The Big Show--Election night analysis

Well friends, the Cult of Personality has won and won big. Steve Fulop won by almost a 4-1 margin. Four more years of abatements for anyone who asks (More on the council later), sending thugs around to do his bidding and let department workers know what he expects on contracts and what not and another four years of swaths of Jersey City being ignored or given lip service like happened to Journal Square for over 30 years. Worst though is the finances that look great right now but aren't before too much longer. A lot of those first abatements to get people to buy downtown again are coming due and sadly because of the lack of city planning back then they'll come due at the same time a lot of them. More come off after that. That's when taxes go up and there's still never enough money to fix problems or invest in Greenville and other areas that are overlooked. Accounting tricks are great but there's always that moment of clarity where you realize how the trick works.

Do you really think the city can take close to $100 million off the city tax rolls downtown alone, hire more public servants, give the ones we have needed raises, pay rising insurance costs, not raise taxes for two years and not have a ticking bomb somewhere? Incidentally part of this time Mayor Fulop was looking at the governor's race and this year for mayor and optics mean you can't raise taxes. Not what's best for Jersey City in the long run, it's what's best for Steve Fulop short term. FYI if you're upset by Johnny pointing this out and want to bring up all the new buildings opening, yes, Mayor Healy can be proud of the ones opening now, these aren't Fulop buildings, these are the ones he railed against as councilman. Johnny's guess? This term starts out with Fulop once again forgetting who elected him as he eyes a bigger office, maybe Bob Menendez's job or a congressional run. He's done this very thing before when he sees something shiny. No reason to think that won't be repeated.

The council races went largely as expected. Incumbents and Fulop rubber stamps Rolando R. Lavarro Jr., Joyce E. Watterman and Daniel Rivera all won their At-Large seats quite comfortably. Great. Feel all that energy? Lavarro, who never met someone else's money he couldn't spend, will be trying to increase his visibility as he should be announcing he's running to replace Fulop in the next election by Friday.

In Ward A to replace the 'Gone fishing 4 years ago' Frank Gajewski, Denise Ridley and Joseph Conte will face each other in a runoff with Ridley's campaign running strong.

Ward B had maybe the biggest 'surprise' last night with new seat holder but incumbent Chris Gadsden, who has been a fantastic addition to council flush with new workable and smart ideas on school funding will face Mira Prinz-Arey, who outpolled Gadsden last night.

Despite one of the worst answers to a question about his independence from Steve Fulop, John Hanussak got enough votes to win a runoff in Ward C with incumbent and Fulop burr under the saddle Richard Boggiano. Our guess is Boggiano holds this seat at first glance but he's only ever one grumpy moment away from perhaps not.

Michael Yun will continue to serve Ward D with honor and distinction and continue to drive Fulop spokesperson Jennifer Morrill batshit.

Ward E (and you may be hearing more on this race in the upcoming days--maybe) brings the fourth runoff between top vote getter Rebecca Symes and James Solomon. Big question here is can Solomon coalesce the Hudnut and Grillo vote into enough support to win.

 Ward F also returns a good councilman, Jermaine Robinson who was never really headed in his race.

There you have it friends, election night in Jersey City 2017, a good night for team Fulop in November that could still go wrong on a night in December.

See Spot Rescued just got some money

That's right, after the Jersey City Council's gutless and inexcusable to allow puppy mills continued access to Jersey City pet stores Johnny decided something positive needed to come from their dimwittedness. This morning, Johnny made a donation in EVERY City Council member's name to See Spot Rescued, the not puppy mill place (Of course you could use Liberty Humane Society as well, they're super good).

Maybe it has to come to that here in JC, other people making donations for your officials' poor decisions. Get ready to dig deep citizens.

Come on down to Crazy Johnny's Runoff-o-Rama in beautiful Jersey City

We've got more runoffs than the Raritan River in a storm. All the Wards in Jersey City, sans Ward E where Candice Osborne got power up and got the 50% +1 are gonna have runoffs on June 11th. Johnny was well off of his prediction of three. Some of those Healy candidates are hanging tough but hanging on as well.

The Hudson Reporter has more on the City Council runoff numbers and candidates who will be participating:

According to preliminary numbers from the Office of the City Clerk, in Ward A, former Superintendent of Schools Charles Epps Jr., who ran with Healy, won 43.48 percent of the vote and will face Frank Gajewski in a runoff. Gajewski received 37.76 percent of the vote.

In Ward B, Khemraj “Chico” Ramchal, who ran with Fulop, won 37.76 percent of the vote, will face Gerald Meyers in a runoff. Meyers, a Healy candidate, received 33.94 percent of the vote.

Independent candidate Richard Boggiano edged out Ward C City Councilwoman Nidia Lopez, receiving 36.30 percent of the vote to Lopez’s 31.67 percent.

Another independent candidate, Jersey City Heights businessman Michael Yun, received 42.96 percent of the vote in Ward D over popular Assemblyman Sean Connors, who ran with Fulop. Connors received 34.44 percent of the vote.

City Councilwoman Diane Coleman, received 42.72 percent of the vote in Ward F to Jermaine Robinson’s 41.66 percent. Coleman ran with Fulop, Robinson with Healy.

Johnny is really interested to see if Nidia Lopez, who was on Healy's ticket in 2009 and jumped to Fulop's ticket this year, can pull this out with Fulop furiously campaigning for her over the next month. The way we see it Healy's ticket has three firewalls from keeping Fulop from getting a clean sweep, Charles Epps Jr. in Ward A, Lopez in Ward C and Jermaine Robinson in Ward F.

Steve Fulop has been elected mayor of Jersey City!

And what an early call. Well, the call itself was from outgoing Mayor Healy to incoming Mayor Fulop conceding the race. Fulop's candidate in Ward E, Candice Osborne has also won her race defeating Dan Levin and Fletcher Gensamer. The other races may be headed to a runoff which would be well over the three number Johnny set earlier. More updates as they come in or you can just click here for the Hudson County tally.

As of 9:20pm:

COUNCIL AT-LARGE
(Top three vote-getters elected)

*Peter Brennan -- 5,392
*Viola S. Richardson -- 5,788
Omar Perez -- 5,158
Ramon "Ray" Regalado -- 1,840
Sean M. Connelly -- 2,151
Joyce E. Waterman -- 7,576
Daniel Rivera -- 7,464
*Rolando R. Lavarro Jr.-- 7,398

WARD A
Francis "Frank" Gajewski -- 290
Charles T. Epps Jr. -- 443
Ricky "Rick" Johnson -- 111
Jayson H. Burg -- 18
Lori Hennessey -- 61

WARD B
Chris L. Gadsen -- 377
Khemraj "Chico" Ramchal -- 1,244
Gerald Meyers -- 1,141
Esther Wintner -- 570

WARD C
Adela Rohena -- 210
Janet Chevres -- 678
Richard Boggiano -- 1,000
*Nidia R. Lopez -- 872

WARD D
Mario Gonzalez Jr. -- 708
Sean Connors -- 1,344
Michael Yun -- 1,783
Grace Giron -- 196

WARD E
Fletcher Gensamer -- 224
Daniel B. Levin -- 719
Candice Osborne -- 1,680

WARD F
Jermaine Robinson -- 1,113
Kenny Reyes -- 190
Chantel D. Snow -- 200
*Diane Coleman -- 1,229
Deborah King -- 71

* -- incumbent.

Oh, were you waiting for a story or something?

Sorry, it's a UEFA Champions League match day which gets Johnny all caught up in other matters.

Mayor Healy has filled out his ticket for the May elections, tapping the owner of the Light Rail Café, Jermaine Robinson. Robinson said he wanted to give back locally:

“While some local leaders might care more about Wall Street, I understand first-hand the struggles of my fellow small-business owners and will always have their back.”

Wall Street? Aren't Goldman Sachs and few other heavy hitters from Wall Street located in Jersey City in some capacity, the area you want to give back to? Jermaine we know you meant the Fulop fellow but leave the slagging of the financial houses to local sandpaper like Johnny, or you might just wind up representing the people you just said you cared a little less about.

Robinson's candidacy brought out a response from Fulop's candidate for Ward F Diane Coleman, the kind of steely response one can only get from political-speak-in-a-press-release:

"While I haven't seen this gentleman anywhere in the Ward F community or even heard of him in my 13 years of service, I know Steven Fulop, a former Marine, is fighting for my neighborhood everyday."

Except Diane, Mr. Robinson isn't running against Councilman Fulop, you are. Are you a former Marine out fighting for our neighborhood everyday? Certainly 13 years of service mean you could point out your own accomplishments. That'd be better in our opinion.

As we mentioned this rounds out the Healy ticket which also includes at-large candidates Councilman Peter Brennan, Councilwoman Viola Richardson and former mayoral aide Omar Perez; former schools superintendent Charles T. Epps. Jr. in Ward A; county worker Jerry Meyers in Ward B; business analyst Janet Chevres in Ward C; the Rev. Mario Gonzales in Ward D; and activist Dan Levin in Ward E; and Jerry Mathers, as The Beaver.