Schillari vs. Davis in the Hudson Dem War

When a sheriff hasn’t read his own mailers

Hudson County Sheriff Frank Schillari admitted to the New Jersey Globe that he hasn’t seen what his campaign is putting out on his Democratic primary opponent, three-term Bayonne Mayor Jimmy Davis.

“I can’t comment on it unless I research it.  I don’t recall it,” said Schillari.  “I see so many ads.  I’ll have to ask my media people.”

One Schillari mailer brings up old allegations of sexting by Davis and claims sexual harassment lawsuits have cost Bayonne “millions of dollars.”

But Davis was dismissed as a defendant in the lawsuits.  And this week, a Superior Court judge has set aside a jury verdict that awarded $500,000 to a former Bayonne city employee who claimed she was harassed and subjected to a hostile, sexually-charged work environment.  Another case involved allegations that occurred before Davis was elected mayor.

“Let’s be clear: These recycled, discredited attacks have been trotted out before—during the 2018 and 2022 elections—and voters saw right through them,” said Hudson County Democratic Organization Executive Director Storm Wyche. “Why are the Sheriff and his handlers deliberately misleading the public?”

Schillari’s campaign spokesman, Paul Swibinski, doubled down on the sheriff’s mailer: “Jimmy Davis is a creep.”  Swibinski worked against Davis in 2014, but for him in 2018 and 2022.

The increasingly bitter fight between Schillari, a 78-year-old five-term incumbent, and Davis is a key component of the Hudson Civil War of 2025.

Davis has the backing of the Hudson County Democratic Organization, County Executive Craig Guy, Union City Mayor/State Sen. Brian Stack, and West New York Mayor Albio Sires; Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop and North Bergen Mayor Nicholas Sacco support Schillari.

PASSING THE TORCH: After eleven years as chairman of the Passaic County Sewerage Commission, Thomas Tucci is stepping down as he prepares to move out of the district.  On Tuesday, Brendan Murphy, was unanimously elected as the new chairman.  Murphy is a former Totowa councilman and the son of Passaic County GOP Chairman Peter Murphy.   Tucci, the Sewer King, is the longest-serving chairman since James McMahon retired in 1970.  A former Montclair town commissioner, McMahon was the PVSC chairman for 18 years, albeit non-consecutively.   He served as chairman from 1935 to 1936, again from 1937 to 1944, and for a third tenure that spanned from 1960 to 1970.  Gov. William Cahill declined to renominate McMahon in 1970, giving his seat to the Republican mayor of Bloomfield, Walter Davis.  Gov. Phil Murphy nominated Brendan Murphy to serve as a commissioner in 2019.

MUST-SEE TV: The second Republican gubernatorial debate takes place tonight on NJ PBS, where Jon Bramnick, Jack Ciattarelli, and Bill Spadea face off at 7 PM.  You can watch by clicking HERE. The New Jersey Globe/On New Jersey/Rider University/Save Jersey GOP debate is on Tuesday, May 20 at 7 PM, and the New Jersey Globe/On New Jersey/Rider University Democratic debate is on Sunday, May 18 at 7 PM.

CROSSING SILVIO COMES WITH A RISK: An authentic Jersey endorsement in the governor’s race went to Josh Gottheimer from Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Steven Van Zandt, a member of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band and a prominent member of The Sopranos cast.  “Where’s the commonsense candidate? Where’s the guy that can work with both sides of the aisle and get things done? Where’s that guy? Well, I found him. His name is Josh Gottheimer,” Van Zandt said at a Bergen County Democratic gathering last week. “Josh believes Jersey should not be one of the states with some of the highest taxes in the country. And Josh has a plan. You know me well enough to know I would never steer you wrong. This is the guy that’s going to keep what’s best in Jersey and guide our state to be even better in the future, the next Governor of New Jersey, Josh Gottheimer.”

2028: Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer denies that she and President Donald Trump embraced during his recent visit to her state in a photo that shows the two shaking hands, with Trump putting his hand on her arm.  The Associated Press ruled it a hug.  Should Whitmer be concerned that the photo may hamper her presidential ambitions? New Jerseyans remember when President Barack Obama visited the state in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy and Gov. Chris Christie took a considerable hit among national Republicans for hugging Obama weeks before the 2012 presidential election. One difference between the two hugs: Obama and Christie held hands longer than Trump and Whitmer, and Obama touched his back more.  Still, numbers don’t lie, and Christie finished sixth in the New Hampshire GOP primary with 7.38% of the vote – but by then, Republicans had developed more reasons to dislike him.

LIUNA’S PICKS: The Laborers’ International Union of North America is taking sides in State Assembly races in three Hudson County districts, backing Assemblyman William Sampson (D-Bayonne) and County Commissioner Jerry Walker in the 31st, Jennie Pu and Crystal Fonseca in the 32nd, and Assemblyman Gabriel Rodriguez (D-West New York) and Larry Wainstein in the 33rd.  These choices align with the Laborers’ support of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mikie Sherrill; all six are running with the support of the Hudson County Democratic Organization, which is backing Sherrill.

OSMOSIS: Three candidates for the Jersey City Council running on a slate with mayoral contender James Solomon have endorsed Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla and Katie Brennan for State Assembly in the 32nd district.  The endorsements came from Michael Griffin, Eleana Little, and Veronica Akazuma.   A national group, Climate Cabinet Action, also endorsed Bhalla and Brennan: “Ravi Bhalla and Katie Brennan bring the track record, leadership skills, and dedication to be true champions of the climate in Trenton,” said Jared DeLoof, the group’s political director.

HONORING A TRAILBLAZER: Paterson Mayor Andre Sayegh will cut the ribbon on the city’s new Larry Doby Field today, honoring Hall of Famer Larry Doby, a local legend and Eastside High School graduate who broke the color barrier when he became the first Black man to play in Major League Baseball’s American League.  Doby played for the Newark Eagles in the Negro League and made his debut with the Cleveland Indians on July 5, 1947, six weeks after Jackie Robinson played in his first game for the Brooklyn Dodgers.

A BIG DEAL: The New Jersey Supreme Court is expected to release its opinion today in a case that will decide if a municipality is immune to sanctions for filing a frivolous lawsuit.  Then-Englewood Cliffs Mayor Mario Kranjac, now a candidate for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, played a key role in a $100 million lawsuit, later dismissed, against four attorneys who had represented the borough in an affordable housing case; a previous administration hired the lawyers.

THE WORLD ACCORDING TO DUBICKI: So far, 2.6% of Democrats and 1.5% of Republicans have already voted in the New Jersey gubernatorial primary, according to an analysis by Associated Press election researcher Ryan Dubicki.  In total, 89,202 vote-by-mail ballots have been marked as returned by election officials; the Republican return rate (14.3%) is slightly higher than the return rate of VBMs from Democrats (12.6%).  To be clear, this is apples and oranges at this point, since not all counties are recording return mail-in ballots at the same rate.  Camden County, for example, has recorded 15,484 VBMs, while Middlesex is at 1,371 – a number so low that it appears unrealistic.

TRENTON MAKES: Two College of New Jersey students have been elected to lead the College Democrats and College Republicans: Enzo Whetton for the Democrats and John Rendzia III for the Republicans.  Whetton replaces Nate Howard, and Rendzia takes over for Jacky Bruno.  The College Democrats have voted to endorse Steve Fulop for governor; the College GOP has opted to stay out of the gubernatorial race.

HELD ACCOUNTABLE: 47-year-old Haim Braverman of Morris Plains admitted to threatening to kill an unnamed political commentator in 2024.  Braverman posted a video on social media threatening to take bat to the commentator, a woman: “[Y]ou’ll get what’s coming to you … I’ve never met someone …  if I could f**king kill you right now, I would not even … f**k it I’ll give you the steel bat. I wouldn’t even stop. I’d kill you. Dead. … I’m threatening a death sentence against [the commentator].” Braverman also included a written comment in his post, in which he stated: “[The commentator] needs to be killed.”  He’ll be sentenced on September 15.

REAGAN JOKE: “I feel a little bit here like the farmer that was driving his horse and wagon to town for a load of grain and had a head-on collision with an automobile, and later, followed the usual legal procedures with the insurance company and all, and he was on the stand, and a lawyer said to him, ‘While you were lying there at the scene of the accident, didn’t someone come up to you and ask you how you were feeling?  And didn’t you answer that you never felt better in your life?’  ‘Well,’ he said, ‘I was lying there, and he said a car came up and a deputy sheriff got out.  He said my horse was neighing with pain and kicking — had two broken legs.  The deputy sheriff put the gun to his ear and put the horse out of his misery. He said my dog had a broken back and was whining with pain, and he went over — did the same thing — and shot him. And then he came over to me and said, ‘Now, how are you feeling?'”

TRIVIA: Like Cy Young’s 511 career wins as a baseball pitcher, here’s a record that is unlikely to be duplicated in American politics: James Shields, who emigrated from Ireland to the United States at age 20, represented three states in the United States Senate during a four-decade political career.  Illinois sent him to the Senate in 1848 – and then again in 1849 after he’d been forced to leave office briefly because he was a few months short of the constitutional requirement to have been a U.S. citizen for nine years.  He lost his re-election bid in a three-way race where one of the candidates was Abraham Lincoln.  Shields moved to Minnesota; after Minnesota became a state in 1858, the legislature elected him to a short one-year term in the Senate; he lost re-election in 1859.  After living in California and Wisconsin, Shields moved to Missouri and represented the Show-Me state for 35 days as an interim senator in 1879.

MORE JAMES SHELDS TRIVIA:   The U.S. Senator from three states led an interesting life: his uncle, a one-term congressman from Ohio, paid for his steerage to the United States, but the ship sank off the coast of Scotland; Shields was one of a handful of survivors; he got a job as a sailor and broke both of his legs, and by the time he arrived in the U.S., his uncle had died.  He feuded with Lincoln while they served together in the Illinois legislature, and challenged him to a duel that was later called off.  He was a general in the Mexican-American War and was wounded several times in battle.  He’d been appointed as the first governor of the Oregon Territory, but declined the post.

BOOK & FILM: If you’re a baseball fan, New Jersey public affairs executive Chris Donnelly’s latest book, Get Your Tokens Ready: The Late 1990s Road to the Subway Series, is a must-read; The Watcher read it over the weekend.  But if you want to stick with politics, try 1912: Wilson, Roosevelt, Taft and Debs–The Election that Changed the Country by James Chace.  It’s an incredible account of how a Democratic governor of New Jersey won a four-way race against an incumbent Republican president, with a former Republican president and a Socialist running as independents.    As debate season begins in New Jersey, watch – or rewatch – The Manchurian Candidate – the 1962 version starring Frank Sinatra and directed by John Frankenheimer, and after that, if you want, the 2004 remake with Denzel Washington and Meryl Streep.  And since there’s always a Jersey connection, remember that Sinatra is from Hoboken and Streep grew up in Summit, Basking Ridge, and Bernardsville.

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