Tom DeGise

Bret Schundler, who served as mayor of Jersey City from 1992 to 2001, will challenge incumbent Jerramiah Healy in 2009
In 1999, the late William F. Buckley recognized a rising star in conservative Republican circles named Bret Schundler, who had been mayor of Jersey City for six years. Seeing Schundler as a potential presidential prospect, he wrote in the New York Post: "Look for him in 2008."

Nine years and two gubernatorial losses later, any presidential dreams Schundler once harbored are gone. But we can look for him in 2009, because Schundler has all but made it official, acknowledging that he plans to run to return to Grove Street next year, eight years after he left the office.

"This is not a formal kickoff announcement, but I do plan to run," said Schundler in a phone interview.

Schundler served between late 1992 and 2001, when he decided to forego reelection to run for governor. But the Schundler of 2009 will likely bare little resemblance to the conservative candidate who unsuccessfully sought the highest office in the state in 2001 and 2005 - at least not if he can help it.

"I think I'm pretty much done with partisan politics," he said.

Bret Schundler, the Mayor of Jersey City from 1992 to 2001, hasn't decided if he'll run again next year.
Shortly after moving to Jersey City in 1985, a 26-year-old Bret Schundler ascended the escalator at the Grove Street PATH station and found a group of men drinking beer and playing craps.

"It was incredible to me that they could be doing that in plain view in that public a place and not worry about it," said Schundler, who had left off working on Democratic political campaigns to take up a career in finance.  "But the police back then didn't think that was enough of a serious crime to worry about."

Witnessing that kind of scene helped inspire the beginning of an extraordinarily unlikely political career.  Seven years later, Schundler, who had undergone an ideological transformation into a conservative Republican, went on to be elected mayor of a heavily Democratic city.

Almost eight years after leaving office and going on to run two unsuccessful bids for governor, Schundler now says that he's witnessing a throwback the machine politics that he worked so hard to change - the same type of policies that he thinks brought Jersey City to the brink of bankruptcy in the early 1990s, when the city led the state in job losses and 22% of residents defaulted on their property taxes.

The Hudson County peace agreement was meant to be formalized in Jersey City today, with virtually every major elected official in the county coming together the put the Hudson County Democratic Organization (HCDO) together again.

This morning, citing scheduling conflicts among several officials, the HCDO postponed the event to an unscheduled time next week. But multiple sources say that the real reason the presser was cancelled was because the most important player – Union City Mayor and State Sen. Brian Stack – refused to attend.

Hudson County Democratic Organization Executive Director Craig Guy said, however, that Stack did not refuse to attend the press conference.

There are no plans to get Hillary Clinton back in New Jersey for Super Tuesday, but her campaign made the best of their New Jersey resources to start their final push towards the primary.

With the Barack Obama campaign gaining momentum in the state, Clinton's New Jersey all stars began their statewide bus tour this morning at the Brownstone Diner and Pancake Factor in downtown Jersey City - deep in the territory of Mayor Jerramiah Healy, one of Obama's chief backers. 

The rally was not completely without reminders of who the mayor of the town supports.  Just before the rally began, a white van sat out front with a sign on its side reading "Save America, vote Obama."  But before most of the Clinton-backing politicians arrived, the van drove off and its parking spot was filled by the SUV of the local congressman, Albio Sires.

SENATOR, STATE LEADERS ANNOUNCE LAUTENBERG CHEMICAL SECURITY
PROVISION BECOMING LAW

At a news conference today held at the corner of 6th and Jackson, former Hoboken Councilman Chris Campos wanted to make sure that he had his own ward appear behind him – a housing project, not the relatively new and up-market apartment building across the street in the neighboring ward.

“That’s my ward, that’s what I represent,” he told the cameraman, pointing to the drab brick building.

The point was obvious. Campos, who grew up in a housing project nearby, was a home town guy. Now, after losing a runoff election against Hoboken newcomer Dawn Zimmer, who moved here five years ago, he’s facing her for a third time after she agreed to step aside and run again rather than battle Campos’s in court. Now Campos is clawing his way back to the seat that he thinks is rightfully his.

It was a coronation in a divided Kingdom.

Tonight Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy officially took the throne – or podium, as it were -- as Chairman of the Hudson County Democratic Organization.

“I want to thank all the mayors who ran behind me and all the candidates who ran last Tuesday, because without their help, I certainly wouldn’t be here,’ said Healy.

Brian P. Stack won 77% of the vote in his bid to succeed Bernard Kenny in the State Senate
Three Hudson County mayors won last night, one of them posthumously.

And in the minds of voters, the legacy of the late Jersey City Mayor Glenn Cunningham abides, with his wife triumphing in her district 31 State Senate contest.

While their tickets wage war, Hudson County Clerk candidates Mary Jane Desmond and Barbara Netchert are unfailingly polite to each other.

“I ran into (Netchert). I went right up to her when she was coming up the steps and said ‘this may be awkward over the next couple months but I prefer that it not be,” said Acting County Clerk Mary Jane Desmond, a former Bayonne City Councilwoman and one time Republican . “I sat at her table for 20 minutes talking to her. This is not personal.”

In the sea of Hudson County politics, all of those beleaguered sailors set adrift out there in the face of June 5th, Election Day, depending on their loyalties either fear or embrace the perfect storm, envisioned by that upstart pirate skipper Brian P. Stack.

Stack, the mayor of Union City and an Assemblyman, jumped out in front of the Hudson County Democratic Organization when he announced his intentions of supplanting State Sen. Bernie Kenny, who later said formally he would retire.

Now Stack is favored to win the Democratic Primary in the 33rd District, which includes Union City, West New York, Weehawken, Hoboken, Guttenberg and part of Jersey City. He already has an ally in Weehawken Mayor Richard Turner. The candidate’s also pumped money into the municipal re-election bids of the young Turks in Hoboken, who are restlessly jockeying for position to succeed Mayor David Roberts.