of the county Board of Freeholders. Even Freeholder Bill O'Dea, who often castigated Antun, acknowledged he'll be sorely missed. O'Dea called Antun, who has been named deputy commissioner of the state Department of Community Affairs, "the best county administrator Hudson County has ever had." But Valentine's Day or not, Antun wasn't about to get off unscathed.
Sisters Irene and Margaret Clark of Harrison, who attend almost every freeholder meeting and are often the only ones to raise any questions, likely reminded Antun of one of the reasons he won't miss the job.
"We've been waiting since August for answers (to several questions)," Margaret Clark told the freeholders. "Now he's leaving and the questions are going to go unanswered." To Antun, she said, "All you have done is sit and looked at us and in many instances stared us down. From where I sit you have been nothing but a cover-up."
Antun, always the gentleman - except when rarely provoked beyond stony silence by O'Dea - told the Clark sisters that he was "sorry if I didn't always have all the answers. I apologize for my shortcomings."
02/16/02
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