>Kelly: Bergen County’s boss still rulesSunday, January 20, 2008
Last Updated Saturday January 26, 2008, EST 9:05 AMMike KellyIMAGINE this scenario. Instead of holding a series of primaries in New Jersey and other states to select a presidential nominee, a cadre of Democratic big shots gathers in a Washington tavern to make the choice.
Imagine the howls of criticism from rank-and-file Democrats who have labored for years to open up their party to new candidates and the voices of ordinary voters in primary elections.
Well, where are those voices of Bergen County’s Democrats now?
Big Joe Ferriero, the Bergen Democratic boss, announced this week that he had selected the party’s nominee to fill a vacant seat for county freeholder. Yes, the boss made his choice – and that’s the way it will be.
Is this New Jersey, 2008? Or is it the New Jersey of another political boss who failed to understand basic democratic principles, Frank Hague?
More to the point: Is Ferriero listening to the rest of the nation, not to mention his own national Democratic Party right now?
When it comes to the basics of local politics, Ferriero – and his gang of mini-me politicians who control Bergen’s Democratic Party – clearly do not understand the trend away from bossism in national politics. That trend is all about openness. And it’s a major reason why new voices have appeared on the national political scene.
Certainly, it was a key reason why Jesse Jackson, an African-American, mounted a credible presidential primary campaign in the 1980s and why Joe Lieberman, an Orthodox Jew, emerged on the national scene in 2000. Indeed, it’s probably a good reason why Barack Obama, with his mixed racial heritage, is a major contender now. It may even be a reason why Hillary Clinton, a woman, could be the party’s eventual nominee.
If you want to run for president now, all you have to do is sign up, build a campaign organization and let the voters decide your fate in a series of primaries. The old way of party bosses controlling campaign finances and then selecting the nominee, or trading favors for delegates’ votes at nominating conventions, is gone – gone from the national scene, anyway.
Here, in Bergen County, the old way is alive and well and controlled by Big Joe Ferriero. And here, sadly, is more evidence of how it works:
Last week, Ferriero said he would endorse Englewood’s Vernon Walton to fill a vacant seat on the Bergen County Board of Freeholders.
Walton may be a decent man – that’s really not the point. The problem is how he is being selected to run for the freeholder’s seat.
Ferriero’s endorsement makes him a virtual lock to gain the party’s nomination. What’s more, Walton achieved this status without campaigning throughout Bergen County and telling voters why he is qualified. All he had to do was please one man – Big Joe Ferriero.
Ferriero’s pals are already touting the fact that Walton is an African-American and that his election as the first black freeholder would be historic in Bergen County.
How ironic. Ferriero, the epitome of closed-door politics, is trying to portray himself as an inclusive liberal who invites blacks into his circle. Don’t believe it.
Walton, who is also a Baptist minister, was a Ferriero ally when he was an Englewood councilman. And that alliance cost Walton his councilman’s job. He was defeated in 2006 by another African-American, Gordon Johnson, who just happens to also be a state assemblyman and an opponent of Ferriero’s boss-like rule of county Democrats.
Under his thumb
Technically, Walton has to be nominated by the 1,100 members of the Bergen County Democratic Committee, the local version of a national Democratic convention. But the committee is under the political thumb of – you guessed it – Big Joe Ferriero.
Almost every member is either a local politician elected with Ferriero’s support and money, or holds a government job that Ferriero helped him or her get. Some delegates have both – an elected position on a town council and a patronage job in Bergen County government. If they want to hold onto those elected positions or jobs, delegates have to follow Ferriero’s instructions when they vote for party nominees.
So Vernon Walton, without even becoming a household name across Bergen County, has achieved an esteemed political status. He’s a shoo-in.
And because Bergen’s Republican Party is the political equivalent of the Miami Dolphins, Walton will probably get elected as a freeholder.
Isn’t democracy wonderful?
Hillary Clinton is scheduled to hold a campaign rally soon in Bergen County. Surely Joe Ferriero will be there – he’s endorsing her.
But wouldn’t it be wonderful if Clinton pulled Ferriero aside and asked why the county’s party doesn’t seem to stand for anything other than gaining power – or why Ferriero refuses to listen to reformers?
And wouldn’t it be wonderful if some brave Democrat waved a placard at the rally with this message: “Bring democracy to Bergen’s Democrats”?
And, finally, wouldn’t it be wonderful if all 1,100 Bergen County Democratic Committee members told Joe Ferriero they are not interested in his personal endorsement for freeholder?
They want to hear from a field of candidates and then vote.
It’s called democracy.
Do Bergen County’s Democrats get the concept?
Mike Kelly is a Record columnist. Contact him at [email protected]. Send comments about this column to The Record at [email protected].
