Steven Fulop

Steven Michael Fulop (born February 28, 1977) is an American politician serving as the 49th and current mayor of Jersey City, New Jersey, he was formerly the Councilman for Jersey City's Ward E. On May 14, 2013, Fulop defeated incumbent mayor Jerramiah Healy.

Fulop assumed the office of mayor on July 1, 2013. He was widely considered likely to run for governor in 2017, but ended this speculation by announcing his intention to run for re-election as mayor. In November 2017, Mayor Fulop was re-elected as mayor of Jersey City with 78% of the vote which represented the largest margin of re-election by a Jersey City mayor since 1949. He was again re-elected in 2021, becoming the first mayor in the city's history to win a third term.

Early life

Fulop was born in Edison, New Jersey, to Jewish parents, Carmen and Arthur Fulop. His parents were both born in Romania. His father grew up in Israel and was a sniper in the Golani Brigade during the Six-Day War. He owned a delicatessen in Newark, New Jersey survivors, worked in an immigration services office helping others gain citizenship. Through the sixth grade, Fulop attended Rabbi Pesach Raymon Yeshiva, an Orthodox Jewish elementary school in Highland Park, New Jersey, though he himself was not observant. For his last two years of elementary school and his first two years of high school, Fulop attended Solomon Schechter Day School of Essex and Union (now Golda Och Academy) in West Orange, New Jersey.

Fulop graduated from J. P. Stevens High School. He went to Harpur College at Binghamton University where he graduated in 1999. During university, he spent time abroad studying at Oxford University in England. In 2006 he completed both his Master of Business Administration at the New York University Stern School of Business and his Master of Public Administration at Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs.

Career

Finance and military service

Upon graduating from college, Fulop joined Goldman Sachs, the investment banking firm, first working in Chicago and later in downtown Manhattan and Jersey City. After seeing first hand the effects of the September 11 attacks, he decided to put his career at Goldman Sachs on hold and join the United States Marine Corps.

Shortly after completion of Marine Corps boot camp, on January 14, 2003, his reserve unit was activated, and Fulop was deployed to Iraq, where he served as part of the 6th Engineer Support Battalion for six months. He traveled into Baghdad in the early weeks of the war. The battalion focused on engineering, logistics, water purification, and fuel, part of the support infrastructure that allowed swift movement through Iraq. His unit was written about in numerous periodicals during the war, which highlighted the company's movements, their contributions to the war, and the challenges that they encountered. The New Jersey ''Star Ledger'' highlighted Fulop on several occasions as a result of his choice to leave his financial services job to serve his country.

After his service in Iraq, Fulop returned to Goldman Sachs.Zernicke, Kate
"A New Mayor to Match Jersey City’s Ambitions"
''New York Times'' (June 30, 2013) In early 2006, he left Goldman Sachs to take a position at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.,Young, Elise
"Former Wall Street Trader Fulop Ousts Jersey City's Mayor"
''Bloomberg News'' (May 15, 2013) and also completed his service to the Marine Corps Reserve with a rank of Corporal.

Politics

Then-Governor Chris Christie's muscling of New Jersey's leaders to support his political campaign was exposed by Fulop. Christie's subsequent retaliation against Fulop led to actions that became known as Bridgegate.

Campaign for Congress

Fulop ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2004 against current U.S. Senator Bob Menendez, who then represented New Jersey's Congressional District; Fulop lost the June 8, 2004 primary election by 74.8 percentage points, 87.4%–12.6%.

City Council election

In May 2005, Fulop was the winner against an incumbent councilman in Jersey City's Ward E, representing the downtown area. When Fulop was sworn into office at 28 years old, he was the youngest member of the city council by more than 17 years and the third youngest in the nearly 200-year existence of the city. However, as noted by ''The New York Times'', the most significant difference between Fulop and every elected official in Jersey City, and most in Hudson County, is that he won the election with no establishment support, beating an incumbent with the backing of Senator Robert Menendez, Mayor Jerramiah Healy of Jersey City, and the Hudson County Democratic organization.

Fulop was outspent by more than 2-to-1 during the campaign but several tactical innovations that were highlighted in ''The Star-Ledger'', ''The New York Times'', and ''The Jersey Journal'' contributed to Fulop's win against stiff opposition.

In May 2009, Fulop was re-elected for a second term with 63% of the vote. In 2012, the ''Hudson Reporter'' named him #4 in its list of Hudson County's 50 most influential people.

Legislation

As a councilman, one of Fulop's main interests was ethics reform. In September 2007, he proposed legislation that would have restricted use of city vehicles and property, banned officials from holding multiple elected or appointed positions in government, instituted business and income transparency requirements for elected officials and barred people from lobbying an entity in which they serve. This legislation was rejected by a 6–1–1 vote. Fulop then proposed that Jersey City voters have the opportunity to institute new ethics reform measures by voting on two referendums. The first referendum would prevent elected officials or government employees from collecting more than one taxpayer-financed salary, a practice known as double dipping. By state law, one cannot stop an individual from serving multiple government positions by popular vote, but since state law allows a municipality to hold back a paycheck and benefits if voted on by referendum, it is possible to change the pay structures at the local level to ensure that there is less incentive to collect multiple paychecks and pensions. The second referendum would make it illegal for any entity that does business with the city, such as a developer or contractor, to make a political contribution to a local candidate for a one-year period. This would prohibit those with a specific interest in controlling a singular aspect of local government from bankrolling a local elected official who may have the power to influence that specific interest.

Political prospects

After his election to a second council term, Fulop was expected by some to run for mayor in 2013. In 2010 a Fulop-backed slate won all three open seats on the Board of Education. In September 2016 Fulop endorsed former rival Phil Murphy for governor, opting to run for his second mayoral term.

Mayor

On May 14, 2013, Fulop beat sitting mayor Jerramiah T. Healy by 15 percentage points, 53%–38%, to become the 49th mayor of Jersey City. Fulop took office on July 1, 2013, with a vision to make Jersey City the "best mid-sized city in the country". Due to a healthy population growth rate combined with a significant increase in residential construction, Fulop has asserted that Jersey City will overtake Newark, New Jersey