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“Not So Fast, James: The Record Doesn’t Lie.” The Chronicler in Chief Goes In
In Hudson County politics, your record follows you far more persistently than any glossy mailer ever will. Campaign postcards fade — but a rally flyer, a press clip, or a public photo stays on the ledger. And when you’re seeking to cast yourself as the reformer while your history tells a different tale, the discrepancy becomes the story.
The Chronicles previously published an incisive piece exposing how Councilman James Solomon tried to brand fellow candidate Bill O’Dea as part of the “old Hudson machine,” tying O’Dea to the disgraced former U.S. Senator Bob Menendez and the legacy of decades-old Hudson-County patronage. But as that article made clear, Solomon and his circle were not standing apart from the machine — they were standing with it.
The Rally That Changes the Narrative
As reported by Hudson County View on October 28, 2018, a “who’s-who” of Hudson County elected officials — including Councilman James Solomon — attended a campaign rally for Senator Bob Menendez at the Zeppelin Hall Biergarten in Jersey City. Among the listed attendees: Assemblywoman Angela McKnight, Councilmembers Solomon and Mira Prinz-Arey, Board of Education President Sudhan Thomas, and former Councilmembers Khemraj “Chico” Ramchal and Phil Kenny.
In the same mailer where Solomon attacks O’Dea for being in the camp of Menendez and the “old guard,” the very Sudhan Thomas singled out in that mailer was standing beside Solomon at the rally. That makes the “old guard” label look less like a description and more like a selective weapon.
Allies and the Machine
The original Chronicles article also notes that Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla and Rolando Lavarro — now Solomon’s running mate — took the mic at that same 2018 event, publicly backing Senator Menendez. Solomon’s campaign now tries to paint Menendez and his circle as symbols of corruption. Yet Solomon himself shared the stage.
Check the Hudson County View article below:
The Brian Stack Connection
Meanwhile, the role of Union City Mayor and State Senator Brian P. Stack deserves mention. Stack has publicly defended Bob Menendez — for example, in a 2018 letter he told voters:
“Yes, Bob has made some mistakes … but no one can deny his dedicated work on behalf of New Jersey residents.”
And in December 2023 the Hudson County View reported Stack and Craig Guy backing the Menendez political dynasty.
In short: if you’re going to excoriate someone for being tied to Menendez, you can’t ignore that one of Hudson’s most powerful machine figures was and remains a Menendez backer — and that your own allies may include that same figure.
Reform or Re-Branding?
Solomon’s mailer positions him as the outsider, the reformer standing above the crony system. But the public record — the rally list, the alliances, the endorsement trails — tell a more complicated story. In fact, the same hands that tossed the mailer were gripping the same machine handle just years ago.
And then there’s Menendez. The man at the center of the “old guard” branding, whose legacy of ethical questions and legal entanglements looms large, especially in Hudson County’s political memory. When you run against the machine but stand with it — even decades prior — the optics matter.
What Voters Should Ask
If Solomon supported Menendez publicly in 2018, why is he now accusing others of the same ties? What changed between then and now — ideology, strategy, convenience? How deep is the machine network in his campaign, given his alliances with figures like Bhalla and Lavarro? And finally: if the machine’s symbol is Menendez, how clean can anyone claiming to fight it truly be when they once polled and rallied with him?
In Hudson County, the parking lots, the campaign events, and the rally flyers all live on. The political campaign you run today is judged not only on what you say now — but on who you stood with then.
When the reformer rides the same machine bus, you ought to check whose driver is still behind the wheel.