HILLSIDE – Here it comes – a Hillside free-for-all.

Sources close to Councilman Jerome Jewell say he will formally enter the race for mayor sometime in the next two weeks. The long-serving Newark detective will run with the backing of the local Democratic Party organization. 

But there’s still political oxygen out there that at least two other candidates are trying to gobble up in the apparent aftermath of the troubled tenure of Mayor Karen McCoy-Oliver, niece of the late Assemblyman Willie Brown, who has not publicly declared her intentions regarding reelection.  

Whatever she does, McCoy-Oliver’s well-publicized head-butting episodes with powerful local party leader Charlotte DeFilippo have made the mayor an off-the-line contender at best now as Jewell commands the organization’s backing. 

Meanwhile, real estate agent Joe Menza – already officially in the race for mayor - continues to carve out a dedicated, anti-establishment alternative; as does Andre Daniels, former vice president of the School Board and Planning Board member, who also intends to make his formal announcement sometime in the next couple of weeks. 

Running on a slate with Daniels are Jeffrey Dykes, aide to state Sen. Ronald Rice (D-Essex); Sandra Cuerton; and Naomi Escobar. 

Dykes told PolitickerNJ.com that the Daniels team wants to win the support of McCoy-Oliver as they gear up for a clash with the same organization that dumped the mayor on the evening of her reelection, in part because DeFilippo felt McCoy-Oliver expressed no gratitude to the volunteers who labored to elect her. 

“We’re trying to get her to support our team,” Dykes said of the mayor. “We’re definitely moving in the right direction.” 

Of DeFilippo he added, “We’ve allowed one-person reign for too long. Right now, Hillside is the laughing stock of New Jersey.” 

Local machine Democrats try to minimize Daniels and Dykes as grassroots glory hounds who are spoiling on behalf of Menza. Dykes said his and Daniels’ team is in the race to win. Period.  

Working the phones in her office this afternoon when PolitickerNJ.com dropped by City Hall to gauge her intentions, McCoy-Oliver said she would call back, but never did. 

Also unknown at this point are the plans of 2nd Ward Councilwoman Shelley-Ann Bates, who has her own base of support beyond the local machine and – by all appearances – outside the reach of Menza and Daniels. A month ago she told PolitickerNJ.com that she had not ruled out a run for mayor.

Indeed, if Newark can claim to be the triumphant birthplace of Red Badge of Courage author Stephen Crane, Hillside was handed the unhappy task of burying the 28-year old wunderkind in the local cemetery.  

Peruse the names of native silver screen personalities, and Hillside fares no better.  Newarkers can brag of living in the birthplace of tough guys like Ray Liota and Joe Pesci while Hillside provided the early stomping grounds for the brilliant if largely unknown actor Michael Gazzo, whose claim to fame was getting bumped off in the Godfather II. 

Politics is no different, as Hillside residents generally must content themselves with whatever deals go down in Essex County to give them Newark-heavy Statehouse representation in the 29th District, or work with the Union County Democratic Committee, whose powerful chairwoman lives in town and has access to beyond-the-borders muscle to make things run. 

Or – and this is a charge leveled by her political opponents - to make things not run. 

“The only way we can do anything is to get rid of the cast of characters in there,” complains mayoral candidate Joe Menza. “The tax increases have been record-setting over the course of the last four years. People are paying $8,500 in property taxes in a blue collar town. With no business administrator, a part-time council is trying to run the day to day ops, and that kind of mismanagement’s done intentionally, so that decisions will be directed right back to King Street (DeFilippo headquarters).  

“The bottom line is government has to function,” Menza adds. 

At this point it’s no source of town intrigue that the 38-year chair of the local Democratic Committee here and former town clerk, Charlotte DeFilippo – who’s also the Union County Democratic Party chair - doesn’t get along with one-time organization darling turned persona non grata Mayor Karen McCoy-Oliver.  

It’s a hurt-feelings feud that goes back nearly four years now and is likely coming to either a head – if McCoy-Oliver decides to pursue reelection to a third term, or an end – if she does not run for reelection. 

A lifelong independent, real estate broker Menza lost to McCoy-Oliver in 2005 by 208 votes: 1,680 to 1,472. Born and raised here and a former welfare director in town, the 49-year old challenger already has signs up and intends to run an aggressive campaign. 

“I declared early on that we’re comin’ at ya’,” Menza says. 

Hillside sources say they don’t know whether McCoy-Oliver intends to run again for the part-time, $13,000-per year mayor’s job. She’s made no public statements, press phone calls go unanswered, and even some of her allies have begun discussing the moves they will make in the event she doesn’t pursue reelection. Among them are School Board member Andre Daniels, who’s said to be more than mulling a mayoral run, and the talk is he might run on a slate with fellow anti-establishment candidate Jeffrey Dykes. 

Then there’s At-Large Councilman Jerome P. Jewel, whose buttoned-down, no-nonsense presence in the council chamber inevitably creates muffled hand whispers among audience members about his intentions to run for mayor.

If he does – and it does indeed appear that he will - sources say he would be the candidate most likely to secure the backing of the DeFilippo-led Union County Democratic Committee, complete with all the big party trimmings, including the likely endorsement of Newark Mayor Cory Booker. 

“I’m leaning toward running,” Jewel tells PolitickerNJ.com at the governing body’s reorganization meeting on Tuesday night. 

“I’m very deep into the community,” adds the councilman, a 43-year old Newark Police detective and 20-year veteran of the department. “I grew up in Hillside. I grew up in Little League and Pop Warner, and we need a mayor who’s at the meetings, who’s visible.  We need more programs for the children of this town and we need to stabilize taxes.” 

Jewel plans to make his formal announcement one way or the other in the days following his return from the Inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama, where he will serve as part of a special security detail. 

So far the only declared candidate in the race, Menza waits. 

The winner of seven white voter-dominant districts to McCoy-Oliver’s victory in six African-American-dominant districts in their 2005 matchup in a 13-district town where African Americans have a slight edge in numbers, the Italian-American says he doesn’t care whether he runs against machine-driven Jewel or a disaffected McCoy-Oliver or anyone else. He intends to assemble a full slate of candidates with appeal to voters of all backgrounds. 

Of course, Jewel, an African-American, would counter with the same, and would likely run on the line with Italian-American incumbent Councilman at-Large Frank Deo.  

But it’s the top of the ticket that counts in this mayoral election year, and Menza’s promise of a multiracial ticket notwithstanding, there’s some off-the-record worry in town among his opponents that if too many African-Americans get in the race for mayor, they will finish one another off and hand Menza a victory.  Hillside’s provisions for a runoff election between the top two vote-getters in the absence of one candidate receiving 50 percent plus one, however, make such an outcome unlikely. 

In any event, Menza stays focused on his old political foe, DeFilippo, whose machine he takes pride in having already weathered four years ago, who he says would have made a decent leader in another era and in another theater of operation. 

“She would be a good admiral in the British Navy in the 1800s,” says Menza, adding that she can position a ship in the right direction, light the fuse on a cannon and blast away at a single target. 

“But she doesn’t like guerilla warfare,” he says. “That’s because she needs to control everything. You need evidence? All you need to do is to take a look at the council. It’s horrendous. It’s the worst I’ve ever seen. All they come up with are tax increases.” 

A district captain for the party in the 4th Ward, Jewel knows if he runs against Menza on the one hand and Daniels or McCoy-Oliver on the other, he’s going to face the charge that he’s a pawn of DeFilippo. 

He says he’s ready to fight that charge. 

“She’s a Democrat just like our president is a Democrat,” says Jewel. “Her job is to get Democrats elected. I’m my own person and I have my own ideas, and I need to be in that mayor’s spot to make things happen.” 

At least one other potential candidate could add an entirely new dimension to the mayoral race, and that would be 2nd Ward Councilwoman Shelley-Ann Bates, who over the course of her last two years in office has positioned herself as an independent Democrat who commonly joins Councilman Gerald Freedman in the dissenting camp.  

Read more

Reorganization fails to resolve divisions

Star-Ledger Staff

Hillside municipal government reorganized July 1 with no sign of an end to the bitter stalemate between the mayor and township council.

Both sides remained en trenched in their positions, with the township council rejecting resolutions submitted by Mayor Karen McCoy Oliver and the mayor boycotting the reorganization for a second consecutive year.

Council members Gerald Freedman and Shelley-Ann Bates, both non-aligned in the mayor and council warring, found themselves left off committees for the new fis cal year. Read more