Former Asbury Park Mayor Considering Gubernatorial Run

Ed Johnson photo via facebook

Former Asbury Park Mayor Ed Johnson is “seriously thinking about” running for governor in 2017, according to a report on PolitickerNJ.

“I know a little about raising cities from the dead, and I know about staring down Hurricane Sandy,” said Johnson, who runs his own private consulting firm. “There are no greater troubled waters than our state right now. Whether it’s Democratic or Republican it just keeps going.Everything I’ve done, people said ‘you can’t do that,’ and we did it. People now say the state is too far gone, too broken, it can’t be fixed. I think it can be. I’m not saying I’ve made a final decision. It would be a wildcat, barn-burner election, no question, but the people must regain control of this state.”

Johnson stared down Hurricane Sandy by hosting New Jersey Democratic leaders at a pre-election rally on October 28, 2012.    Senator Bob Menendez, Cory Booker, then mayor of Newark, former Governor Dick Codey, Congressman Frank Pallone and state Senator Barbara Buono joined Johnson and Monmouth Democratic Chairman Vin Gopal in a rally for Menendez and President Obama while the rest of New Jersey was preparing for the worst and  praying to be spared by the troubled waters of Sandy.

Read the rest of this entry »

• Tweet

Does Pallone have the fortitude to run for U.S. Senate?

Now that Newark Mayor Cory Booker has taken himself out the the gubernatorial race, everyone expects him to run for Frank Lautenberg’s U. S. Senate seat in 2014.    A recent poll indicated that Booker would easily beat Lautenberg in a Democratic primary should the 88 year old senator make another run.

That hasn’t stopped Congressman Frank Pallone from calling Democratic County Chairs to remind them that he is still interested in the Senate seat he has long coveted but never had the guts to fight for.

Pallone best shot at becoming a Senator came and went in 2002 when he declined Governor Jim McGreevey’s offer to replace the disgraced Senator Robert Torricelli on the ballot against Doug Forrester.   McGreevey brought Frank Lautenberg out of retirement and got the State Supreme Court to rewrite New Jersey’s election law so the switch could be made after the statutory deadline.  The polls showing Forrester beating Toricelli scared Pallone off from giving up a easy victory in CD-6 in favor of his dream job in the Senate.

Lautenberg went on to clobber Forrester in 2002 and was elected again in 2008. 

Pallone was passed over for the Senate in 2006 when Governor Jon Corzine chose Bob Menendez to replace him in the Senate.  Menendez won his own term that November and was reelected last month.  He is on the verge of becoming the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Pallone clearly wants to be a Senator, but his history indicates that he doesn’t have the fortitude to risk his cushy lifestyle as a congressman in order to fight for his dream.  I hope he grows a pair and goes for it, because the race to replace him in the 6th Congressional District would be great for blog traffic.

WHO WOULD RUN FOR PALLONE’S CD-6 SEAT IF IT WAS VACANT? 

Read the rest of this entry »

• Tweet

Asbury Park Mayor Ed Johnson will not seek a new term

Asbury Park Mayor Ed Johnson announced that he will not seek a second four year term next May, according to the Asbury Park Sun.

In a letter posted on his website, Johnson thanked Asbury Park residents for the opportunity of serving for the last 13 years as city’s Urban Enterprise Zone, councilman and mayor.

Asbury Park elects all five members of its governing body every four years in non-partisan elections that take place in May.  The city has a referendum to study a change in its form of government on the ballot this November.

• Tweet