New Dems - PolitickerNJ - Mapp opens headquarters

Published on PolitickerNJ Monday, April 19,2009

April 19, 2009 - 3:43pm

In campaign HQ opener, Mapp appeals to 4th Ward,
emphasizes tough background

By Max Pizarro, PolitickerNJ.com Reporter

PLAINFIELD – Running as the New Democrat successor of the late Mayor Al McWilliams, 3rd Ward Councilman Adrian Mapp opened his campaign headquarters on Watchung Avenue Saturday and promised to end what he described as “a dictatorial form of government” in Union County’s Queen City, and to fairly represent all four wards.

“I will create an economic development plan that is not developer-driven, and develop an aggressive marketing plan to enhance Plainfield’s image,” said Mapp, standing at a podium in front of an American Flag hung from the ceiling. “With a transit village tax credit, the train station can be our linch pin for revitalization. I would also like to undertake a study of all brownfield structures and create retail store ratables where possible.”

A large concentration of those old structures stands in the 4th Ward, the city’s longtime poorest residential district and the epicenter of the 1967 Plainfield riots. When she first won election nearly four years ago with the establishment backing of Assemblyman Jerry Green (D-Plainfield) , Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs defeated then-incumbent Mayor Al McWilliams in the 4th, 868 to 698 votes.

As a candidate on the New Democrats’ ticket with Mapp last year, McWilliams’ daughter, At-Large Councilwoman Annie McWilliams, came back and crushed Robinson-Briggs ally Councilman Harold Gibson. But while she beat him decisively in the 4th Ward, (233 to 151 votes), voter turnout remained low there compared to Plainfield’s other three wards. In the more affluent, New Democrat-controlled 2nd Ward, where McWilliams lives, she buried Gibson, 738 to 270.

On Saturday, Mapp made a special appeal to the 4th.

“We cannot leave anybody behind,” said the former freeholder, a native of Barbados who along with his wife raised two daughters in this city. “We must move forward with all four wards.”

Touted by his allies as an egghead who will be able to make surgical decisions regarding the city’s budget, Mapp works as the chief financial officer for the City of Roselle. That town’s mayor, Garrett Smith, Mapp’s wife Emilia and New Democrat Assembly candidate Rick Smiley joined a crowd of about 50 people at the storefront-sized downtown HQ in support of Mapp, who’s challenging Mayor Robinson-Briggs in the June 2nd Democratic Primary.

“You have a great man here,” Smith told Mapp’s allies. “You don’t get MBAs and CPAs everyday in this line, because of the dirt in politics, quality people don’t want to run. But you’ve got a gem, and he will be an awesome mayor.”

Pat Politano, campaign strategist for Robinson-Briggs, said there's nothing wrong with the current mayor.

"During Sharon's tenure, she has cut the murder rate by 300% - from 15 to five - and stabilized taxes," Politano said. "Come on, this is a candidate (Mapp) who collects two public paychecks and wants to be somebody. He's going nowhere. When he was a councilman (during the McWilliams era), he didn't even know the 4th Ward existed. He wanted to make cuts to the police department as a so-called fiscal lconservative without considering the impact in the greatest areas of need."

There is a larger political context to the mayor's race here, as Green and Assemblywoman Linda Stender (D-Fanwood) face a 22nd District general election challenge from Republicans former Scotch Plains Mayor Martin Marks and his running mate, Bo Vastine. In the meantime, they will have to get through Smiley, 49, who heads the ticket in Plainfield that includes Mapp.

Employed by the City of Plainfield for 23 years as director of community relations among other jobs, Smiley is on leave from his job coordinating the opening of Headstart facilities, to focus on the campaign.

“The closing of Muhlenberg Hospital transcends Plainfield,” said Smiley, speaking to his signature campaign issue. “My message will get around. I’ve got a little time now to get my message out there.”

The New Democrats’ decision to not field a second assembly candidate indicates their focus on the mayor’s race. “I’m comfortable having Rick on the ticket,” said Mapp. “There is such a level of dissatisfaction in Plainfield and in the 22nd District. Every town in the legislative district was affected by the closing of the hospital.”

In the speech he gave on Saturday following a shorter address delivered by Smiley, Mapp invoked the idealism of Lincoln and Obama, and committed to embracing renewable energy, building the police department to a complement of 160 officers, and ensuring the federal census properly records Plainfield’s population over the 50,000 mark in order to land a coveted category to qualify for more inner city funding.

“Most importantly,” he said, “I will listen to you.”

On the battlefield of ward politics, the knock on Mapp is he’s too cerebral, but his allies repeatedly plugged his intellect and detail-oriented approach as irrefutable strengths. The well-spoken candidate himself referred to his hard background lest anyone confuse him with a silver spoon transplant.

“I was raised in a one-parent household in extreme poverty,” he said.

As the challenger reached the emotional high point of his speech, a car alarm went off in the adjoining alleyway. Undeterred, Mapp’s vocal chords competed momentarily before outlasting the distraction.

While the New Democrats possess the advantage of having just vaulted Mapp and McWilliams onto the council last year, they still face the money and machine edge enjoyed by the establishment, and a formidable opponent in the mayor.

New Democrat School Board Member Christian Estevez told the crowd, “That tired machine will recruit teenagers to work for them and those teenagers will take their money and dump their pamphlets in the gutter. But we’ll be out there working for every vote.”

Max Pizarro is a PolitickerNJ.com Reporter and can be reached via email at max@politicsnj.com.

Online story here. Archived here.

(Note: Online stories may be taken down by their publisher after a period of time or made available for a fee. Links posted here is from the original online publication of this piece.)

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff and Clippings have no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of these articles nor are Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff or CLIPS endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)

New Dems - PolitickerNJ - Mapp gets in game against Robinson-Briggs

PolitickerNJ

January 26, 2009 - 6:16pm

In Plainfield, Mapp gets in the game against Mayor Robinson-Briggs

By Max Pizarro, PolitickerNJ.com Reporter

[Image: Councilman Adrian Mapp]

PLAINFIELD - Pledging transparency in government, better city services and better advocacy for residents, Ward Three Councilman Adrian Mapp today formally announced his intention to challenge one-term Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs.

A former two-term member of the Plainfield City Council and former Union County Freeholder, Mapp won re-election to the council last year on a ticket with Annie McWIlliams, daughter of the late former Mayor Al McWilliams, whom Robinson-Briggs defeated four years ago.

"I had planned as far back as 2007 on running for Mayor," said Mapp, "but put that thought on the back burner after I was approached by residents about running for the Ward 3 seat. Folks were concerned that with the issues the country and the City were facing, a more experienced and pro-active presence was needed from the Third Ward.

“Like the rest of the country, Plainfield is facing an extremely difficult future for at least the next two years,” added Mapp, a chief financial officer for the City of Roselle. “People are losing their jobs and their homes, the likelihood that our tax receipts will be negatively impacted is very high, and we must come to grips with the realities of the situation. Plainfield simply cannot afford four more years of a mayor who rushes to hug people but seems incapable of actually helping them.”

Max Pizarro is a PolitickerNJ.com Reporter and can be reached via email at max@politicsnj.com.

Related topics: Sharon Robinson-Briggs, Rick Smiley, Jerry Green, Annie McWilliams, Al McWIlliams, Adrian Mapp

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff and Clippings have no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of these articles nor are Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff or CLIPS endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)

2009 Primary - PolitickerNJ - Robinson-Briggs vs. Mapp's New Dems

PolitickerNJ

December 21, 2008 - 6:05pm

In Plainfield, Mayor Robinson-Briggs
will try to withstand Mapp's New Democrats

By Max Pizarro, PolitickerNJ.com Reporter

[image: Plainfield Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs]

PLAINFIELD – Get it right in four years or you’re gone.

That’s the message the voters consistently deliver in the Union County city of Plainfield, and looking at past results, most of their elected leaders get it wrong.

In 125 years of political wrangling, only one mayor won reelection here.

That was the late Al McWilliams, a self-professed New Democrat who in 2005 failed to get over a rising crime wave and lost his bid for a third term to machine Democrat Sharon Robinson-Briggs by 325 votes, 2,713 to 2,388.

Now Robinson-Briggs, 49, Plainfield’s first woman to serve as mayor, readies for her reelection campaign next year in what will likely be a hard fought Plainfield contest with once and future councilman Adrian Mapp, a McWilliams ally and now leader of the New Democrats, who’s energized by his successful return to local politics.

Mapp already filed to run for mayor – a $35,000-per year part-time job - with the state’s Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC), but insists he’s not yet made a final decision.

“If more and more people approach me I will consider running,” says the 52-year old former county freeholder and at-large city councilman, who earlier this year defeated Robinson-Briggs ally Don Davis by a 10 percent margin to become the 3rd Ward councilman.

“If there’s a groundswell of support for me, I would give it very serious consideration. I would be guided by the desires of the people.”

Should he run, Mapp, a CPA and chief financial officer in Roselle, is likely to make competence the issue as Plainfield’s nearly 48,000 residents this year lost Muhlenberg Hospital – the city’s biggest employer of 1,000 jobs; while homeowners fear the prospect of a local tax increase of 9.5 percent.

“The roads are in a state of disrepair, people are paying high taxes, and we have a shrinking commercial tax base,” says Mapp. “Residents don’t feel their tax dollars are offering a return on investment. They want to know their elected officials are capable of leading. Clearly, the city needs someone to get out front.”

In defense of her administration, Robinson-Briggs says the 9.5 percent figure reflects on a working $78 million budget that has not yet received state extraordinary aid. She continues to examine every option in difficult economic times, she says, including renegotiating contracts and implementing a four-day work week for city employees.

As for the hospital, Robinson-Briggs with pain in her voice argues that she did everything she could to avert what was ultimately a private sector decision made by the suits at Solaris Health Systems.

Her administration lobbied the hospital itself, and failing that, “We sent an overabundance of letters to Gov. Corzine,” says the mayor. “We proposed a statewide lottery with money to be divided among (urban) hospitals (like Muhlenberg). That was an idea that didn’t pan out. We started to work on the issue at the end of last year. We wrote over 2,000 letters. I understand the governor is in a tight spot and looking at things equitably in the State of New Jersey.

“But I told them, if you close the hospital, people will die.”

While the mayor refrains from listing her accomplishments days before her New Year state of the city speech, observers of Robinson-Briggs’ administration say positives during her four-year watch include crime reduction, fewer workers on the city payroll than when she took office, and construction of a senior citizen complex on Front Street for under $1 million.

People like her. What she lacks comparatively in schooling, she makes up for as a ceremonial force whose positive energy fills a room.

“The mayor is very warm can and can connect with people in an emotional way,” says At-Large Councilman Rashid Burney. “Adrian Mapp’s base is more affluent and educated.”

“No, Adrian’s not Bill Clinton,” admits 2nd Ward Councilman Cory Storch. “But he’s really good with constituent relations. I saw that when he first served on the council. Then there’s his financial background. He’s going to run on fiscal management and delivering overall quality of services.”

If the mayor’s poise and interpersonal skills – “Let me give you a Plainfield hug,” she tells a newcomer - and Mapp’s numbers-crunching prowess jump out as arguably the political antagonists’ most obvious strengths, both the councilman-elect and Robinson-Briggs also have important allies on their respective sides who underscore the city’s political divide between the regular Dems and the New Dems.

Robinson-Briggs boasts the political muscle of Assemblyman Jerry Green (D-Plainfield), speaker pro tempore in the state legislature, who championed her early in her career on the school board and who has ready access to Democratic Party campaign cash. Green’s own PAC dropped $8,200 on Shannon-Briggs’ massive $200,000 campaign effort in 2005, while the assemblyman generated significant campaign contributions from Statehouse allies like Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D-Sayreville) and Assemblywoman Nellie Pou (D-Paterson).

Mapp, meanwhile, enjoys the alliance of the New Democrats’ symbol of polished poetic justice in the person of Annie McWilliams, 24-year old eldest daughter of the late and – in some quarters – beloved – mayor, who died of kidney cancer in April of 2007.

As Mapp’s running mate, the young McWilliams crushed the organization’s at-large candidate in the June primary by a 3-1 margin.

A Wharton School of Business graduate who will serve as the city’s at-large councilwoman when she gets sworn-in with Mapp come January, McWilliams comes out of the ward that contains the Sleepy Hollow neighborhood, Plainfield’s own ivy covered homage to Victorian grandeur. She supports a Mapp mayoral candidacy, and at the very least makes it clear, “I will be disappointed if we see this mayor back in office.”

Coming off their win, the Mapp-McWilliams duo can make a compelling case that the New Democrats have momentum as they consider a citywide contest in Plainfield’s four wards.

Mapp in November seized control of the council seat in the mayor’s home ward, officially dealing her some disrespect in her own neighborhood. In addition to his base support in the 3rd ward, where presumably he would have to fight the mayor house to house for votes, Mapp can count on the old McWilliams support in the 2nd ward, reanimated by his daughter and reinforced by Storch. The 2nd remains the New Democrats’ strongest ward, where Al McWilliams built his own base of operations.

In their 2005 face-off, McWilliams won the 2nd over Robinson-Briggs by 273 votes: 924 to 651.

The late mayor lost in the city’s three other wards, by 224 votes in the 1st, 170 in the 3rd, and 204 in the 4th.

Already in possession of a political structure in Robinson-Briggs’ home ward and anchored in the 2nd by McWilliams, Mapp faces the challenge of reaching out to those two wards where the sitting mayor has an advantage over the New Democrats, the regular Democrats’ bread and butter districts: the 1st and 4th wards.

Predicting the usual political conflagration here next year, politicos like Burney are staying uncommitted for the moment.

“If I pick a side now and that side loses, I’m out,” says the at-large councilman, who ran and won as a New Democrat but has since tried to be more independent, in his words.

“I respect and like Adrian Mapp a lot, as I do the current mayor,” says state Sen. Nicholas Scutari (D-Union). “I will say that any attacks on elected officials regarding the hospital closing are absolutely unfair. From the get-go, market factors made it impossible for the hospital to remain open.

“The two main issues in Plainfield are education and crime,” adds the senator. “It’s no longer an Abbott School district. Crime is reduced. Usually in an economic downturn you see an escalation of crime but that’s not happening.”

Eighteen miles southwest of Newark, Plainfield resembles a smaller version of New Jersey’s biggest city – at least demographically: 62 percent African American, 21 percent white, 25 percent Latinos of any race. Its downtown looks like some headlong train trestle melding of Union City, Orange, and Passaic, heavily textured from the neon-lit windows to the curbs.

“The Queen City,” says native son, Assemblyman Jon Bramnick (R-Westfield), who served on the city council representing the 2nd ward from 1985 to 1991 before he moved to Westfield, the second to last Republican to serve on the council.

On Friday, the city mobilizes to confront a snow and ice storm.

The mayor’s on duty in City Hall.

A fire truck slaps slush in the windshields of oncoming traffic as it heads downtown, through a blur of African hair braiding studios, Mexican restaurants, grocery, private detective and bail bonds stores, tattoo parlors, donut shops, past the Religious Society of Friends- Quakers, they settled the town - under train tracks and past Central Americans in front of diners trying to make eye contact with drivers of passing cars, and public works employees in yellow vests on foot in the falling snow, shoveling.

A gray public building, one of New Jersey’s blue collar pyramids - in this case a post office - emblemizes the older era, when some WPA architect dreamed Greek columns could as appropriately adorn Watchung Avenue as the Parthenon between the liquor stores and a passing beef-pork-poultry truck out of Elizabeth.

It’s been over 40 years since the 1967 Plainfield riots, an era when Mayor George Hetfield conducted city business from the auspices of a local country club and the hard luck 4th Ward went up in flames and a mob killed Officer John Vincent Gleason, Jr.

And Hetfield – guilty or not, those who were there judged – was voted out of office, carrying on the one and done mayoral cycle that Al McWilliams finally broke and that Robinson-Briggs wants to break again.

On the hill overlooking the rest of the city, above the factories and abandoned factories and projects of the 4th Ward - “There used to be a Mack Truck factory there, a great big factory,” remembers Bramnick – stand the 2nd Ward Wall Street millionaires’ massive summertime mansions of all styles - Colonial Revival and Jacobethan Victorian, Queen Anne’s, Tudor, Second Empire, after a while you can start inventing names that evoke elegance but still not get to the architectural finery that is only, of course, part of the city’s legacy; as Robinson-Briggs and Mapp and McWilliams and Green, and everyone, gets ready for yet another season of politics in Plainfield.

Max Pizarro is a PolitickerNJ.com Reporter and can be reached via email at max@politicsnj.com.

Related topics: Sharon Robinson-Briggs, Rashid Burney, Nicholas Scutari, JON CORZINE, Jon Bramnick, Jerry Green, George Hetfield, Cory Storch, Annie McWilliams, Al McWIlliams, Adrian Mapp

[Link]

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff and Clippings have no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of these articles nor are Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff or CLIPS endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)

New Dems - PolitickerNJ - McWilliams resigns from Board

PolitickerNJ (Then known as PoliticsNJ)

September 24, 2005 - 6:34pm
Press Release

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New Democrats for Plainfield

By desnuda

Mayor Albert McWilliams Resigns from Executive Board
of the New Democrats for Plainfield

Plainfield Mayor Albert T. McWilliams submitted his resignation from the executive board of the New Democrats for Plainfield today. Mayor McWilliams served as Immediate Past President of the organization since July of this year. In accepting his resignation current president, Union County Freeholder Adrian Mapp thanked the mayor for his service and wished him well on his future endeavors. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 24, 2005

Contact:
Adrian Mapp at (908) 577-0630
Shep D. Brown at (908) 405-5755

Mayor Albert McWilliams Resigns from Executive Board of the New Democrats for Plainfield

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 24, 2005

PLAINFIELD - Plainfield Mayor Albert T. McWilliams submitted his resignation from the executive board of the New Democrats for Plainfield today. Mayor McWilliams served as Immediate Past President of the organization since July of this year. In accepting his resignation current president, Union County Freeholder Adrian Mapp thanked the mayor for his service and wished him well on his future endeavors.

Mr. Mapp announced the Mayor's resignation in a statement to members today reminding them that according to the by-laws of the organization the New Democrats for Plainfield could only endorse registered Democrats.

“Although the organization will not be making any endorsement in this race, we will seek to play a positive role in the upcoming elections by hosting a candidate's forum where all candidates for local office will be invited to share their views with the members of the New Democrats and the general public, said Mr. Mapp in his statement. “I believe that it is in the best interest of all the citizens of Plainfield to have a comprehensive issues based debate for all mayoral candidates."

Shep Brown, spokesperson for the New Democrats said that no date or location has been set for the candidates forum. He went on to state: “In keeping with our mission to increase the civic involvement and participation of residents in all segments of Plainfield community life, we encourage other organizations and neighborhood associations in Plainfield to keep up their tradition of hosting their own candidate forums so that they can hear where all of the candidates stand on the issues that are important to them."

For further information contact Shep D. Brown at Walliedog1@nycboe.net

###

Address : <http://www.politickernj.com/new-democrats-plainfield>

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff and Clippings have no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of these articles nor are Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff or CLIPS endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)

2009 Primary - PolitickerNJ - SRB will try to withstand New Dems

Published on PolitickerNJ.com, Monday, December 21, 2008

December 21, 2008 - 5:05pm

In Plainfield, Mayor Robinson-Briggs will try
to withstand Mapp's New Democrats

By Max Pizarro, PolitickerNJ.com Reporter

PLAINFIELD – Get it right in four years or you’re gone.

That’s the message the voters consistently deliver in the Union County city of Plainfield, and looking at past results, most of their elected leaders get it wrong.

In 125 years of political wrangling, only one mayor won reelection here.

That was the late Al McWilliams, a self-professed New Democrat who in 2005 failed to get over a rising crime wave and lost his bid for a third term to machine Democrat Sharon Robinson-Briggs by 325 votes, 2,713 to 2,388.

Now Robinson-Briggs, 49, Plainfield’s first woman to serve as mayor, readies for her reelection campaign next year in what will likely be a hard fought Plainfield contest with once and future councilman Adrian Mapp, a McWilliams ally and now leader of the New Democrats, who’s energized by his successful return to local politics.

Mapp already filed to run for mayor – a $35,000-per year part-time job - with the state’s Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC), but insists he’s not yet made a final decision.

“If more and more people approach me I will consider running,” says the 52-year old former county freeholder and at-large city councilman, who earlier this year defeated Robinson-Briggs ally Don Davis by a 10 percent margin to become the 3rd Ward councilman.

“If there’s a groundswell of support for me, I would give it very serious consideration. I would be guided by the desires of the people.”

Should he run, Mapp, a CPA and chief financial officer in Roselle, is likely to make competence the issue as Plainfield’s nearly 48,000 residents this year lost Muhlenberg Hospital – the city’s biggest employer of 1,000 jobs; while homeowners fear the prospect of a local tax increase of 9.5 percent.

“The roads are in a state of disrepair, people are paying high taxes, and we have a shrinking commercial tax base,” says Mapp.  “Residents don’t feel their tax dollars are offering a return on investment. They want to know their elected officials are capable of leading. Clearly, the city needs someone to get out front.” 

In defense of her administration, Robinson-Briggs says the 9.5 percent figure reflects on a working $78 million budget that has not yet received state extraordinary aid. She continues to examine every option in difficult economic times, she says, including renegotiating contracts and implementing a four-day work week for city employees.

As for the hospital, Robinson-Briggs with pain in her voice argues that she did everything she could to avert what was ultimately a private sector decision made by the suits at Solaris Health Systems.

Her administration lobbied the hospital itself, and failing that, “We sent an overabundance of letters to Gov. Corzine,” says the mayor. “We proposed a statewide lottery with money to be divided among (urban) hospitals (like Muhlenberg). That was an idea that didn’t pan out. We started to work on the issue at the end of last year. We wrote over 2,000 letters. I understand the governor is in a tight spot and looking at things equitably in the State of New Jersey. 

“But I told them, if you close the hospital, people will die.”

While the mayor refrains from listing her accomplishments days before her New Year state of the city speech, observers of Robinson-Briggs’ administration say positives during her four-year watch include crime reduction, fewer workers on the city payroll than when she took office, and construction of a senior citizen complex on Front Street for under $1 million.

People like her.  What she lacks comparatively in schooling, she makes up for as a ceremonial force whose positive energy fills a room.

“The mayor is very warm can and can connect with people in an emotional way,” says At-Large Councilman Rashid Burney. “Adrian Mapp’s base is more affluent and educated.”

“No, Adrian’s not Bill Clinton,” admits 2nd Ward Councilman Cory Storch. “But he’s really good with constituent relations. I saw that when he first served on the council. Then there’s his financial background. He’s going to run on fiscal management and delivering overall quality of services.”

If the mayor’s poise and interpersonal skills – “Let me give you a Plainfield hug,” she tells a newcomer - and Mapp’s numbers-crunching prowess jump out as arguably the political antagonists’ most obvious strengths, both the councilman-elect and Robinson-Briggs also have important allies on their respective sides who underscore the city’s political divide between the regular Dems and the New Dems.

Robinson-Briggs boasts the political muscle of Assemblyman Jerry Green (D-Plainfield), speaker pro tempore in the state legislature, who championed her early in her career on the school board and who has ready access to Democratic Party campaign cash.  Green’s own PAC dropped $8,200 on Shannon-Briggs’ massive $200,000 campaign effort in 2005, while the assemblyman generated significant campaign contributions from Statehouse allies like Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D-Sayreville) and Assemblywoman Nellie Pou (D-Paterson).

Mapp, meanwhile, enjoys the alliance of the New Democrats’ symbol of polished poetic justice in the person of Annie McWilliams, 24-year old eldest daughter of the late and – in some quarters – beloved – mayor, who died of kidney cancer in April of 2007.

As Mapp’s running mate, the young McWilliams crushed the organization’s at-large candidate in the June primary by a 3-1 margin.  

A Wharton School of Business graduate who will serve as the city’s at-large councilwoman when she gets sworn-in with Mapp come January, McWilliams comes out of the ward that contains the Sleepy Hollow neighborhood, Plainfield’s own ivy covered homage to Victorian grandeur. She supports a Mapp mayoral candidacy, and at the very least makes it clear, “I will be disappointed if we see this mayor back in office.”

Coming off their win, the Mapp-McWilliams duo can make a compelling case that the New Democrats have momentum as they consider a citywide contest in Plainfield’s four wards.

Mapp in November seized control of the council seat in the mayor’s home ward, officially dealing her some disrespect in her own neighborhood.  In addition to his base support in the 3rd ward, where presumably he would have to fight the mayor house to house for votes, Mapp can count on the old McWilliams support in the 2nd ward, reanimated by his daughter and reinforced by Storch.  The 2nd remains the New Democrats’ strongest ward, where Al McWilliams built his own base of operations.

In their 2005 face-off, McWilliams won the 2nd over Robinson-Briggs by 273 votes: 924 to 651.

The late mayor lost in the city’s three other wards, by 224 votes in the 1st, 170 in the 3rd, and 204 in the 4th.

Already in possession of a political structure in Robinson-Briggs’ home ward and anchored in the 2nd by McWilliams, Mapp faces the challenge of reaching out to those two wards where the sitting mayor has an advantage over the New Democrats, the regular Democrats’ bread and butter districts: the 1st and 4th wards.

Predicting the usual political conflagration here next year, politicos like Burney are staying uncommitted for the moment.

“If I pick a side now and that side loses, I’m out,” says the at-large councilman, who ran and won as a New Democrat but has since tried to be more independent, in his words.

“I respect and like Adrian Mapp a lot, as I do the current mayor,” says state Sen. Nicholas Scutari (D-Union). “I will say that any attacks on elected officials regarding the hospital closing are absolutely unfair. From the get-go, market factors made it impossible for the hospital to remain open.

“The two main issues in Plainfield are education and crime,” adds the senator. “It’s no longer an Abbott School district. Crime is reduced. Usually in an economic downturn you see an escalation of crime but that’s not happening.”

Eighteen miles southwest of Newark, Plainfield resembles a smaller version of New Jersey’s biggest city – at least demographically: 62 percent African American, 21 percent white, 25 percent Latinos of any race. Its downtown looks like some headlong train trestle melding of Union City, Orange, and Passaic, heavily textured from the neon-lit windows to the curbs.

“The Queen City,” says native son, Assemblyman Jon Bramnick (R-Westfield), who served on the city council representing the 2nd ward from 1985 to 1991 before he moved to Westfield, the second to last Republican to serve on the council.

On Friday, the city mobilizes to confront a snow and ice storm. 

The mayor’s on duty in City Hall.

A fire truck slaps slush in the windshields of oncoming traffic as it heads downtown, through a blur of African hair braiding studios, Mexican restaurants, grocery, private detective and bail bonds stores, tattoo parlors, donut shops, past the Religious Society of Friends- Quakers, they settled the town - under train tracks and past Central Americans in front of diners trying to make eye contact with drivers of passing cars, and public works employees in yellow vests on foot in the falling snow, shoveling. 

A gray public building, one of New Jersey’s blue collar pyramids - in this case a post office - emblemizes the older era, when some WPA architect dreamed Greek columns could as appropriately adorn Watchung Avenue as the Parthenon between the liquor stores and a passing beef-pork-poultry truck out of Elizabeth.

It’s been over 40 years since the 1967 Plainfield riots, an era when Mayor George Hetfield conducted city business from the auspices of a local country club and the hard luck 4th Ward went up in flames and a mob killed Officer John Vincent Gleason, Jr.

And Hetfield – guilty or not, those who were there judged – was voted out of office, carrying on the one and done mayoral cycle that Al McWilliams finally broke and that Robinson-Briggs wants to break again.

On the hill overlooking the rest of the city, above the factories and abandoned factories and projects of the 4th Ward - “There used to be a Mack Truck factory there, a great big factory,” remembers Bramnick – stand the 2nd Ward Wall Street millionaires’ massive summertime mansions of all styles - Colonial Revival and Jacobethan Victorian, Queen Anne’s, Tudor, Second Empire, after a while you can start inventing names that evoke elegance but still not get to the architectural finery that is only, of course, part of the city’s legacy; as Robinson-Briggs and Mapp and McWilliams and Green, and everyone, gets ready for yet another season of politics in Plainfield.

Max Pizarro is a PolitickerNJ.com Reporter and can be reached via email at max@politicsnj.com.

Online story here.

(Note: Online stories may be taken down by their publisher after a period of time or made available for a fee. Links posted here is from the original online publication of this piece.)

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Dem Primary - Courier - Letter: McWilliams agent of change

Published in the Courier News, Sunday, April 20, 2008

Letter to Editor
Support for Annie McWilliams as agent of Plainfield change

I am truly inspired by Annie McWilliams' answer to the call of public service in announcing her candidacy for the at-large seat on the Democratic ticket for Plainfield City Council. Like her father, the late Al McWilliams, Annie is devoted to the betterment of Plainfield for all of its residents. Through her youth advocacy, she has offered hope to the young people of this city, whose need for young role models to emulate is greater than ever during these difficult times. Her strong business background (a degree in economics from the Wharton School of Business) would be a welcome addition to the council.

Unfortunately, what has happened in our city of Plainfield over the past years under the current administration of Sharon Robinson-Briggs is a travesty. The ineptitude of municipal government, as illustrated by the performance of this administration more than halfway through its tenure, has caused many of us to throw up our collective hands in disgust.

At the behest of the Robinson-Briggs administration, the municipal budget has become inflated with jobs for individuals whose qualifications have been very much in question. Residents are upset at the crumbling infrastructure of our city, the lack of communication on the part of the administration and the continued waste of money, as exemplified by the mayor's private security detail, for which Plainfielders foot the bill to the tune of nearly $200,000 per year!

Currently, the Plainfield City Council consists of a majority that denies the right of public access to its citizens by illegally refusing to air City Council meetings on the local channel (which is paid for by Plainfield residents, by the way!), that rubber stamps every new employee the administration puts before it (while deliberately withholding resumes of qualifications from public scrutiny!), and that refuses to pass a strong municipal pay-to-play ordinance to protect residents from conflict of interest in the awarding of public contracts.

Our taxes have gone up every year as services have declined. We need an advocate who will work for us, not for some political agenda that is hostile to the needs of Plainfield residents.

We need to restore transparency and trust in our government, along with a sense that our city council members will strive to meet the highest standards of ethical and personal behavior. Second Ward Councilman Cory Storch has already demonstrated his independence by endorsing Annie's run, noting that he, too, is inspired by her candidacy in this historic year.

It has been my pleasure to know Annie, as I was a friend of Al McWilliams, who inspired me to get involved in helping make change. At his urging, I became involved in several campaigns over the years, serving in the past as campaign manager to Linda Carter, Cory Storch, and the late Ray Blanco, as well as campaign co-chair on Al's second mayoral campaign.

All Al asked was that the city, as opposed to any other agenda, come first. Annie asks the same of all who desire to work on her behalf. She is strong, independent, and smart -- qualities that we should demand from all of our public servants.

It is time for a change. I encourage voters to come out and support Annie, who is devoted to her family, to her Shiloh Baptist Church community, and to Plainfield, for the at-large city council seat. I am convinced that Annie McWilliams best represents the change that Plainfield needs and that, with the support and votes of the greater Plainfield community, she can be successful.

REBECCA WILLIAMS
Plainfield

Online story here. Archived here.

(Note: Online stories may be taken down by their publisher after a period of time or made available for a fee. Links posted here is from the original online publication of this piece.)

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff and Clippings have no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of these articles nor are Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff or Clippings endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)