Jason O'Donnell

Assemblyman Tony Chiappone (D-Bayonne) and state Sen. Sandra Cunningham (D-Hudson)

BAYONNE – It was a bruising fight for Assemblyman Tony Chiappone (D-Bayonne), one he wanted badly to win, but his ally in last week’s mayoral election lost, and now Chiappone must look ahead to his own re-election bid next year and the grim prospect of running off the line.

Whether on or off, Chiappone makes it clear.

 “I’m running,” he said.

The Jersey Journal’s Political Insider points out that Mark Smith’s defeat of Pat Conaghan on Election Day gives the Hudson County Democratic Organization (HCDO) the necessary leverage to dump Chiappone, who comes from that part of the 31st Legislative District composing a third of what is otherwise dominated by Jersey City.

Obama volunteer Karin R. White Morgen: Politicker photo 

BAYONNE - Forget about president, there’s a war for mayor going on, and millions of contract dollars at stake as this hard knock dock town faces redevelopment of the Navy peninsula.

But the mayor’s race and its implications for next year’s politics have now produced a smaller - but no less intense - spin-off war between regular and renegade Democrats scrambling to prove their allegiance to Sen. Barack Obama (D-Il.) with a little more than two weeks until Election Day.

Leading mayoral candidates, police director Mark Smith and retired judge Pat Conaghan, don’t want to publicly back Obama as they court 7,453 independent voters and 2,157 Republicans in what is billed as a nonpartisan election in an overwhelmingly Democratic (15,894 registered voters) yet historically white city.

The Republicans see opportunity here in this onetime Reagan Democrat stronghold, and have made targeted phone calls on behalf of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). But Obama’s 13-point lead over McCain in New Jersey and the Democrat’s frontrunner status nationally have at least one conspicuous Conaghan ally rushing to quell the perception that he’s operating outside the auspices of Obamaland.

On Saturday, Assemblyman Anthony Chiappone (D-Bayonne) enlisted the help of his ally, state Sen. Sandra Cunningham (D-Hudson), and opened an Obama for President headquarters at the corner of Avenue C and Andrews Street.

From that vantage point, he launched an attack on what he sees as a stalled-in-the-past local party organization he said has soft-pedaled its Obama outreach.

BAYONNE - Assemblyman Anthony Chiappone (D-Bayonne) criticized Assemblyman Anthony Chiappone: Politicker photothe chairman of the Democratic Party here for failing to display campaign signs for presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, which the chair claims is a ludicrous charge.

"They’ve got signs up on Democratic Party headquarters for (mayoral candidate) Mark Smith and (freeholder) Doreen DiDomenico, but nothing for Obama," complained Chiappone.

In this blue collar maritime stronghold at the southern end of Hudson County, Chiappone backs former municipal judge Pat Conaghan in the Nov. 4 mayor’s race against Smith.Chairman O'Donnell: Politicker photo

The party chairman supports Smith.

While he was a primary election supporter of Sen. Hillary Clinton’s (D-NY), Party Chair Jason O’Donnell strongly objected to Chiappone’s suggestion that he’s downplaying the Illinois senator because he fears voter blowback in the Bayonne mayor’s contest.

"For two consecutive days I have met with Tracy Johnson, Hudson County coordinator for Obama, and they don’t have the signs yet," said O’Donnell.

Lautenberg district director Steve Lenox, Andrews chief Bill Caruso, and Democrats 2000 executive board member Elizabeth Meyers

SEA GIRT - It was a happy political scene to walk into there in the basement of the Parker House last night, as Obama button-clad volunteers with clipboards approached Hudson County political operatives and asked them if they wanted to sign on to help with the campaign.

Some of the latter were onetime Hillary Clinton backers for whom the change-up to Obama is a painful perhaps but ultimately natural function of primary politics.

They didn’t need the enthusiastic prodding of volunteers to get them to go there.

"We’re already on board," said Jason O’Donnell, chairman of the Bayonne City Regular Democratic Organization.