New York Times: The Next Hurrah - You're Not Mistaken, They're Running for Mayor Again in Jersey City

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New York Times: The Next Hurrah - You're Not Mistaken, They're Running for Mayor Again in Jersey City

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Posted by GET NJ on April 25, 2005 at 06:50:08:

The Next Hurrah
You're Not Mistaken, They're Running for Mayor Again in Jersey City

By Jonathan Miller

The New York Times
New Jersey Section
April 24, 2005

JERSEY CITY
WHEN you have a mayoral race that features dead animals left on doorsteps, a former mayor who is an ex-convict running one campaign, and naked photos of the eventual winner slumped on his front porch, what do you do for an encore?

Have another election six months later.

That is exactly what they will do here in New Jersey's second largest city on May 10, when three mayoral and 29 council candidates will seek full four-year terms to all 9 seats in a nonpartisan election.

This waterfront town of 240,000 - with a forest of new office towers and a rapidly gentrifying downtown - has all the problems of a big New Jersey city: crime, budget shortages, tax problems and struggling schools.

The bloodied winner of last year's wild special election, Jerramiah T. Healy, has had little time to savor that victory: he is on a perpetual campaign that averages 10 appearances a day, and of late he has been speaking to groups of elderly residents, presiding over the grand opening of a downtown teahouse, and knocking on doors.

It is a stunning turnaround for the son of an Irish bar owner and former municipalcourt chief judge who, just a few months ago, eked out a victory against 10 opponents who were seeking to fill the term of Glenn D. Cunningham, a popular mayor who died of a heart attack last May. Mr. Healy won with nearly 28 percent of the vote despite embarrassing photos posted on the Internet that showed Mr. Healy naked on his porch after a night of drinking.

These days, Mr. Healy shrugs off the incident and says: "I'm a big boy. I come from a strong family. I can handle it."

How well he has been handling City Hall is a question the voters will have to decide, but despite the absence of independent polling data, Mr. Healy appears to be the clear-cut favorite, according to most observers. Acknowledging the pressure to notch some achievements before facing the voters again, he has led a flurry of initiatives, including a program to buy back guns, a controversial curfew on businesses in an effort to cut crime, a promise to hire more police officers and a renewed effort to repair the pocked roads in this city.

Still, if Mr. Healy, 54, is not re-elected, the city could have its fourth mayor in a little over a year, a fact the current mayor uses as a cautionary talking point. As it stands, Mr. Healy will tangle with two opponents: Melissa Holloway, 43, a former councilwoman who last week needed a state Supreme Court ruling to stay on the ballot, and Alfred Marc Pine, 51, a lawyer who garnered only 449 votes in last year's special election.

When he assumed office last year, Mr. Healy promised to ease the political wars among Democrats in this city by putting "the back-biting and infighting of the past year or two behind us," and it seems he has. Behind the scenes, he has been pulling together a coalition of once-bitter rivals.

For instance, Mr. Healy struck a deal with the second-place finisher from the November special election, Louis M. Manzo, a firstterm state Assemblyman, who agreed not to run against Mr. Healy this time. In exchange, the local Democratic organization will not to run a candidate against Mr. Manzo in his Assembly primary, and in fact has endorsed him.

In another coup he brought into the fold several major supporters of Mr. Cunningham who had consistently attacked the powerful Hudson County Democratic Organization. That includes The Urban Times News, which in the past regularly featured articles that accused the city's leaders of being "organized criminals," murderers and worse (it referred to the former acting mayor, L. Harvey Smith, who is black, as Uncle Harvey). But of late the paper seems to have backed off.

Indeed, the newspaper's docile turn mirrors the sanguine mood around town. Compared with the rowdy, nasty, comic and near-chaotic feel of last year's election, there have been few examples of electoral hooliganism. In a city that embraces the politics of bare knuckles and bare bottoms, it is has not been lost on many observers how things have turned.

"I think the people are kind of happy there isn't a blood sport in Jersey City politics, at least this time around," said Thomas A. DeGise, the county executive.

That does not mean the campaign has been as dull as a school board race. After all, earlier this month James P. King, a council candidate and former executive director of the city's beleaguered parking authority, grabbed and threatened a supporter of his opponent, Steven Lipski, according to a police report. Mr. King said that he was the one who was attacked, and filed his own complaint.

Despite some early successes for Mr. Healy, there have been some stumbles as well, like his decision to hold a meet-and-greet for constituents at P. J. Ryan's, a local pub, prompting a local radio host to question the mayor's political savvy.

And he often provides colorful, impolitic quotes for the press. After a rash of murders, he remarked: "It's been kind of crazy with what has occurred here lately. It's almost like Dodge City."

Even those allied with Mr. Healy have tepid praise for him. As he shook hands at a center for the elderly near Journal Square recently, Mr. Lipski, a former rival but now a council candidate running with the mayor, joked about the infamous photos, and offered this endorsement of the mayor after six months on the job: "Jerry Healy is a decent man - flawed, for sure, but not so flawed that we want to run him out of town."

Yet coming on the heels of some of the smooth operators who once held office here, this rough-around-the-edges persona seems to be part of his appeal. "In Jersey City people like the `What you see is what you get' kind of guy," Mr. DeGise said. "Sometimes with Jerry, his tie is crooked, shirt not buttoned, but that's Jerry. During the campaign, it took people a lot of time to convince him to wear long-sleeved shirts."

And, he added: "There were a lot of times where people set him down and said, `Watch what you say there.' Because whatever pops in his head, he says."

At a recent debate at Loews Jersey, a 2,200-seat movie theater, Mr. Healy conferred with aides and after surveying about 35 people in attendance, remarked that the event was a "waste of time."

Many here are still getting used to their new mayor. Before the debate, it almost escaped everyone's notice that organizers had spelled Mr. Healy's first name incorrectly. Once it got under way, Mr. Pine - who is likely to get more laughs than votes - decried the corruption in Jersey City and said he would develop a program that would reward whistle-blowers with money.

"Are you angry that Jersey City and Hudson County are the political laughingstocks of the United States?" he asked. "Are you angry that the politicians of Jersey City are mainly interested in what's in it for them, their friends and their relatives?"

He went on to call Mr. Healy a liar and described the chairman of the Zoning Board of Adjustment, Lonnie Sobel, as insane. Not surprisingly, Mr. Pine conceded that his candidacy was a long shot.

Ms. Holloway, who was a two-term councilwoman for the city's largely black ward until 2001, spent the past month fighting to stay on the ballot after Mr. Healy challenged her petitions to run for office. Last week the state Supreme Court ruled in a 7-0 decision that she could run, though it will require a new ballot printing.

She is calling for more investment in the city's poorer wards, a more "holistic" approach to governing and a "re-civilizing" of the city. "It's time for some basic values," she said. "Thank you, please, sorry. Things our grandparents taught us."

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: The Next Hurrah
: You're Not Mistaken, They're Running for Mayor Again in Jersey City

: By Jonathan Miller

: The New York Times
: New Jersey Section
: April 24, 2005

: JERSEY CITY
: WHEN you have a mayoral race that features dead animals left on doorsteps, a former mayor who is an ex-convict running one campaign, and naked photos of the eventual winner slumped on his front porch, what do you do for an encore?

: Have another election six months later.

: That is exactly what they will do here in New Jersey's second largest city on May 10, when three mayoral and 29 council candidates will seek full four-year terms to all 9 seats in a nonpartisan election.

: This waterfront town of 240,000 - with a forest of new office towers and a rapidly gentrifying downtown - has all the problems of a big New Jersey city: crime, budget shortages, tax problems and struggling schools.

: The bloodied winner of last year's wild special election, Jerramiah T. Healy, has had little time to savor that victory: he is on a perpetual campaign that averages 10 appearances a day, and of late he has been speaking to groups of elderly residents, presiding over the grand opening of a downtown teahouse, and knocking on doors.

: It is a stunning turnaround for the son of an Irish bar owner and former municipalcourt chief judge who, just a few months ago, eked out a victory against 10 opponents who were seeking to fill the term of Glenn D. Cunningham, a popular mayor who died of a heart attack last May. Mr. Healy won with nearly 28 percent of the vote despite embarrassing photos posted on the Internet that showed Mr. Healy naked on his porch after a night of drinking.

: These days, Mr. Healy shrugs off the incident and says: "I'm a big boy. I come from a strong family. I can handle it."

: How well he has been handling City Hall is a question the voters will have to decide, but despite the absence of independent polling data, Mr. Healy appears to be the clear-cut favorite, according to most observers. Acknowledging the pressure to notch some achievements before facing the voters again, he has led a flurry of initiatives, including a program to buy back guns, a controversial curfew on businesses in an effort to cut crime, a promise to hire more police officers and a renewed effort to repair the pocked roads in this city.

: Still, if Mr. Healy, 54, is not re-elected, the city could have its fourth mayor in a little over a year, a fact the current mayor uses as a cautionary talking point. As it stands, Mr. Healy will tangle with two opponents: Melissa Holloway, 43, a former councilwoman who last week needed a state Supreme Court ruling to stay on the ballot, and Alfred Marc Pine, 51, a lawyer who garnered only 449 votes in last year's special election.

: When he assumed office last year, Mr. Healy promised to ease the political wars among Democrats in this city by putting "the back-biting and infighting of the past year or two behind us," and it seems he has. Behind the scenes, he has been pulling together a coalition of once-bitter rivals.

: For instance, Mr. Healy struck a deal with the second-place finisher from the November special election, Louis M. Manzo, a firstterm state Assemblyman, who agreed not to run against Mr. Healy this time. In exchange, the local Democratic organization will not to run a candidate against Mr. Manzo in his Assembly primary, and in fact has endorsed him.

: In another coup he brought into the fold several major supporters of Mr. Cunningham who had consistently attacked the powerful Hudson County Democratic Organization. That includes The Urban Times News, which in the past regularly featured articles that accused the city's leaders of being "organized criminals," murderers and worse (it referred to the former acting mayor, L. Harvey Smith, who is black, as Uncle Harvey). But of late the paper seems to have backed off.

: Indeed, the newspaper's docile turn mirrors the sanguine mood around town. Compared with the rowdy, nasty, comic and near-chaotic feel of last year's election, there have been few examples of electoral hooliganism. In a city that embraces the politics of bare knuckles and bare bottoms, it is has not been lost on many observers how things have turned.

: "I think the people are kind of happy there isn't a blood sport in Jersey City politics, at least this time around," said Thomas A. DeGise, the county executive.

: That does not mean the campaign has been as dull as a school board race. After all, earlier this month James P. King, a council candidate and former executive director of the city's beleaguered parking authority, grabbed and threatened a supporter of his opponent, Steven Lipski, according to a police report. Mr. King said that he was the one who was attacked, and filed his own complaint.

: Despite some early successes for Mr. Healy, there have been some stumbles as well, like his decision to hold a meet-and-greet for constituents at P. J. Ryan's, a local pub, prompting a local radio host to question the mayor's political savvy.

: And he often provides colorful, impolitic quotes for the press. After a rash of murders, he remarked: "It's been kind of crazy with what has occurred here lately. It's almost like Dodge City."

: Even those allied with Mr. Healy have tepid praise for him. As he shook hands at a center for the elderly near Journal Square recently, Mr. Lipski, a former rival but now a council candidate running with the mayor, joked about the infamous photos, and offered this endorsement of the mayor after six months on the job: "Jerry Healy is a decent man - flawed, for sure, but not so flawed that we want to run him out of town."

: Yet coming on the heels of some of the smooth operators who once held office here, this rough-around-the-edges persona seems to be part of his appeal. "In Jersey City people like the `What you see is what you get' kind of guy," Mr. DeGise said. "Sometimes with Jerry, his tie is crooked, shirt not buttoned, but that's Jerry. During the campaign, it took people a lot of time to convince him to wear long-sleeved shirts."

: And, he added: "There were a lot of times where people set him down and said, `Watch what you say there.' Because whatever pops in his head, he says."

: At a recent debate at Loews Jersey, a 2,200-seat movie theater, Mr. Healy conferred with aides and after surveying about 35 people in attendance, remarked that the event was a "waste of time."

: Many here are still getting used to their new mayor. Before the debate, it almost escaped everyone's notice that organizers had spelled Mr. Healy's first name incorrectly. Once it got under way, Mr. Pine - who is likely to get more laughs than votes - decried the corruption in Jersey City and said he would develop a program that would reward whistle-blowers with money.

: "Are you angry that Jersey City and Hudson County are the political laughingstocks of the United States?" he asked. "Are you angry that the politicians of Jersey City are mainly interested in what's in it for them, their friends and their relatives?"

: He went on to call Mr. Healy a liar and described the chairman of the Zoning Board of Adjustment, Lonnie Sobel, as insane. Not surprisingly, Mr. Pine conceded that his candidacy was a long shot.

: Ms. Holloway, who was a two-term councilwoman for the city's largely black ward until 2001, spent the past month fighting to stay on the ballot after Mr. Healy challenged her petitions to run for office. Last week the state Supreme Court ruled in a 7-0 decision that she could run, though it will require a new ballot printing.

: She is calling for more investment in the city's poorer wards, a more "holistic" approach to governing and a "re-civilizing" of the city. "It's time for some basic values," she said. "Thank you, please, sorry. Things our grandparents taught us."

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