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: Menendez uses Obama to mend political fences with N.J. blacks    

: Bergen Record
: Satu3day, June 3, 2006 

: By PAUL H. JOHNSON

: U.S. Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois joined Sen. Robert Menendez on the campaign trail in Essex County on Friday to build support in the black community.

: Menendez and Obama first traveled to Tabernacle Baptist Church, on the border of Newark and Irvington, where both met with black ministers from around the state. From there, they attended a rally at East Orange High School, where they were joined by Rep. Donald Payne, D-Newark, Sen. Frank Lautenberg and several other Essex County politicians.

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: New Jersey's African-Americans traditionally have supported the Democratic Party, but Menendez is unknown to many African-American voters, other than those in Hudson County, where he carried on a bitter feud with Glenn Cunningham, who was Jersey City's first African-American mayor.

: "I think the senator is going to have to work for [for the black vote], and he should work for it," said Walter Fields, a former political director for the New Jersey NAACP.

: . . .

: But Fields said the senator has fences to mend in the black community.

: "I think many blacks in Hudson County were offended by the manner in which the senator undermined the mayor," he said of the Menendez-Cunningham feud.

: In 2003, Cunningham, already mayor of Jersey City, ran for the state Senate in the 31st District. But he was challenged by a candidate backed by Menendez and then-Gov. James E. McGreevey. The campaign turned nasty. Cunningham won, but the bitterness lingered, and he died in 2004 before the rift could be healed. 

: "Glenn was a popular individual, even beyond Jersey City, and he was a very decent person," Fields said. "I think for folks in Hudson County there is some lingering resentment over the senator's relationship with the late Glenn Cunningham."

: McKinney said he thinks the issue will be put to bed before the election. 

: "It's an issue that we will get past," he said.

: - - -

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