Muhlenberg (1): Mayor Sharon drops the ball, again.

Muhlenberg supporters

Plainfield Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs is legendary for arriving late for meetings and events, even those in which she is to play a role.

So, it came as no surprise to read in last Thursday's Courier (see here) that Her Honor had been late again, this time to a conference on hospital closures at which she was a presenter.

Her excuse? 'Meeting with a potential buyer'.

I'm sorry, I find that hard to buy.

Conferences take a lot of planning, and participants are asked quite a deal in advance. Having to be there by a given time means that the mayor's secretary (or would it be her confidential assistant?) puts the event and location on her calendar, taking care to block out the time necessary to get to the event's venue. And other appointments are scheduled so as not to interfere with her prior commitment.

In soap operas, a potential hospital buyer may rush in as the heroine is getting ready to leave for an appointment, but that in soap operas. We're in Plainfield, which is presumably NOT a soap opera.

But maybe I shouldn't be so hasty about that.

Turns out that at last Thursday's State Health Planning Board meeting, at which Muhlenberg was also discussed, attendees learned that the state the formation of the citizens advisory board (one of the conditions placed upon Solaris in granting the closure of Muhlenberg) a condition that has not been met.

No surprise there. But what IS surprising is that it has been Mayor Sharon's responsibility to get the advisory group appointed.

Turns out she has done nothing, and the state is considering taking the authority away from her if appointments aren't made before next month's SHPB meeting.

Can you say 'late again'?

Robinson-Briggs still won't take up her seat on the Muhlenberg board, where she could actually have an impact if she would assume the responsibility.

Meanwhile, even though 54% of the voters in the Primary did not choose Robinson-Briggs, Plainfielders must prepare themselves for another four years of this leadership style.

---

• Courier: "Impact of Muhlenberg closure discussed at conference"

-- Dan Damon

View today's CLIPS here. Not getting your own CLIPS email daily? Click here to subscribe.

Corzine's Plainfield problem

Gov. Jon Corzine

Gov. Jon Corzine faces a daunting re-election challenge, in Plainfield as elsewhere.

How could this overwhelmingly Democratic city, where even most unaffiliated voters pull the Dem lever in the November elections, give the governor grief?

A look at the 2009 Primary numbers should prove sobering to Democratic strategists -- both Corzine's and locally -- when contemplating this fall's campaign strategy.

Just take a look at the following chart --

2009 Primary: Votes cast for Corzine (front),
total Dem votes cast (2nd row), and total registered Dems (3rd row).

While Corzine got 62% of the Dem votes cast overall (2,732 of 4,395), a look at the ward tallies shows definite weaknesses --

Ward	Votes Cast	% of Votes	Total Dems	As % of Total Dems
1	650	68%	2864	23%
2	859	61%	3718	23%
3	825	63%	3752	22%
4	398	54%	2401	17%

Corzine's lowest percentage is in Ward 4, at 54%. In Wards 2 and 3, Corzine's numbers, at 61% and 63% respectively, track with his statewide averages. Only in Ward 1 does he beat the averages.

But here is where the challenge to Corzine comes in: the New Dems' strength is in Wards 2 and 3, and in Ward 4 independent Democrat Bridget Rivers has chilly relations with local party chair Assemblyman Jerry Green, who as of last week was still unwilling to concede she had flat out won the 4th Ward Council seat.

Green, massively unpopular in his own Ward (he was beaten by Rick Smiley 739 to 477, and has not won election to the City Committee from his neighborhood since 1999), will have to find a way to engage both the New Dems and Ms. Rivers if he is to deliver anywhere near the totals Corzine will need to bolster his race in November.

Is Jerry up to the task?

Note: After posting, I see that Bernice has posted on the 4th Ward race. You will note our figures do not line up exactly. My data are taken from a Union County voter registration database supplied electronically in May, 2009, and the voter tally sheets of City Clerk Laddie Wyatt (minus the Republican votes cast).
-- Dan

---

• PolitickerNJ --
• "The Governor's Suburban Challenge"
  
• "Governor's Race: Eight Key Quinnipiac Findings"
  

-- Dan Damon

View today's CLIPS here. Not getting your own CLIPS email daily? Click here to subscribe.

North Plainfield street fair today

North Plainfield's annual Street Fair runs from Noon - 5 PM today.

With 80 vendors, three live bands, a Hispanic folk dance troupe, and a live broadcast by Jersey Live 101.5, this will definitely be the place to be this Saturday.

Oh, and don't miss the chili cookoff, which benefits the Lions Club.

-- Dan

How Plainfield could honor Charles Nelson

Charles Nelson, between friends Bob and Patty Bender and Charles Booker,

at the groundbreaking for the originally-planned Senior Center, May 2005.

As Plainfield remembers all that Charles Nelson did for his community -- as a veteran, as a churchman, but most especially as the champion of a city-owned center for Plainfield's senior citizens, a thought comes to me.

What could be a more appropriate way for the city to honor his contribution to the new Senior Center than by letting it be a living memorial by naming it after him.

Why not?

---

Obituary: "Charles Nelson, activist for seniors"

Services for Charles Nelson
Friday morning, 10:00 AM
United Church of Christ-Congregational
West 7th Street at Madison Avenue

-- Dan Damon

View today's CLIPS here. Not getting your own CLIPS email daily? Click here to subscribe.

Why not help Plainfield neighborhoods with foreclosed properties?

Boarded homes hurt Plainfield neighborhoods.

With hundreds of Plainfield homes foreclosed in the past two years and no end in sight (see map here), I noted at Monday's Council meeting the city is boarding up homes at taxpayer expense. Is this the best way to handle this issue?

Could more be done to help neighborhoods where foreclosed vacant homes are not only an eyesore, but an invitation to vandalism and criminal activity, and a drag on property values and the efforts of nearby owners to sell their homes?

The answer is yes. Make that YES!

Hundreds of Plainfield homes were foreclosed in 2007-08.

All across the country, communities are experiencing the waves of foreclosures that have hit Plainfield and many are fighting back, holding the lenders responsible for maintaining properties in foreclosure.

What kinds of requirements are communities holding lenders to? Here is a sample list --

• Require lender inspection of homes prior to recording a “Notice of Default”;
  
  
• Require registering that property, or any found to be abandoned;
  
  
• For each abandoned property, pay an initial registration fee, and if the property stays abandoned for more than one year, a renewal fee;
  
  
• Once registered, properties are inspected immediately by the town to determine if they meet the city code. Owners required to maintain them following standards applied to other properties in the city;
  
  
• Owners required to hire a local property management company to oversee and maintain the property;
  
  
• Owners must post a sign identifying a 24-hour phone number for a responsible person who can be contacted in an emergency;
  
  
• Required to record any change of ownership or transfer of title with the city;
  
  
• In the event that bank-owned homes foreclosures are sold by a lender or bank, the buyer is mandated to inform the city about the sale in order to terminate the registration requirement;
  
  
• Failure to register a foreclosed home will mean paying a fine of as much as $1,000 daily.

From California (see here) to Milwaukee (see here) to Boston (see here), municipal governing bodies are striking back to prevent deterioration of neighborhoods and property values with this sort of tool.

Recently, Middlesex Boro adopted an ordinance with many of these provisions (see here).

Wouldn't it be a good idea for Plainfield's City Council to look into this sort of help for our beleaguered neighborhoods?

---

• Map: "Foreclosures, Plainfield, NJ: 2007-08" -- Click and hold on map to drag and use 'zoom' function to get down to individual property level.
• Courier: "Middlesex Boro will fine foreclosed properties if not maintained"
• Boston: "Foreclosure registration FAQ" | "Ordinance" (PDF)
• Indio, CA: "Ordinance" (PDF)
• Milwauke, WI: "About the Abandoned Properties Program" | "Ordinance"
  

-- Dan Damon

View today's CLIPS here. Not getting your own CLIPS email daily? Click here to subscribe.

Mr. Dashield's (misleading) history lesson

Work on South Avenue gets under way, June 2000.

Plainfield City Administrator Marc Dashield's presentation Monday updating the South Avenue road project contained a seriously misleading bit of history.

First though, if you haven't rattled your teeth driving down South Avenue recently, you should know that the Plainwood Square Merchants Association has been lobbying the city for some time to attend to the seriously deteriorating roadway between Woodland Avenue and Terrill Road.

Though the stretch in front of the greengrocer's was done using city equipment, the entire roadway needs to be rebuilt and resurfaced, a project beyond the capabilities of the DPW crews.

Dashield said (somehow these things never seem to be in writing) that he had researched the previous work done on South Avenue -- around 2002, he thought -- and had sought a legal opinion on suing the contractor for shoddy work, but that it didn't look like the city had a strong case.

Seems minor enough, but given the Robinson-Briggs' administration's propensity for blaming its problems on previous administrations (especially that of Al McWilliams), setting out the CORRECT history is called for.

The reason a lawsuit is unwise is that there was no shoddy work; the work was done exactly as specified.

Plainfield was about to lose a $600,000 grant for improvements to South Avenue when Al McWilliams took office in January 1998. The project, long advocated by the South Avenue merchants with Dairy Queen's Donna Albanese as the main point person, had been funded with an NJDOT grant and then the administration of mayor Mark Fury dropped the ball.

McWilliams, responding to the merchants' concerns, made the project an A-1 priority and put Pat Ballard Fox, his deputy city administrator for economic development to work on it immediately.

Mayor Al McWilliams and Plainwood Square merchants celebrate
the installation of gateway signage at Plainwood Square in 1999.

Originally conceived as roadway and storm sewer improvements, McWilliams and Ballard Fox reconceived it as a BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT PROJECT, with the roadway being the major component. Viewed through this lens, the goal became not only to improve the roadway and drainage, but to slow down the traffic that simply SPED THROUGH Plainfield on the way to someplace else and turn South Avenue into A SHOPPING DESTINATION.

Doing this involved getting the state to agree to a reduced speed limit (25 MPH) and to 'traffic-calming' measures that have been gaining ground in New Jersey cities for years. These mainly involved shortening the distance pedestrians have to navigate to get across busy traffic by putting 'bumpouts' in parts of the roadway reserved for parking.

The bumpouts have the effect of slowing traffic down, thus making it safer for pedestrians to step out and cross the street.

Additionally, as part of the Urban Enterprise Zone, the streetscape was improved with more appropriate street lights, banners and curbs and sidewalks.

The engineers determined that South Avenue was eventually going to need reconstruction; however, there simply was no money (or will on the part of the Council**) to fund a complete reconstruction at that time.

This left as the only option the milling and paving of the roadway. At the time, everyone knew that this was only a temporary resolution, and that eventually the roadway would have to be reconstructed.

But most people soon forgot about that as things appeared spanking new and the repaving gave the impression everything was hunky-dory.

Fast forward ten years (the work began in 2000), and we have the current situation, with the South Avenue merchants again having to take the lead as the current administration simply failed to review the history of the project (which had been supplied in Ballard Fox's transition memorandum of December, 2005) and finds itself in a reactive rather than proactive mode.

Which brings us to last evening's presentation.

Besides correcting the history of the situation, I have a question.

Since South Avenue is a state highway (Route 28), why isn't the city -- working through Assemblyman Jerry Green (D-Plainfield) -- trying to get the state to fund all or most of the work?

Not long ago, NJDOT released a list of projects being funded with President Obama's stimulus money, but South Avenue, Plainfield's only state road, was not on the list.

Is that because the city didn't apply, because the Robinson-Briggs administration forgot that South Avenue is a state highway, or because the Assemblyman doesn't have the clout Plainfield needs?

**Councilors for the years 1999 and 2000 were Malcolm R. Dunn, Bob Ferraro, Adrian Mapp, Harold Mitchell, Joe Montgomery, Joe Scott Sr. and Liz Urquhart. A majority was unsympathetic or even hostile to the South Avenue project.

---

-- Dan Damon

View today's CLIPS here. Not getting your own CLIPS email daily? Click here to subscribe.

City Committee reorg. Rogers' rules rule.

The Plainfield Democratic City Committee's reorganization Monday night held no surprises.

Both Old and New Old Democrats caucused before the meeting.

Both Old and New Democrats had slates to offer.

Meeting beforehand with New Dem leaders Adrian Mapp, Rick Smiley and Rebecca Williams, Assemblyman Jerry Green (D-Plainfield) made an offer of two vice chairmanships -- to Williams and Mapp -- then subverted the offer by adding a condition when presenting it to the committee that both Mapp and Williams said had not been part of the original offer.

Assemblyman Green delegated the running of the meeting to Dottie Gutenkauf, then interrupted her at several points to offer his opinion on what should be done, explain his position, and restate business before the committee.

After presenting his origina slate, at one point Assemblyman Green then restated his slate, dropping Mapp altogether and moving Williams down one slot. Subsequently, he replaced that slate with another not containing either New Dem's name.

Though several copies of Robert's Rules of Order were spotted around the room, they were mostly honored in the breach.

With 40 seats on the Old Dem side and 28 for the New Dems (one person was away on business, so only 27 were present), the outcome of all votes was hardly in question.

When the committee divided into Ward groups to choose Ward captains, the New Dems took the lead with Wards 2 and 3, while the Old Dems took 1 and 4.

Referring to the 4th Ward race, Assemblyman Green said 'a lawyer' was looking into the provisional ballots 'in the interest of both candidates'. Bridget Rivers holds a six vote lead as of Monday evening in the contested race.

If I were to characterize the evening, I would say neither Obama's rules nor Jerry's prevailed.

Instead, it seemed more like Rogers' rules.

That would be Will Rogers, the 20th century humorist and movie star, who once quipped, "I belong to no organized political party. I am a Democrat."

That would be us.

After the meeting was adjourned, old friends and acquaintances who found themselves on opposite sides of the Old Dem/New Dem divide chatted and caught up with each other.

Just like family.

---

-- Dan Damon

View today's CLIPS here. Not getting your own CLIPS email daily? Click here to subscribe.

CityCommittee reorg tonight. Obama rules, or Jerry's?

President Barack Obama	Assemblyman Jerry Green

Plainfield's Democratic City Committee reorganizes tonight, and there is already a tussle over whether the rules of play will be those of President Barack Obama or of Assemblyman Jerry Green.

At issue are procedural matters that can determine whether the committee will be truly small-d democratic, or whether it will be run by one person to suit that person. And those are --

• voting by secret ballot,
• having multiple nominations for offices; and
• voting for officers one by one and not by slate.

Assemblyman Jerry Green who as chair of the City Committee faces re-election tonight has already let it be known that he will do whatever he can to prevent committee members' voting by secret ballot.

Will this turn off the Obama supporters who have looked forward to being active in the city committee? One would expect so, since a bullying my-way-or-the-highway attitude is hardly what we have learned from America's first African American president.

The New Democrats, with 28 seats on the 68-member committee, are holding out for Obama-style openness and sharing of committee leadership and responsibilities, arguing that Democrats across the city have tried to send a message to the established leadership that same-old same-old just won't cut it any more.

It is the same sort of message that the Democratic party is facing around the state: new and younger voters view the Democratic party as in need of new blood, fresh vision and a commitment to openness, transparency and reform in party and public matters.

In our area, this is percolating up through the ranks very noticeably everywhere from Plainfield to Elizabeth, from Hillside to Roselle, from Edison to New Brunswick -- and state Democratic leadership is aware they have a problem.

It can also be seen in the abysmal poll numbers for Jon Corzine, a sitting Democratic governor in a largely Democratic state whose re-election is his to lose.

Which style will better mobilize and reassure Democrats as they gird their loins for the fall campaign season? The old style of bullying and one-man rule or the Obama style of openness, with everyone invited to the table and to share leadership and responsibility?

You tell me.

---

Visitors are welcome at the

Plainfield Democratic City Committee
Reorganization Meeting

Tonight, 7:00 PM
YWCA
232 East Front Street
(corner of Church Street)

---

-- Dan Damon

View today's CLIPS here. Not getting your own CLIPS email daily? Click here to subscribe.

You can get around Dan's email hassles. At last.

CLIPS and Plainfield Today readers can PERMANENTLY get around Dan's hassles with Comcast email -- at last.

The subscription box which is now immediately under the title of the CLIPS home page (see here) will let you receive an email from Google's Feedburner service whenever CLIPS is updated.

This means you can be sure of delivery and that Dan's adventures (or misadventures) with Comcast will not affect your receipt of the daily post. You will find this new method hassle-free.

Feedburner is a separate service, and you must subscribe to receive the daily updates. Once you enter your email address, you will receive a confirming email in your Inbox. Clicking on the link in that email tells Feedburner that you are a real person, and that you want the daily feed.

I will begin whittling down the daily emails as folks migrate over to this better method, and will eventually discontinue them.

Thanks for your continuing readership and support for the past three and a half years.

I'm looking forward to the next 4,500 posts.....;-)

---

-- Dan Damon

View today's CLIPS here. Not getting your own CLIPS email daily? Click here to subscribe

Garrett's 1923 fire truck on display today

Plainfielders can have a rare treat today at the Car Nutz custom car show, where Plainfield resident Bill Garrett will be showing off his newly restored 1923 American-LaFrance fire engine.

The show runs from 9 AM to 3 PM today, at St. Luke's Church, 300 Clinton Avenue, North Plainfield (between Green Brook Road and Warfield Avenue).

See you there!

---

-- Dan Damon

View today's CLIPS here. Not getting your own CLIPS email daily? Click here to subscribe.

The Mayor climbs a (Census) mountain

Plainfield Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs is undertaking to ensure an accurate population count in the 2010 Census, according to a report in today's Courier (see here).

A lot hangs on it, as it did in the 2000 Census, where organizations throughout the community came together to work hard on securing an accurate count, only to be frustrated in the attempt. (For a thumbnail of the 2000 Census results, see here.)

Although Census officials have several categories of those more likely to go un- or under-counted, including the homeless, seniors and those in group living situations, the 'elephant in the room' this year is the same as in the 2000 count -- Plainfield's exploding Latino population.

At the time of the 2000 Census, there seemed three factors which combined to defeat the city's best efforts:

• The reluctance to participate out of fear of government authorities;
• The difficulty of gaining the trust of undocumented persons;
• Complaints about the quality and thoroughness of those employed to actually do the count.

Everyone agrees the numbers have grown enormously over the past ten years.

My personal estimate, based on some knowledge of housing conditions, including illegal multi-families and roominghouses, is that a more accurate number for Plainfield is probably around 55,000 -- well over the target the Mayor has set.

Will Robinson-Briggs be able to mount the coordinated campaign that is necessary, gain the trust of those afraid to be counted, and drive the process to a successful conclusion?

We can only hope so.

One thing is for certain, this will take grit, gumption and true leadership. Everyone wishes the Mayor well in this endeavor, as it is the whole community that will benefit.

But it will be quite a mountain to climb.

---

• Courier: "Plainfield hoping for an accurate count in Census 2010"
• Census: "American Factfinder: Plainfield, NJ - 2000"

-- Dan Damon

View today's CLIPS here. Not getting your own CLIPS email daily? Click here to subscribe.

Results: 4th Ward Council seat

Here are unofficial results for the Ward 4 Council seat, with Bridget Rivers shown as winner by seven votes. The figures are preliminary and do not include provisional ballots. There was no Republican candidate and presumptive primary victor Rivers will win the November election by default.

Rivers, who is currently president of the Board of Education, will have to step down from that post when she is sworn in on January 1, 2010. The Board of Ed will select a replacement for her seat until the April election, at which time the public will elect a replacement for the balance of the term.

DISTRICT	RIVERS	GREAVES	HARDY
1	98	48	4
2	52	68	3
3	42	55	2
4	14	35	1
5	31	24	1
Total	237	230	11

---

-- Dan Damon

View today's CLIPS here. Not getting your own CLIPS email daily? Click here to subscribe.

Poll Results: Democratic City Committee

Unofficial results for seats on the Plainfield Democratic City Committee are below.

Slates fielded by New Democrats for Plainfield and the Regular Democratic Organization of Union County are listed by Ward and District, with unofficial vote totals. Those elected to the City Committee are shown in underlined boldface.

Candidates for PDCC, 2009
Ward 1
District	New Dems	RDO of UC
1	Trevor Barrow - 27 Carolyn Barrow - 25	Ellis Hester - 48 Liz Urquhart - 50
2	Derek Young - 29 Wanda Jones - 29	Darwin Rosario - 34 Veronica Gay-Brown - 37
3	---------- ----------	Bernard Horner - 43 Hattie Williams - 49
4	Frank D'Aversa - 31 Liz D'Aversa - 31	James Darby - 25 Shari Darby - 18 Barbara James - 14 (Real Dem)
5	Andrew Mayorga - 16 Ethel Coleman - 16	George Rivera - 20 Judy Ramos - 19
6	---------- ----------	Alex Toliver - 36 Gwendolyn LeGrand - 31
7	Noel Pyne - 17 Chaunte Hackett - 12	Christopher Awobue - 46 Marie Davis - 55
8	Terry Belle - 25 Gaynell Belle - 25	Harold Malone - 50 Lillian Jamar - 48
Ward 2
District	New Dems	RDO of UC
1	John Vignoe - 21 Maria Pellum - 24	Ken Robertson - 30 Brenda Pryor - 31
2	Michael Pyne - 55 Mari Bonini - 50	Roger Politt - 26 Joan Hervey - 29
3	Shep Brown - 55 Joanne Macaluso - 54	Joseph Wallace - 25 Vivia Henry - 27
4	Joseph Stuczynski - 21 ----------	Rashid Burney - 27 Wendy Burney - 34
5	Donald Van Blake - 92 Carol Bicket - 89	Allen McPherson - 15 Karen McPherson - 17
6	Kieran Anderson - 123 Jeanette Criscione - 125	Charles Eke - 27 Danielle Fletcher - 24
7	---------- Dorothy Henry - 43	Hugh Smith - 41 Geraldine Smith - 33
8	Rick Smiley - 59 Belinda Smiley - 51	Jeff Dunn - 17 Wilma Lee - 22
9	Greg Haworth - 68 Rebecca Williams - 66	Sidney Jackson - 17 Janice Jackson - 18
10	Dave Beck - 54 Lois Mattson - 55	Jacques Howard - 24 Sally Benjamin - 27
11	---------- ----------	David Ervin - 59 Brenda Gibbons - 58
Ward 3
District	New Dems	RDO of UC
1	Jerry Gainey - 31 Jeanette Edghill - 29	Joe Gutenkauf - 36 Dottie Gutenkauf - 38
2	Rodney Marino - 52 Barbara Kerr - 51	Cary Palmer - 29 Cora Palmer - 29
3	Bill Collins - 39 Marion Fowler	Wajid Abdur-Razzaq - 26 Barbara Abdur-Razzaq - 37
4	Christian Estevez - 41 Rosa Salinas - 38	Andy Apu - 30 Margaret Florence - 36
5	Leroy Canady - 33 Barbara Wallace - 44	Cecil Sanders - 57 Sharon Robinson-Briggs - 75
6	Linden Barratt - 36 Sandra Govan - 38	Calvin Hale - 50 Pamela Dunn-Hale - 57
7	Joe Ruffin, Sr. - 49 Ursula Liebowitz - 48	Kaliym Islam - 41 Brenda Gilbert - 46
8	Nat Bender - 24 Shirley Ayers - 24	Sylvester Palin - 18 Marva Palin - 16
9	Adrian Mapp - 49 Amelia Mapp - 50	Jesus Colazzo, Jr. - 30 Cynthia Crawford - 33
10	Cristobal Sanchez - 17 Veronica Taylor - 22	Rashad Shabazz - 51 Julia Porterfield - 49
Ward 4
District	New Dems	RDO of UC
1	---------- ----------	Agurs Cathcart - 81 Rose Marie Cathcart - 79
2	Elvis Belle - 40 Yvonne Belle - 41	Winston Lewis - 55 Ivy Joyner - 54
3	Gabriel Atehortua - 13 Luz Atehortua - 17	Neville Greaves - 44 Vera Greaves - 47
4	---------- ----------	Harold Mitchell - 36 Mazie Wormley - 35
5	---------- ----------	Murray Brister - 22 Mary Ann Fulmore - 23

The City Committee's reorganization is expected to take place Monday, June 8 at 7:00 PM in the Garden Room of the YWCA, 232 East Front Street (at Church Street).

Longstanding policy is that guests are welcome.

---

Plainfield Democratic City Committee
Reorganization Meeting
Monday, June 8
7:00 PM
YWCA
232 East Front Street (corner of Church Street)

-- Dan Damon

View today's CLIPS here. Not getting your own CLIPS email daily? Click here to subscribe.

Primary win gives small comfort to Green, Robinson-Briggs, Corzine

Judging from preliminary figures, Tuesday's primary wins for Assemblyman Jerry Green and Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs give cold comfort for their leadership roles in the community and the Assembly.

Plainfield pretty much mirrored Corzine's dilemma statewide: with a total of approximately 4,200 Democratic votes cast yesterday, only 2,657 chose to vote for Corzine (I don't have the numbers for the others, but it was miniscule) -- meaning that more than a third of Democratic primary voters shunned the Governor. This cannot be good news for Corzine, who got a big boost from Plainfield when he ran four years ago.

Green, who has never faced an opponent in his entire Assembly career, took a hit to his image with Rick Smiley coming within 300 votes of Green's Plainfield total. Plainfield has always been considered Jerry's base and this experience no doubt gave him a good fright.

Working with preliminary figures (absentee ballots have yet to be counted), there are some broad conclusions that can be drawn.

With approximately 4,200 votes cast for all the Democratic mayoral candidates, this seems closest to the total of all Democratic votes that can be ascertained for now.

Against that backdrop, Stender's 2,169 votes in Plainfield put her at 52%, with Green's 1,923 bringing him in at 46%. Smiley, running a grassroots campaign that focused on Plainfield, Rahway and Linden, came in a strong third with 39% (1,627) of the Plainfield vote. I will post Districtwide figures once they become available.

Jerry Green's strategy of seeing that multiple candidates were fielded may have paid off in the short term, but Robinson-Briggs cannot take much pride in the fact that after four years at the helm, fewer than half the ballots cast -- 1,964 of 4,188 -- were for her.

The clear implication is that were it not for Martin Cox and Carol Ann Brokaw-Boles, it is likely Robinson-Briggs would not have finished first.

Final figures will be certified by the County Clerk after absentee ballots have been tallied in.

Meanwhile, perennial candidate Deborah Dowe filed yesterday to run as an independent in the November election, meaning that there will be at least three candidates in the November general election, including Republican Jim Pivnichny, who faced no opponent in the GOP primary.

With Adrian Mapp still on the Council for three more years, and Rick Smiley giving a credible performance districtwide, Green and Robinson-Briggs will face continuing pressure over the issues of competency, transparency and inclusiveness in the conduct of Plainfield's affairs.

Ain't nobody goin' away.

---

-- Dan Damon

View today's CLIPS here. Not getting your own CLIPS email daily? Click here to subscribe.

Primary Day: A guide and an invitation

VOTE

It's Primary Day
Polls are open 6:00 AM - 8:00 PM.

Column 'F'
For Plainfield's Future
Adrian Mapp for Mayor
Rick Smiley for Assembly
Your male and female District City Committee representatives

Do it.

ALL ARE INVITED TO NEW DEMS HEADQUARTERS
TO WATCH THE RETURNS IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE POLLS CLOSE

117-B Watchung Avenue

Why did Jerry lend Sharon $20,000?

How Sharon spent her campaign funds. Click to enlarge.

Between May 9 and May 13, Assemblyman Jerry Green loaned Sharon Robinson-Briggs $20,000.

Why?

Because Robinson-Briggs' campaign was bankrupt!

Plainfield's first woman mayor, touted as having a $150,000 war chest was broke.

What happened?

In a word, Sharon literally ate her way through the most money any Plainfield mayor has ever had at their fingertips.

I owe Olddoc a big tip 'o the hat for putting me on the trail. When he mentioned the dollar amount in his Sunday post (see here), something clicked. If Sharon is spending $150,000 on the mayoral primary, why doesn't it feel like it?

Why the cheesy signs? Why the skimpy mailings? Why no barrage of 30-second spots on Comcast? Why indeed!

I went looking...and to my surprise found out the lady is broke. Here is a quick breakout of her expenses as gathered from her Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC) reports from after she was elected in 2005 up to last week's most current report.

CATEGORY	AMOUNT
Food/Entertainment	$88,687.53
Campaign Consultant	28,100.00
Tickets	9,533.00
Reimburse Sharon	5,330.57
Other	23,716.70

Anyone who knows Jerry can just imagine the pain and anger with which he wrote out that check. They can imagine Sharon having to almost pry it from his clenched fist.

The rest of us can now know for a fact that Sharon has managed her own campaign funds just the way she has managed Plainfield for the last three and a half years -- wastefully, irresponsibly and without thought of the future.

One more reason she has to go.

Amazing sidebar: It is allowable to use campaign funds for both campaign expenses and the 'usual costs' of holding public office. Interesting to find that Mayor Sharon thought to pay a New York City TRAFFIC TICKET on August 22, 2007 (with check #1125). Was it a campaign expense? Or one of the 'usual costs' of holding public office?

---

-- Dan Damon

View today's CLIPS here. Not getting your own CLIPS email daily? Click here to subscribe.

The Assembly: Making your vote count (nearly) double

For the first time in his legislative career, Assemblyman Jerry Green is facing a challenger in the Assembly race.

That challenger is Rick Smiley, 30-year Plainfield resident, former 3-term School Board member and longtime city employee.

Technically, though, Rick is challenging both Jerry Green AND Linda Stender, since Assembly seats are voted on at-large.

Linda, who has annoyed everyone in Plainfield by failing to speak up at all in the whole Muhlenberg Hospital closure saga, must also win in Plainfield to claim her Assembly seat.

And that is where you, dear voter, can actually sort of DOUBLE the value of your vote.

Voting for Rick Smiley ONLY, AND NEITHER FOR JERRY OR LINDA removes one more vote from THEIR totals.

So, you're tired of Jerry's lack of true leadership? You're annoyed at Linda for checking out on Plainfield when she was needed?

Skip them.

And tell your friends to do likewise.

You'll feel empowered!

---

• Harvest Radio: "WKMB - 1070 AM - Homepage" -- You can also listen online.

-- Dan Damon

View today's CLIPS here. Not getting your own CLIPS email daily? Click here to subscribe.

Mayoral Race: It's really between Mapp and Brokaw

So you've concluded Sharon Robinson-Briggs is nothing but a sock-puppet for Jerry Green, and an incompetent one at that.

What do you do next?

There are, after all, four other candidates running besides Sharon and Adrian: Carol Ann Brokaw-Boles, Martin Cox, Bob Ferraro and Tom Turner.

The real contest is between Adrian Mapp and Carol Ann Brokaw-Boles, and I'll tell you why.

Ferraro and Turner are not serious competitors, though it is sad to hear rumors that Jerry bullied Ferraro into running. (Ferraro, who owes his job at the PMUA to Jerry Green, has health issues and is looking forward to retiring with a small pension. Can you imagine Jerry saying, 'Before you go, Bob, one more thing...'?)

Martin Cox, perenially self-promoting, retired from his city job to run for Mayor. While he is old enough and has enough time in for a state pension, Martin is too young to collect Social Security. With a young family, one can wonder how he will make ends meet. Rumor has it that Jerry encouraged Cox to enter the race in the hopes he would peel votes from Mapp, and that he will get a nice not-overly-demanding County job once the primary is in the rear-view mirror. It's an old Hudson County technique, but it works just as well in Union County.

That leaves Mapp and Brokaw.

Brokaw is a talented, well-educated (go Georgetown!) and competent attorney. She is active in her sorority and is civic-minded (she is board chair of Kings Daughters Day School).

But she is tainted.

As chairperson of the PMUA Board of Commissioners, she has presided over a wildly unpopular 20% rate increase -- half of the 'double-whammy' she promised ratepayers at last week's candidate forum. She defends the PMUA practice of piling on 'service fees' that jack up your bills. She has defended the costly junkets on the taxpayers' dime for board members and top executives. And she has not criticized PMUA executive director Eric Watson for saying they will continue.

Further, Watson is shadow directing her campaign, which has disdained making any information available online. You can be sure he would bring his PMUA management style to City Hall were she elected.

Why exchange one sock-puppet for another?

It doesn't need to be.

Adrian Mapp has more experience, an actual plan, and would not put the PMUA in charge of City policy.

Need I say more?

---

-- Dan Damon

View today's CLIPS here. Not getting your own CLIPS email daily? Click here to subscribe.

City Committee: Overlooked key to Jerry's power

Voters in Plainfield's Democratic primary should not fail to voter for their City Committee representatives as these are an OVERLOOKED KEY to Jerry Green's power.

Besides attending to the internal affairs of the local Democratic party, the City Committee nominates replacements when a vacancy occurs in a Democratic City Council seat.

This will happen if Adrian Mapp wins the primary election on June 2.

As a sitting Council member, Mapp would have to resign upon taking office as Mayor on January 1st.

And that is where the City Committee comes in: It has the responsibility of nominating three people to fill the vacant seat until the next general election (at which time the public would elect a replacement for the balance of the term).

The Council then votes on one of the three nominees.

Problem is that in the past Jerry has simply dictated who the nominees will be, with the City Committee playing only Jerry's favorite role -- that of rubberstamping his choices.

The process reached a comedic high point a number of years ago, when Jerry wanted to put Joe Scott on the Council. His nominees? Joe Scott, Joe Scott's wife and his son, Joe Scott Jr. And Jerry's handpicked City Committee rubberstamped the names.

Word in the street is that Jerry has already promised Carol Ann Brokaw-Boles Mapp's seat on the Council as a consolation prize if she loses in the mayoral primary, thus bringing the PMUA management style to the City Council.

But it doesn't have to be that way.

The New Democrats have enlisted 54 candidates to run for seats on the City Committee (for complete list, see here), each of them sworn to give Jerry a migraine if he tries to bully or circumvent the Committee.

But in order for them to work for you and the larger interest of Plainfield's Democrats, they must first be elected.

So on Tuesday, after you vote for Adrian Mapp for Mayor and Rick Smiley for Assembly, continue on down COLUMN F and vote for the male and female representatives for your district.

You'll be glad you did.

---

• "Candidates for Democratic City Committee".

-- Dan Damon

View today's CLIPS here. Not getting your own CLIPS email daily? Click here to subscribe.