Local Political Update

For several years there has been an ongoing tug of war in Englewood between advocates of responsible local government and their opponents allied with Bergen County political boss Joseph Ferriero.

This contest has now acquired a new dimension since Mayor Michael Wildes, a one-time thorn in Ferriero's side, joined the boss’s team. Having strengthened his hold on the County, Ferriero is more determined than ever to crush his remaining opposition.  Local activists narrowly defeated controversial changes to Party rules that would place every municipal election under Ferriero control.

A Power Shift

Until a year ago, the Ferriero faction, including Jack Drakeford, Vernon Walton and Doug Bern, formed the controlling majority of Englewood's City Council. 

With the replacement of Bern by Ken Rosenzweig in January of 2006, the control changed.   And following the replacement of Walton by Gordon Johnson in January of 2007, Jack Drakeford remains the sole Ferriero ally on the Council.

This power shift has been accomplished in successive June Democratic Primaries.  Since there is no effective Republican Party in Englewood, the November General Election is normally irrelevant locally (the recent Independent challenge to Mayor Wildes being an exception).  The June Primary Election each year, generally ignored by most of the voting public, has thus become the main political battleground.  It is reasonable to expect that June of this year will see one, or perhaps two, more hotly contested primary contests, as  Charlotte Bennett Schoen’s Second Ward seat and Jack Drakeford’s Fourth Ward seat, will be on the ballot.

2007 Primaries

Englewood is part of the 37th New Jersey State Legislative District, including twelve largely Democratic towns, and we will also be voting in June for a State Senator and two State Assembly members to represent us in Trenton. Incumbents Senator Loretta Weinberg of Teaneck, and Assembly members Valerie Vainieri Huttle and Gordon Johnson of Englewood, have rejected Ferriero’s backing and expect to face opposition from his hand-picked candidates, including Wildes.

Violet Cherry

Another aspect of this power contest has been the long and fruitless action against Violet Cherry, who until recently had been both Director of the Englewood Department of Health and Chair of the Englewood Democratic Municipal Committee. Under Cherry's leadership, the Englewood Municipal Committee warred continually with Ferriero and his County organization.  When the opportunity arose, Ferriero’s Council allies appointed persons to the Board of Health who prioritized punishing the Boss's Englewood critics.  After considerable turmoil and over a quarter of a million dollars in taxpayer expense, the Board of Health failed to exact any penalty, leading the Bergen Record to conclude that the case against Cherry was weak or incompetently (though expensively) presented. 

It is our opinion that the punishment to the innocent party -- the taxpayers -- did not match the offense. It is bad enough that the shameless pay-to-play machine raids the public treasury to reward friends with patronage jobs and contracts. It is even more outrageous to have agents of the machine hypocritically raid our treasury to engage pay-to-play lawyers like Wilfredo Ortiz and John Carbone to attack an opponent for doing a pale imitation of what the machine practices as a virtue.