MUDSON COUNTY If anyone says that Bush v. Kerry was bitter and wickedly negative, send them on a field trip to Hudson County, where they can learn just how nasty politicking can be.
Given what I know about the history of Hudson County politics, I should have expected it. Still, I was amazed at how the candidates running to fill the late Glenn Cunningham's position as mayor of Jersey City turned our neighborhoods into propaganda canvasses. Not all 11 were able to flood the city, of course; mainly, it was the five front-runners. Some were markedly worse than others. (Here's to you, Lou Manzo, for not only vomiting out the most campaign paraphernalia, but also the ugliest—congrats!)
As if the endless flyering and postering weren't enough. As if the blaring campaign messages coming from cars, trucks and RVs weren't enough. As if the never-ending mail solicitations weren't enough. On election day, the surrogates swarmed outside the polling place. Candidate L. Harvey Smith was reportedly even shaking hands inside. Isn't that considered electioneering? Isn't that illegal?
Forget the quality-of-life intrusions. How about the dirty tricks? There were intimations—and fervent denials—of homosexuality, there were dead cats on campaign HQ doorsteps, there were power-brokers hedging bets with attempts to sully the candidates.
Then there was "the photo."
Picture a drunk and naked mayoral candidate, in this case Jerramiah Healy, on his front stoop in the early morning hours. Healy admits to intoxication, but insists that he came outside because he heard some noises, only to have his towel ripped off. The kid who snapped the pic from his camera phone denies being on anyone's payroll.
Regardless of who—if anyone— was behind the photo, we learned one important lesson from the photo debacle: Jersey City is sick of dirty politics. We shrugged off the Healy photo and elected him as our provisional mayor. We liked that Healy admitted he was drunk; we ate up his honesty. Had Healy responded in kind (with vitriol) or danced around the facts, we wouldn't have given him a pass, if it can even be called that. It may be more appropriate to say we honored Healy—we honored him for not diving into the cesspool with the others. And for that reason, perhaps more than his vision for the city's future, he is Jersey City's new mayor.
Postscript: One week after the elections, here I am, drunk and naked on my own stoop, and this election is still being contested. Lou Manzo is holding on to threads of hope that more than half of the uncounted provisional and absentee ballots were cast in his favor and are legitimate. Is this the final, dirtiest trick of the campaign? Post-post script: Now almost two weeks after the election, Healy has finally been sworn in. So I guess I was right after all. o
