Healy 2013 Campaign Launch

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(Gallery by Richard J. McCormack/For The Jersey Journal)

Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy has been calling city workers and employees of city agencies asking them to donate to his political campaign, and his longtime political rival is using the term "shakedown" to refer to the solicitations.

Healy even put the squeeze on one worker who earns less than $20,000 annually, asking for "whatever little contribution you can make to the cause of the re-election," according to two voicemails obtained by The Jersey Journal.

In both calls, Healy asked the worker to bring a donation in person to Healy campaign treasurer Patricia Connors, a Kennedy Boulevard real-estate agent.

"You know we got this reporting deadline at the end of the year, so please do what you can to get it there," Healy says in one of the messages. "And have a great New Year's."

In another voicemail played for a Jersey Journal reporter, Healy urged a city agency worker to give $500 to his re-election bid. In the message, Healy referred to a Dec. 6 campaign fundraiser at Casino in the Park that his campaign has said brought in over $100,000. "We were hoping you'd write a check for $500," the mayor says in the voicemail.

Healy is running in May's city election for a third full term against Ward E City Councilman Steve Fulop and former high school and college basketball star Jerry Walker.

Healy struggled to keep up with Fulop's blockbuster fundraising after the mayor announced last February that he would seek re-election. But by the end of 2012, things had turned around for his campaign.

In documents released last month, Healy's campaign reported raising about $233,000 to Fulop's $217,000 in the final quarter of 2012, though the Downtown councilman still has about $525,000 more cash on hand than the mayor.

About $41,000 of Healy's haul in that quarter came from about 180 city workers, the campaign documents show.

A city agency worker, who asked not to be identified, said voters should know about Healy's phone calls to city employees because, the worker said, they are inappropriate.

"I'm tired of the dirty-ness," said the worker, who acknowledges being a Fulop supporter.

Jersey City's Code of Ethics bars officers or employees from soliciting political contributions based upon an understanding that the contribution was given "for the purpose of influencing him or her, directly or indirectly."

But the code also specifies that the above provision does not apply to political contributions if the candidate "has no knowledge" of an intent to influence him.

Most of the workers who spoke to The Jersey Journal asked not to be identified. One, who payroll records show earns less than $20,000 a year, said he received multiple phone calls from the mayor.

"You call once, that's fine, but you call three times ... he needs that money that bad?" the worker said.

Police Sgt. Dave LaBruno, 48, said Healy called him in late December of last year asking for a donation.

"I told him, no, I'm not with any political candidate and I don't desire to be," LaBruno said. "He didn't pressure me, but I wasn't comfortable with the mayor calling me."

Healy's campaign shrugged when asked about the phone calls. Healy is reaching out to people throughout Jersey City, according to a campaign spokesman, though one Healy ally acknowledged that the mayor in past campaigns didn't make fundraising phone calls himself.

"Of course he's been reaching out to those folks who have been so essential in making Jersey City a safer, more affordable and more prosperous place," said Healy campaign spokesman Joshua Henne. "They've been a terrific team, and of course he's asking for their support to keep the progress going for working families, middle-class taxpayers and small businesses."

Fulop, whose campaign is calling the Healy phone calls a "shakedown," said the mayor's solicitations are "not right."

"This is very sad and I feel bad for the workers who in some fashion feel pressured," Fulop said in a statement from his campaign. "There should never be a phone call from the mayor to a guy pushing a broom strongly suggesting a donation."

Candidates for 2013 Jersey City city election 33 Gallery: Candidates for 2013 Jersey City city election

John Weingart, associate director of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University, said it's definitely illegal to use a governmental office to solicit campaign donations. But Healy calling from, say, his campaign office, is likely not against the law, Weingart said.

"At a minimum, that would be a heavy-handed approach and could be certainly seen as coercive," he said. "It certainly has the appearance of being improper."