Noticias

Frank J. Guarini, Jr., who served as a congressman from a Hudson County district for fourteen years, celebrates his 101st birthday today.

The Jersey City Democrat is the oldest living former congressman from New Jersey, the oldest living former statewide candidate, the oldest living former state senator, and the oldest living member of the U.S. House of Representatives.  No Member of Congress from New Jersey has ever lived this long.

Guarini had spent most of his life around politics.  His father had represented Hudson County in the State Assembly in 1931 and 1932.  A Dartmouth graduate, Guarini was a decorated World War II combat veteran.

A 40-year-old attorney and the chairman of the America Red Cross’ Jersey City Chapter, Guarini decided to run for office in 1965 when reapportionment following the U.S. Supreme Court’s One Man, One Vote ruling increased Hudson County’s presence in the New Jersey State Senate from one seat to three.

Hudson County Democratic Chairman John V. Kenny and other party leaders picked Guarini and William V. Musto, an eleven-term assemblyman and the mayor of Union City, to run for State Senate on a slate with two-term incumbent William F. Kelly (D-Jersey City).  Musto had been an automatic pick, but Guarini edged out Bayonne city attorney James Dugan.

The Democrats won the general election by over 100,000 votes.

During his first term, Democrats controlled the Senate and Guarini became chairman of the newly created Senate Air and Water Pollution and Public Health Committee.

Another round of reapportionment gave Hudson a fourth Senate seat in 1967, Kenny and the Hudson Democrats put Assemblyman Frederick Hauser (D-Hoboken), who had spent eighteen years in the lower house, on the ticket.

The four Democrats easily outdistanced their Republican rivals: Norman Roth, who had come within just 56 votes of winning a seat in Congress in 1956 against Rep. Alfred Sieminski (D-Jersey City); Cresenzi W. Castaldo, who had won 21% in a congressional bid in 1964; Eugene P. Kenny, who won 21% in his 1962 House campaign; and 31-year-old attorney Geoffrey Gaulkin, who later served as the Hudson County Prosecutor and Superior Court Judge.

In his second term, Guarini championed the construction of a new stadium in the Meadowlands and was among the first to meet with New York Giants owner Wellington Mara to pitch New Jersey as a future NFL home.

U.S. Senate Bid

In 1970, Guarini decided to challenge two-term U.S. Senator Harrison A. Williams, Jr. in the Democratic primary.  A decade before the Abscam scandal that ended his career, Williams had been censured by the New Jersey NAACP for showing up drunk at a meeting where he was the main speaker.

In late 1969, Williams had released endorsements from eighteen Democratic county chairmen.  In a bid to prevent a primary fight from Guarini, some party leaders offered him the post of Senate Minority Leader – the incumbent, J. Edward Crabiel (D-Milltown) was willing to give up – but Guarini (and Kenny) refused.

Guarini, who had won two Democratic primaries for State Senate with the support of the Hudson County Democratic organization, made a bid for an open primary.  He essentially sought to end New Jersey’s system of preferential ballot positions for organization-backed candidates more than fifty years ago, but without success.

He did that with the support of Kenny, the Hudson boss who had split from most of the state’s Democratic establishment when he refused to back former Gov. Robert Meyner’s bid for a third term against Rep. William Cahill (R-Collingswood).  Cahill carried Hudson by fifteen percentage points.

Former New Jersey Attorney General Arthur Sills, who was supporting Guarini, attacked Williams for his alcoholism, a move that backfired after the Democratic Senator had acknowledged his drinking problem.

With just the Hudson organization line, Guarini lost to Williams by 90,647 votes, a 66%-34% race.  Guarini carried only Hudson County – he scored a 16,194-vote plurality (62%-38%) – and Williams won everywhere else.

After the primary, Guarini refocused on local issues.  He proposed the construction of a freeway that would have connected Tonnelle Avenue in North Bergen to Route 80, sponsored legislation to change the legal voting age in New Jersey from 21 to 18, attempted to legalize Jai Alai, and tried to persuade the San Francisco Giants to New Jersey to move to New Jersey and play in a new baseball stadium he wanted built in the Meadowlands.

The lifelong bachelor was the only senator to vote against a bill to make it easier for New Jerseyans to get a divorce.

But in 1971, Guarini decided to eschew a bid for re-election to the State Senate.  That happened when reapportionment reduced Hudson’s Senate delegation from four to three, and Guarini became a redistricting casualty.

Hudson County lost a congressional seat in 1972, when a new district was created in Morris, Warren, Sussex and Hunterdon counties. Rep. Cornelius Gallagher (D-Bayonne), had been expected to keep the Hudson seat – party leaders were going to tell Rep. Dominick Daniels (D-Jersey City), who was 20 years older than Gallagher, to retire. Gallagher was indicted on tax evasion charges and the accusations against him came at a considerable cost.

The Hudson County Democratic Organization was in deep trouble.  Kenny had gone to prison and reformer Paul Jordan was elected Mayor of Jersey City in 1971.  Guarini was a fierce critic of Jordan.

For a short time, there was talk of dropping Daniels and Gallagher with Guarini becoming the compromise machine candidate against Jordan’s candidate, West New York Mayor Anthony DeFino.  But they decided to stick with Daniels, who won the primary by a 51%-32% margin against DeFino.  Gallagher came in third with just 15% of the vote, with 2% going to former Congressman Vincent Dellay, who had won the other Hudson House seat in 1956 as a Republican and later switched parties.

Guarini also explored taking on three-term Republican U.S. Senator Clifford Case in 1972, but party leaders settled on former Rep. Paul Krebs (D-Livingston) for a nomination not worth fighting for.

In late 1972, a list of potential gubernatorial candidates drawn up by Democratic State Chairman Salvatore Bontempo to take on Cahill the following year included Guarini, but he never made any moves to run.

Guarini supported State Sen. Ralph DeRose (D-South Orange) for governor in 1973.  He signed on to help DeRose after the Hudson County Democratic Chairman, Francis Fitzpatrick, agreed to give the organization line to Superior Court Judge Brendan Byrne.

When Daniels retired in 1976, Hudson leaders agreed to give the seat to Assembly Speaker Joseph LeFante (D-Bayonne).   Guarini sharply criticized the move to leave Jersey City without a congressman.

Return to public office

Guarini backed Thomas F.X. Smith,  the city clerk, in the 1977 Jersey City mayoral election against Jordan’s handpicked successor, Bill Macchi.

Smith won by a 54%-26% margin.  The seismic shift in Jersey City politics in May caused Jordan to withdraw as a candidate for governor and led to the defeat of several incumbents in the June primary for State Senate and Assembly.

With support from Smith and Musto – and later from Bayonne Mayor Dennis Collins – Guarini was elected Hudson County Democratic Chairman, succeeding a Jordan ally, Bernard Hartnett.

In late 1977, Guarini began seeking party support to challenge Case in the 1978 U.S. Senate race.  He joined a field that included former New York Knicks star Bill Bradley, State Treasurer Richard Leone, Rep. Andrew Maguire (D-Ridgewood), and former State Sen. Alexander Menza (D-Hillside).

Smith had indicated that he would support Guarini if he ran, but he was also feeling pressure from Byrne, who wanted the Hudson line to go to Leone.   Guarini announced he would not run and suddenly became a leading candidate to serve as chairman of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority,  then a hugely powerful post.

But instead, Guarini decided that the Hudson congressional seat should return to Jersey City and that LeFante would be a one-term congressman.

After LeFante left Congress, Byrne put him in his cabinet as Commissioner of Community Affairs.

Guarini won 82% of the vote in the Democratic House primary against two minor candidates, and 64% in the general election against Republican Henry Hill, a Kearny councilman.

As a freshman congressman, Guarini was assigned to the powerful House Ways and Means Committee.  He also served on the House Budget Committee.

During his fourteen years in Congress, Guarini became one of the House’s experts on international trade issues.  He was part of the first U.S. trade mission to China, served as a delegate to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and sponsored the Caribbean Basin Initiative that created increased trade with Caribbean and Latin American nations.

Guarini played a major role in revising the Internal Revenue Code in 1986 and led efforts to modernize trade and tariff laws.

He also led the fight against the proposed Westway project in Manhattan, which sought to construct an above-water roadway adjacent to the West Side Highway.  Guarini’s success helped protect New Jersey’s view of the New York skyline, something that helped pave the way for redevelopment in places like Jersey City and Hoboken.

In 1986, he defeated Albio Sires, then a West New York gadfly running as a Republican, with 71% of the vote.  Sires is retiring this year after fourteen years in Congress as a Democrat.

Congressional redistricting in 1992 redrew Guarini’s district to include a substantial number of Hispanic voters in North Hudson that had previously been in a Bergen County-based district – and the addition of parts of Newark, Linden, Elizabeth, Woodbridge and Perth Amboy — Guarini declined to run for re-election rather than face a primary against State Sen. Bob Menendez (D-Union City).   Menendez had been eyeing a run for Congress.

After leaving Congress, Guarini continued to practice law and became a highly successful real estate developer.

President Bill Clinton appointed him as U.S. Representative to the General Assembly of the United Nations, a post that carried the rank of Ambassador.

Guarini spearheaded a lawsuit against New York that led to the U.S. Supreme Court returning 90% of Ellis Island to New Jersey.

Jersey City’s main post office is the Congressman Frank Guarini Post Office, and other buildings bear his name: a library a New Jersey City University; the business school, Institute for Government and Leadership, and the college president’s residence at St. Peter’s University; John Cabot University’s Rome campus; and the Hudson County justice complex.

The post Happy 101st Birthday, Congressman Frank Guarini appeared first on New Jersey Globe.

Nearly a year ago to the day, in a Teaneck lodge full of Republican voters, Jack Ciattarelli was working to undo GOP distrust of elections. Now, as Ciattarelli seeks the governorship, President Donald Trump has hinted at reopening those wounds with a declaration of war on mail-in voting, a major voting method in New Jersey.

The August 2024 meet-and-greet highlighted Senate candidate Curtis Bashaw and congressional candidate Mary Jo Guinchard, but Ciattarelli, the evening’s host, spent several minutes defending the legitimacy of the electoral process. Even while investigations and rulings across the country found Trump had no evidence to back his claims that Joe Biden’s 2020 victory was fraudulent, a main concern among Republicans in the room was election security, including mail-in voting.

Ciattarelli’s support for vote-by-mail isn’t boundless — he’s said he wants to strengthen identity confirmation policies and make other adjustments to the law — but he encouraged attendees that day to track their ballot’s status using the state’s online tool and reiterated that no systemic fraud has been discovered in the electoral system. More than anything else, he told the Republicans in the room not to let fears of a broken system get in the way of registering their vote.

“What I always say when we get to this kind of discussion is, let’s not — particularly as Republicans — psych ourselves out,” Ciattarelli said at the town hall. “Okay, let’s not go into thinking that they’ve got us already beat, right?”

That sentiment was national — Republican strategists spent millions of dollars last year turning out low-frequency mail voters. The efforts helped lead to “almost universal gains” for Republicans in vote-by-mail, according to the New York Times. Trump, of course, re-ascended to the Oval Office with the GOP’s first popular vote victory since 2004.

Ciattarelli is once again his party’s nominee for governor, looking to embrace any edge that could push him across the finish line in November. But Trump’s disavowal of mail voting threatens to sow further distrust in elections among Republicans just months before Election Day in Jersey.

Trump, who never fully discarded his distaste for mail-in voting and said throughout the 2024 campaign that he supports single-day voting, escalated his attacks against the voting method in a Monday social media post. In his post, he said he will lead a movement to end mail-in voting and that he would sign an executive order to bring “honesty” to the 2026 midterms. Without the text of the order, which he said is still being written, it’s unclear whether it could attempt to affect this November’s elections in the Garden State.

“Elections can never be honest with mail in ballots/voting, and everybody, in particular the Democrats, knows this,” the president claimed in his post.

Legal experts have said Congress, not the president, controls election policy. They’ve said such an executive order, which Trump said could bar voting machines he claims are inaccurate, would likely face legal challenges, which would take time to sort out in court.

A spokesperson from the governor’s office told the New Jersey Globe on Tuesday that mail-in voting in the state is secure and effective.

“For decades, mail-in ballots have been a reliable voting method that has made it more convenient for eligible New Jersey voters of all parties to participate in the democratic process,” said Murphy spokesperson Toral Patel. “We have no plans to change our approach for the upcoming election.”

About 800,000 New Jerseyans voted by mail in the 2024 general election, or about 19% of all votes cast. Nearly 600,000 New Jerseyans cast their vote via mail in the 2021 gubernatorial election, accounting for 22.5% of votes.

In a statement to the New Jersey Globe, Ciattarelli campaign manager Eric Arpert said the campaign is working with New Jersey’s Republican Party and the Republican National Committee to ensure this year’s election is “marked by integrity.”

“As Governor, Jack will fight to enact new election integrity laws that include common sense Voter ID requirements — which are supported by the vast majority of voters — to ensure NJ elections are as fair and secure as possible,” Arpert said. “Jack wants all NJ voters who already plan to cast their ballots by mail this year to be fully confident they can do so.”

On his website, Ciattarelli says he hopes to remodel New Jersey’s vote-by-mail laws after Florida’s. The Sunshine State requires ballots to be received by 8 p.m. on Election Day to be counted. Ciattarelli has also said he would sign legislation creating a voter fraud task force to investigate and prosecute incidents of voter fraud in the state.

Democrats are more likely to utilize mail voting, while Republicans are more likely to vote in-person on Election Day. In 2024, Democrats returned about 460,000 mail-in ballots, compared to 160,000 for Republicans. Though it’s thinned in recent years, Democrats have a built-in voter registration advantage, and Republicans cannot afford the gap to widen. Early, in-person voting is closer to even, with about 420,000 Democrats and 400,000 Republicans participating in 2024.

Ciattarelli hasn’t embraced the baseless allegations of election fraud that have become a Trump calling card. In 2021, after his 3-point loss to Murphy in that year’s race for governor, Ciattarelli brushed aside conspiracy theories about the election and insisted the results were fair and accurate. 

At an event promoting Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-Montclair) and bashing Ciattarelli, the Democratic nominee for governor, Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing) called Trump’s derision of vote-by-mail a distraction from issues like the dissolution of USAID. 

“Republicans believe that they can’t win an election if there’s not a rigging that takes place,” she said. “And so when we listen to his rhetoric, we must recognize that this is all about the suppression of the vote and not the opportunity for everyone to vote.”

Trump’s campaign and administration have challenged New Jersey’s election laws before. In 2020, a federal judge ruled against the Trump campaign’s legal challenge of a Murphy executive order that sent mail ballots to all registered voters in the state, a COVID-era action. Earlier this year, acting U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Alina Habba established an elections integrity task force that would seek to enforce Trump’s executive orders on the matter. Trump has pushed states to reject mail-in votes received after Election Day; New Jersey allows counting up to six days later, as long as they were postmarked by Election Day.

The post As Trump attacks mail voting, Ciattarelli says the system can be trusted appeared first on New Jersey Globe.

When Rep. Rob Menendez (D-Jersey City) and two of his colleagues paid an unannounced visit to Newark’s Delaney Hall immigrant detention center in May, a scuffle broke out that resulted in national headlines and still-pending assault charges against Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-Newark). Not too long afterwards, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) began implementing new protocols regarding congressional oversight at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities, including a seven-day advance notice requirement for oversight visits.

That policy, Menendez and 22 of his colleagues in the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (including caucus chairman Adriano Espaillat) wrote in a letter to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem today, is unlawful and needs to be revoked at once.

“It is imperative that Members conduct timely oversight to determine whether public funds are being spent as mandated by Congress and ensure the safety and wellbeing of individuals who are detained by the government,” the letter states. “We urge you to immediately come into compliance with federal law by ceasing all efforts from DHS or contractors to prevent Members of Congress from conducting timely oversight of ICE detention facilities.”

Under federal law, members of Congress are given explicit authority to conduct oversight visits to ICE facilities without prior notice; members of their staff can also do so with 24 hours notice. Since the beginning of the Trump administration, Democratic members of Congress have used that policy to its full effect, conducting repeated visits at detention facilities around the country – especially ones operated by private companies – with the stated goal of ensuring those detained are being provided with clean and safe conditions.

In New Jersey, Menendez, McIver, and Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing) – all of whom represent districts with large immigrant populations – have made several oversight visits in conjunction with one another. The trio visited the Elizabeth Detention Center in February with little incident, and followed that up with a visit to Delaney Hall on May 9, shortly after the privately operated facility reopened.

The latter visit, however, descended into chaos after federal authorities arrested Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, who had also attempted to join the visit but was turned away, prompting a brief fight that ultimately led to charges against McIver.

DHS and Trump administration officials alleged in the aftermath of the fracas that McIver and her colleagues had “stormed” and “broke[n] into” the facility, a claim the three representatives strongly denied and that is not supported by video and photo evidence. Noem later said in a House committee hearing that “had [McIver, Menendez, and Watson Coleman] requested a tour, we certainly would have facilitated a tour.”

A month later, Noem’s department worked to turn that suggestion into a requirement, implementing a new 72-hour notice period for oversight visits, later upgraded to seven days. DHS also gave itself the right to cancel or reschedule a visit for a variety of reasons, including vague situations where “identified operational concerns exist” or “facility management or other ICE officials deem it appropriate to do so.”

The policy drew outrage from Democratic lawmakers, who said the Trump administration was impeding on their lawfully mandated rights and allowing detention facilities to escape true oversight.

“I’ve been in a lot of correctional facilities in my life, and if you have to give seven days’ notice, they clean up pretty good,” Colorado Rep. Diana DeGette told Colorado Newsline after a visit to a detention center in Aurora last week. “We were told that the people in there were told to clean up and to spiff up and to make things look good. I’d like to see what happens normally in that facility.”

After Colorado Rep. Jason Crow was denied entry to the same Aurora facility in July, he and 11 other Democratic House members filed a lawsuit arguing that DHS’s policies are unlawful. Though he’s not part of that suit, Menendez echoed its arguments today, saying that the policies are an illegal attempt to “shield the Trump administration and private prison contractors from accountability.”

“Our duty under law is clear: we have a right to conduct oversight at ICE detention centers, and any effort to block that right is illegal,” Menendez said in a statement. “As long as ICE continues to target our communities, we will not back down.”

The post Menendez demands DHS rescind advance-notice policy for detention center visits appeared first on New Jersey Globe.

James Solomon has picked up a potentially key endorsement in his bid for mayor of Jersey City: Katie Brennan, a Jersey City activist who won a stunning victory in the Democratic primary for State Assembly in June against candidates backed by the Hudson County Democratic Organization and another slate supported by Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop.

The move is not a surprise since Solomon, a city councilman who represents the burgeoning downtown area, backed Brennan in her bid for the legislature.

“People want elected officials who will work for them instead of corporate donors, and James has the values, judgment, and track record to be that kind of mayor,” Brennan stated. “He’s the one you go to if you need something done. From stop signs to the payroll tax on big businesses to fund our schools, he’s responsive to issues in our community, and he’s always fighting to make Jersey City affordable for everyone.”

Brennan is a sure bet to win the general election in the 32nd legislative district, which includes Hoboken and part of Jersey City, against Republicans Stephen Bishop and Kaushal Patel.  The district went for Kamala Harris by 43 points in 2024 and for Phil Murphy by 54 points in 2021.

In the Democratic primary, Brennan leveraged her own grassroots support to lead the six-candidate field with 7,319 votes; that put her 307 votes ahead of her ally in the contest, Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla.  Bhalla finished 179 votes in front of incumbent Jessica Ramirez (D-Jersey City), who ran with Fulop.  Hoboken Library Director Jenny Pu and Jersey City employee Crystal Fonseca, the organization-backed candidates, finished fourth and sixth, respectively; Jersey City Councilman Yousef Saleh, who ran with Ramirez, came in fifth.

In the November non-partisan mayoral race to succeed Fulop, Solomon faces former Gov. James E. McGreevey, Hudson County Commissioner Bill O’Dea, former Board of Education President Mussab Ali, and City Council President Joyce Watterman.

“People are ready for change,” Brennan said. “The old way of doing politics in New Jersey is on the way out, and we’re building something better.”

Solomon praised Brennan, saying her “dedication to our community and her remarkable victory against the Hudson County machine in the primary reflect her commitment to making Jersey City a better and more inclusive place for all residents.”

“Together, we’re going to take on the housing affordability crisis, improve our schools, and make Jersey City a better place for everyone,” he said.

The post Katie Brennan backs Solomon for Jersey City mayor appeared first on New Jersey Globe.