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Posted by Manolo on March 18, 2003 at 09:35:34:
Mayor Cunningham In Senate Race Urban Times News
March 14-March 20, 2003 By Steven Glazer (Jersey City) Flanked by support-
ers, friends and the First Lady of Jersey
City, Mayor Glenn Cunningham declared
his candidacy for the State Senate from
the 31st district. Cunningham was intro-
duced to the enthusiastic crowd of sup-
porters by Dominic Puglisi a former
Jersey City Council Member and former
Hudson County Sheriff. Bayonne Council Member Anthony Chiappone was posi-
tioned to be highly visible to the crowd
and is expected to announce his candidacy
also. Chiappone is seen as one of several
allies in the battle Cunningham faces with
the Hudson County Democratic
Organization.
Cunningham has fired the first
shot in a primary battle that could tip the
balance of power in Hudson County. The
Jersey City Mayor has been embattled
since the early days of his term fighting opposition of the Hudson County
Democratic Organization throughout
Jersey City government. Cunningham
said he expects that a Senate victory
would strengthen his hand against the for-
midable resistance he faces. Redistricting
was a concern for Cunningham's cam-
paign team but a recent court ruling will
leave district boundaries in place for
another year.
Cunningham is aiming at the
Senate Seat of Joseph Charles who has
decided not to run. Charles is said to be
expecting to move into a judgeship with
the Hudson County Superior Court but has
yet to be appointed. Cunningham says he
needs additional muscle in Trenton the
Senate seat will give him. Cunningham
hopc~, to gain leverage to do the job in
Jersey City and overcome powerful oppo-
sition aligned against him as a result of his falling out with the Hudson County
Democratic Organization. That falling out
broke into open warfare a little more than
a year ago when Cunningham supported
Bernard Hartnett to serve as interim
County Executive.
While Hartnett was in office he
refused to renew a contract for legal serv-
ices for the County with attorney Donald
Scarinci. Scarinci had held the $550,000
contract for years until Hartnett refused to
renew it without public bidding. Scarinci
is Treasurer of Menendez for Congress,
top fundraiser for Rep. Robert Menendez
D-13. When Hartnett refused to renew the
contract Scarinci flew into a rage accord-
ing to Hartnett and stalked out. A short
time later Cunningham received a call
from Menendez asking Cunningham to "straighten" Hartnett out. Cunningham
refused to get involved and tensions have
been escalating ever since.
Hartnett was later beaten by Tom
DeGise whom the HCDO ran against him.
With DeGise in office, Scarinci later got
the contract despite public bidding from
seven other firms and despite not being the
low bidder and with the with the admitted
connivance of former County Counsel
Joseph Sherman. Sherman was a partner
in the firm Scarinci founded, Scarinci and
Hollenbeck. Sherman admitted in an open
meeting of Freeholders that he had rigged
the bid, withholding critical information
from competing law firms to favor
Scarinci. Even with Sherman's help
Scarinci was not the low bidder and
Freeholders awarded the contract to
Scarinci anyway.
Cunningham and his supporters
have been accused of sounding like con-
spiracy theorists complaining about
opposing forces. Cunningham told
reporters that recent drastic cuts in state
aid came as a result of, "powerful people
putting pressure on the state not to give me
what I need so that I can't say I kept taxes
down two years in a row." News stories
said that Cunningham "tacitly implicated
Menendez in a conspiracy to undermine
Cunningham's administration." In fact
Cunningham has been outspoken and
vocal about Menendez' use of his influ-
ence to stymie his administration and limit
future aspirations. Menendez' chief fund
raiser, Scarinci, is counsel to the State
Assembly, was counsel to Governor
McGreevey's transition team, and has
been backing the Democrats' legal effort
to push a redistricting plan through the
courts that would radically alter the impact
and representation of Jersey City's voters.
Detractors discussing the aid cuts
have said that the State cut aid because
Cunningham's team has financially mis-
managed the city. Ironically, the aid that
was so drastically cut required the admin-
istration to work closely with the State's
local finance board and with the board's
supervision approving financial actions
taken by Cunningham's team. After devel-
oping a budget with the state board's bless-
ing, that proposal has been stalled by the
city council.
Council Members met with
Menendez during the holiday season in a
meeting that apparently violated the Open
Meetings Act. In that meeting, in viola-
tion of that law, Menendez laid down the
law to the lawmakers and told them
explicitly to block Cunningham at every
turn, according to sources. The budget
bogged down in debate and was dealt a
body blow by the reduction in state aid,
leaving an $8.5 Million bole in what start-
ed out to be a balanced budget. There are
just seven other cities in the state receiving
these payments and all were reduced very
slightly from year ago levels, but Jersey
City was cut 80%.
Longtime activist and supporter
Dominic Puglisi said, "In more than 30
years I have never seen anything like this.
Hudson County politics have always been
rough, but this is way beyond anything I
ever saw before. It is all about greed as far
as I am concerned."
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