Thirty days. That’s all that remains of an election season that could be said to have begun the day after Mayor Jerramiah Healy was reelected in 2009. Indeed, when Ward E Councilman Steve Fulop declined to run four years ago, it was clear that it simply wasn’t his time yet.

In the time since, Fulop has further established his Jersey City bona fides and his political reach. Perhaps exemplified by his ability to get eight out of nine Board of Ed candidates elected — no easy feat, just ask the Jersey City Education Alliance or the mayor — Fulop has moved well beyond his downtown roots to become a known commodity citywide. Fulop also took nearly every opportunity to fight Healy, whether politically convenient or not, such as taking the lead on a proposed merger of the semi-autonomous Jersey City Incinerator Authority and the Department of Public Works after the mayor abandoned the plan when it became politically damaging.

Now some of those protest votes on Fulop’s part – often depicted as populist or anti-corruption moves – are taking a beating. Consider a recent Spanish-language mailer (at right) that reminds voters how Fulop vocally supported tax breaks for Goldman Sachs in 2007 (he abstained on the vote because he used to work there) while voting against tax breaks for Goya Food, a company worth over $1 billion that is looking to build a warehouse in Jersey City. Fulop’s argument against the tax incentives fell along the same lines of the New Jerey Policy Perspective, a non-profit think-tank that said the tax break was misused and the number of jobs coming to Jersey City was grossly exaggerated (Jon Whiten, the former owner of JCI, now works at NJPP). Inconvenient for Team Healy’s argument is the fact that At-Large Councilwoman Viola Richardson, now on Healy’s ticket, also voted against the tax break for Goya (politicians are, of course, allowed to change their minds).

Equally questionable is Healy’s claim of victory for being the “prevailing party” in a lawsuit challenging redacted emails between Fulop and BOE members. It’s true that Team Healy took the redacted emails to court and won a challenge asking why hundreds of emails could not be released. Unfortunately for Healy’s camp,they were looking for a smoking gun proving Fulop steered BOE contracts to his donors, which was not found in the four newly unredacted emails.

The Healy campaign has also been ticked off over Fulop’s campaign literature. There’s the photo of President Barack Obama (facing away from the camera) in one of Fulop’s mailers (found below), suggesting association between the two, despite Obama’s surprising endorsement of Healy. Then there were complaints from Jersey City Education Association president Ron Greco, who claimed a Fulop ally inappropriately obtained the e-mail list of its members so he could extend the reach of his campaign literature.

A few weeks later, Greco and Healy were videotaped at a JCEA meeting accusing Fulop of attempting to privatize the school system. “People will lose jobs” if Fulop is elected, Healy said at the time, with Greco adding that Snyder High School and P.S. #41 would close if Healy wasn’t reelected. Fulop has denied any effort to privatize schools — in fact, both he and Healy have supported vouchers and charter schools in the past. Neither Healy or Greco responded in time for this publication to explain those claims, which Fulop has described as baseless “fear-mongering.”

Then there are claims from multiple candidates that their campaign flyers have been taken down, even from places they are legally permitted to be — in fact, some candidates say they have seen city-workers pulling down supposedly legally-placed signs.

Stories make or break politicians. In Fulop, we have the upward trajectory of a would-be political star, now at the crossroads of Promising and Bust. Though Fulop has assured voters he’s running for mayor because that’s the job he wants to do, Healy claims it’s just a “stepping stone” on his way either to Congress or Trenton (Fulop has denied this charge). A self-described reformer, Fulop has been in hot-water with many voters (and former supporters) for his involvement in a secret meeting with Education Commissioner Christopher Cerf and claims by the Healy camp that he steered BOE contracts to donors.

Or look at the mayor’s future, which is much clearer: lose and he says his retirement is set for July 1, 2013, win and it’s pushed back to July 1, 2017. Those four years are needed, says Healy, to finish the job he already started. Healy has done a good job of distancing himself from his political allies who are now (or were formerly) in jail – crimes for which he was investigated but no wrongdoing was found. Whatever happens come May 14, Healy’s tenure as head of the city did Jersey City’s political history justice.

This and more speaks to the fact that Jeresy City voters are not easily surprised, having seen everything from too much of the mayor’s anatomy to the more recent Operation Bid Rig sting. Perhaps the reason voters are so rarely surprised is because some are convinced anything in Hudson County is possible. Just look to the mayoral forum held on April 11, when candidate Jerry Walker – local basketball star and nonprofit head – had to once again assure voters that no, his candidacy is not an elaborate plot to siphon minority voters away from Healy in order to get Fulop elected. Are conspiracy theorists convinced? With so much misinformation circulating, there’s always going to be an information gap. And what won’t politicians do to get elected?

These caricatures of the candidates are rooted in shades of truths. Fulop did quit his job, where he was making over a half-million dollars a year, to campaign and work as a Councilman full-time. He worked for Goldman Sachs, which has raised the ire of the city’s progressives. And for others, Fulop’s 13 years of living in Jersey City is not enough to remove his outsider status.

At the same time, calling Healy part of the political machine has more than just a ring of truth, considering he’s backing over 350 candidates for Jersey City Democratic Organization committee positions (about 100 more than Fulop is).

And if Walker is a plant for some, then mayoral candidate Abdul Malik can’t be taken seriously for others. Not having a slate of candidates running with him or a campaign team will do that to a politician.

Objectionable as some campaign tactics undoubtedly are, JCI has limited our coverage because so many larger questions loom. For those who feel unsafe coming out of their house at night, or who can’t find a job, or who feel their needs are not adequately represented on the Council or City Hall, the political games are tiresome. This is equally true for residents who watch uneven development in the city, who find City Hall to be a hindrance to opening a new business, or who wonder how they’ll pay their next tax bill.

The more important question remains: which of these candidates are in the best position to lead the city forward? With four mayoral candidates, eight At-Large Council candidates, and twenty-seven Ward Council candidates, it can be challenging for voters to read up on all the candidates or hear from them at forums.

JCI will continue our coverage of candidates, both independent and not, as even those without a ticket like their chances. At the same time, already three candidates have dropped out, with Jesus Tosado, Imtiaz Syed, and Sterling Waterman (the first to withdraw his bid for a Council seat) are out of consideration.

If the mayoral election can’t be described as wide open, it’s become clear that there is no strong favorite. Fulop paints Healy as the front-runner, not the least because of the backing of the JCDO and voter apathy. At the same time, Healy’s narrative has Fulop as a foreign element backed by Republican and Wall Street money, allegations that have resonated with voters who already see the Ward E Councilman as part of the city’s distant downtown. Yet Fulop has as much local union support as Healy, while the mayor has the backing of the quintessential Wall Street-er, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. And who’s to say Walker can’t find his way to victory? There are always far more residents who don’t vote in an election than do, and who knows if Walker can channel their frustration to get more voters out to the polling places?

Most importantly: there’s still time. As candidates with money and those without put feet to the ground and knuckles to front doors, voters have plenty of opportunities to hear more. There are three forums on April 18 (JCI is holding an At-Large forum, while a Ward E/F forum is being held downtown and a Ward B forum is being held at St. Aloysious Grammar School), and more to come.

Unregistered? Not a problem, voters can sign up to vote up until April 23 and can find their polling location here.

via The Jersey City Independent http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheJerseyCityIndependent/~3/G6cwEADzjn0/ JC Independent

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