The election comes as the district is being run by an interim superintendent after the Board of Education forced out the former superintendent, Marcia Lyles. | AP Photo Jersey City elections a battle between corporate and labor behemoths

New Jersey’s second largest city is home to what may be the biggest political fight in the state this year, with corporate and labor behemoths spending millions of dollars on five school board races and the fate of a controversial ordinance involving Airbnb.

The Jersey City school board election is pitting the “Change for Children” slate of candidates, backed by the LeFrak Organization, one of the city’s biggest developers, against the “Education Matters” candidates — three of whom are incumbents — supported by the Jersey City Education Association, the New Jersey Education Association’s biggest local.


At least one LeFrak-backed super PAC, Fairer NJ, plans to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on the election, while an NJEA super PAC called Garden State Forward is blanketing the city with mailers. A controversial cast of characters who have come under fire over allegations of corruption and religious bigotry are also involved, both as candidates and behind the scenes.

At stake is how Jersey City funds its schools in the wake of massive cuts in state aid and a newly enacted 1 percent business payroll tax.

Oh, and one of the candidates is named Alexander Hamilton, who had to fight to stay on the ballot.

As if that’s not enough, Airbnb, the home-share website, is spending millions to fight a city ordinance that has placed new restrictions on short-term rentals. Jersey City, because of its proximity to Manhattan, is Airbnb’s most popular destination in New Jersey.

Airbnb is reportedly willing to spend $3 million on the ballot question, which asks voters to decide the fate of the new rules. On the other side of the issue is the Hotel Trades Council, the union representing the city’s hotel workers, and a hotel union-backed group called Share Better, which together expect to spend around $1 million in their effort to keep the regulations in place.

The fights in Jersey City are a major contrast to the otherwise mostly low-key elections at the top of the ballot this year for state Assembly, where Democrats and Republicans are fighting over a few seats that will determine just how blue the lower house will be come January.

Mayor Steve Fulop expects that between the two local contests, interested parties will spend $5 million in what normally would be a low-turnout, off-year election.

“The city is growing rapidly and I think that you have a lot of overlapping interests,” Fulop said in a phone interview. “Airbnb and the LeFraks are focused on money, ultimately, and they’re using the political system to protect their interests. And they’re spending a lot of money in order to get there.”

Despite a residential boom and an influx of wealthy residents fleeing the higher housing prices in New York City, Jersey City has long relied upon state aid for the bulk of its school funding. The city for decades has also awarded payments in lieu of taxes, or PILOTS, that have kept much of the newcomers’ tax dollars from going to schools.

But when New Jersey enacted changes to its school funding law last year, Jersey City took a huge hit, and is set to see around $200 million in state funding phased out. (The school board is challenging the budget cuts in court).

To cope with the revenue loss, the state enacted a law allowing the city to pass a payroll tax, which it promptly did. The LeFraks and another major developer, Mack Cali, have challenged the 1 percent levy on businesses in court, so far unsuccessfully.

Jersey City Board of Education President Sudhan Thomas believes opposition to the payroll tax is at the heart of the developers backing the “Change for Children“ slate.

“It’s kind of sad, because these guys have been able to grow through the various benefits that the city dished out to them in the form of abatements,” Thomas said. “Finally, after many years, they’re being asked to contribute to one of the many pieces of the puzzle — which is school funding — in the form of a payroll tax. They’re upset, which is why they’re bringing this slate of people and trying to mitigate that.”

The LeFrak-backed super PAC, Fairer NJ, and the NJEA super PAC, Garden State Forward, are papering residents’ mailboxes with flyers and airing local television ads in support of their preferred candidates.

The election also comes as the district is being run by an interim superintendent after the Board of Education forced out the former superintendent, Marcia Lyles, who is now suing after a tumultuous tenure riddled with fights with the Jersey City Education Association.

Thomas, who was once aligned with Fulop, has his own history of controversies, including allegations of misappropriation of funds at the Jersey City Employment and Training Commission, where he took the lead role in ousting former Gov. Jim McGreevey over how McGreevey handled the organization’s funds.

“I’ve expressed to Sudhan that I had some concerns over some stories that came,” Fulop said, referring to the complaint by a former Jersey City Employment and Training Commission employee alleging Thomas misappropriated funds. “And on the other side, I don’t feel comfortable with a ticket supported by a developer who’s suing the city so that we don’t fund the schools. So there’s issues for me on both sides.”

The developer-backed effort has two former top Fulop staffers working behind the scenes.

Jeremy Farrell, who worked for years as Jersey City corporation counsel under Fulop and who is now a senior director at the LeFrak Organization, is chairman of Fairer NJ. Muhammed Akil, Fulop’s former chief of staff who was at the center of a scandal after he was caught on tape allegedly trying to rig a city bid, is an adviser to the “Change for Children” candidates.

“I’m intrigued and sometimes just fascinated that people seem to be interested in Muhammed Akil,” Akil said in a phone interview. “I really just see myself as a regular guy who lives in Ward F and is doing community things. … The focus should be on the kids rather than things that may provide some entertainment value.”

David Czehut, one of the “Change for Children” candidates, said in a statement that his campaign is striving for the “restoration of sanity to the [school] Board, a refocus on our students, and a common-sense approach to governance.”

“We are looking for change and transparency in the way the Board is run today, which has led us to a financial disaster and legal chaos among other issues for the last two years under the current leadership of Education Matters candidates [Sudhan] Thomas, [Gerald] Lyons and [Gina] Verdibello,” Czehut said.

Akil — who was never charged with a crime — isn’t the only controversial figure involved with the “Change for Children” slate.

Even though Gov. Phil Murphy is a staunch backer of the NJEA, a constituent relations staffer in his administration, Noemi Velazquez, is running for one of the school board seats on the anti-NJEA “Change for Children“ ticket. Velazquez, who spent decades as a teacher and administrator in Jersey City’s schools, was suspended from her Murphy administration job last year and required to undergo sensitivity training after she made social media posts deriding evangelical Christians.

Velazquez said in a statement that her posts were an impassioned response to Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s hearings and “could have been softer.”

“For this misstep I was reprimanded, paid my due punishment and provided a public apology,” Velazquez said. “As I move forward with this election, I am confident that my 45 years of service as an educator in the Jersey City Schools is what voters will be focused on come Election Day.”

If the election wasn’t colorful enough, Alexander Hamilton — who’s running on the “Change for Children“ slate — sued to get onto the ballot after the Hudson County clerk invalidated his nominating petition signatures because his legal name is Vernon Alexander Hamilton.

Hamilton won the lawsuit without having to engage in a duel.

The other big fight involves an ordinance the City Council passed this summer that places restrictions on AirBnb and companies like it. Among other things, the ordinance prevents homeowners from renting their properties short-term for more than 60-days a year if they don’t live there, bars short-term rentals in buildings with more than four units and does not allow renters to sublet their units short-term.

Voters will decide next month whether to maintain or repeal the new regulations, which AirBnb opposes.

Four years ago — with the support of Fulop and Airbnb — Jersey City formally passed a law legalizing and taxing the home-share site. But battles between local officials and AirBnb have intensified since then, with residents complaining the law has resulted in resulted in higher rents for full-time residents.

Fulop backs the new restrictions and has found an ally in the New York Hotel Trades Council, which donated about $30,000 to him and his council running mates in 2017, the year of his reelection. (AirBnb, which at the time was not on the outs with Fulop, also gave about $10,000.)

“We aren’t banning [Airbnb], we are simply regulating them,” Fulop said.

Councilman James Solomon, who represents the city’s mostly gentrified downtown, sponsored the resolution calling for the new restrictions. Solomon said 10 percent of the residential units in his ward are short-term rentals, compared to 3 percent for the rest of the city. He said that’s caused problems with loud parties, trash and parking. And, of course, the rent.

“It makes rents go up — it’s basic supply and demand,” he said. “And it hollows out the community.”

AirBnb, working with local homeowners, collected 20,000 signatures over the summer in order to force a vote on whether to overturn the new rules.

“Since Mayor Fulop first welcomed short-term rentals into Jersey City four years ago, thousands of residents have benefited from the corresponding growth in the local tourism economy, including our host community, the people cleaning or managing short-term rentals, and local small businesses out in McGinley Square and The Heights,” Liz DeBold Fusco, northeast press secretary for AirBnb, said in a statement.

“In fact, a majority of Jersey City voters support short-term rentals in their neighborhoods,” she said. “But now, these thousands of residents may be in serious financial jeopardy, with some even at risk of foreclosure or bankruptcy — all because of the Mayor’s short-term rental ban, crafted at the behest of the hotel industry’s special interests.“