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Mayor Fulop courts Mayor Mapp.
Plainfield Mayor Adrian Mapp is an invited guest at a private dinner of 'mayoral heavy hitters' to be hosted by Jersey City mayor Steve Fulop this Wednesday during the League of Municipalities annual conference in Atlantic City.
News of the exclusive dinner meeting broke in the Ledger on Sunday in The Auditor's column (see here), which included a partial list of attendees.
As I suggested after last June's primary election (see post here), Plainfield looks to be a battleground in the 2017 gubernatorial race if Fulop is among the field of candidates.
Fulop has made little secret of his intention to run for governor in 2017 and his wily communications team have kept his name in the public eye. I spotted three stories in the past few days -- here denying he is behind a website urging a run for Guv; here saying he will 'punt' on a Guv run; and here, palling around with powerbroker Brian Stack.
The annual Atlantic City event, famed for its power networking evening receptions of pols and players, is the perfect place to advance a candidate's gubernatorial prospects. With everyone who is anyone gathered in one place, the lure is irresistible.
Sen. Steve Sweeney, also rumored to be preparing a run, will be toasted at a cocktail reception tonight being hosted by his benefactor George Norcross and wealthy Hoboken councilor Beth Mason.
Not to be outdone, a third potential candidate, Philip Murphy, will also host a by-invitation-only event at the League conference. Murphy, a heavy-hitter in Democratic fundraising circles, is a Goldman Sachs alum (as was Jon Corzine) and former ambassador to Germany.
All these goings-on will be putting pressure on Plainfield Assemblyman Jerry Green, who is chair of the local and Union County Democratic Committees.
Green recently posted on his blog a hand-written bread-and-butter note from Murphy (see here) that may come back to haunt the former ambassador or Jerry -- or both.
Green also has close ties to Sweeney and the Norcross element, so it will be interesting to see which way he goes. Norcross 'wheeled' $32,000 to Jerry through then-Speaker Joe Roberts to aid in Sharon Robinson-Briggs' initial run for mayor in 2005 (see the wayback post here).
No one needs to be reminded Green has bet on the wrong horse before -- he backed Hillary Clinton against Barack Obama, and Linda Greenstein against Bonnie Watson Coleman.
So, will Plainfield be a battleground in the next Guv race? Stay tuned.
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2 comments:
Fulop only wants one thing and that is to garner the support of big city mayors for votes. This doesn't mean its any special alliance. It doesn't mean it was a private invitation for them alone. This is a political move which makes sense. But what about the cocktail reception mentioned by politicker?
http://politickernj.com/2014/11/a-new-regional-alliance-emerges-at-the-league-of-municipalities/
Green was responsible for this. He and other mayors brought together over 1000 Democrats, all in one night. I don't about you but I put my money on Green rather than just on one sit down dinner.
Fulop only wants one thing and that is to garner the support of big city mayors for votes. This doesn't mean its any special alliance. It doesn't mean it was a private invitation for them alone. This is a political move which makes sense. But what about the cocktail reception mentioned by politicker?
http://politickernj.com/2014/11/a-new-regional-alliance-emerges-at-the-league-of-municipalities/
Green was responsible for this. He and other mayors brought together over 1000 Democrats, all in one night. I don't about you but I put my money on Green rather than just on one sit down dinner.
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