Person of the YearJames Hennessy

      He pulled off the upset of upsets in November 2003, garnering the most votes by a Republican City Council candidate ever. He did it by beating Mr. Name Recognition himself Joel Crystal, the beloved teacher whose brother happens to host the Oscars.
      He is handsome, a head-turner, a looker. For proof, see the Just For Men box.
      Since Jan. 1, James Hennessy has been the standard-bearer for a new philosophy of government in the city of Long Beach, for better or worse. So far his government has fired (or not made an effort to keep) the old regime-s city manager, its police commissioner, its recreation commissioner, its corporation counsel, a handful of its zoning board members, its zoning board attorney, its civil service commissioners (all of them), its chief of lifeguards, its insurance brokers, its tax assessor, its PR guy. We may be forgetting a few.
      Each year the Herald names a Person of the Year, and frankly, giving the award to a politician doesn-t fit well with the whole idea. There were many notable achievements this year by less recognizable figures for example, Long Beach scoutmaster Garrie Carter, who was named the Iroquois District-s Scoutmaster of the Year, and Roy Lester, the Board of Education trustee who, in conjunction with Project Challenge, started the East School-s teen center over the summer. When politicians like Hennessy succeed, they are generally doing only what they were elected, paid and expected to do.
      But this is a Republican a real one, not an unhappy Democrat running Long Beach. That in itself is notable. He and his running mates survived their first year, during which the Democrats threw everything they had at them. That-s even more notable.
      So, for his leadership of an insurgent government through uncharted and highly unfriendly waters, the Herald has named Hennessy its 2004 Person of the Year.
      Of course, the going has been tough at times for Hennessy and his fellow Republicans, Tom Sofield Jr. and Mona Goodman:
      Their hand-picked city manager self-destructed.
      The layoffs they instituted nearly caused a City Hall revolt.
      The centerpiece of their map to solvency, the unloading of the Waldbaum-s shopping plaza, is gleefully being held hostage by the City Council-s Democratic minority.
      Tom Sofield Sr.-s appointment as police commissioner a promotion that everyone agrees was probably five years overdue was marred by bad timing and the inevitable charges of nepotism.
      On the big things, however, the members of the Republicans- self-described coalition government have delivered, or nearly died trying:
      They pulled off a politically vital zero tax increase that may even happen without a Waldbaum-s sale.
      They created a board of ethics for the city, which raises the question, How did one not exist before?
      They created a planning board and hired professional consultants to guide it.
      A city plan is in the works, just like the plans other cities have.
      And while Hennessy is just one member of the coalition team currently running the city, as council president, his is the face that appears on News 12 and in the Times-s Long Island section. His is the name being thrown around by the Nassau GOP as a possible replacement for Assemblyman Harvey Weisenberg or County Executive Tom Suozzi.
      And he-s the guy on the Just for Men hair color box. It paid off my college loans, he says with a shrug. I don-t use the product now, but probably will need to by the time I-m done with politics.
      Hennessy is the guy, everyone agrees, who is hard not to like. Jim is just about the hardest-working guy I-ve ever met, said Sofield, the council-s vice president.
      Even Denis Kelly, a Democratic councilman who defected and endorsed Hennessy and his colleagues last year only to publicly renounce them later said that even after some serious fallings-out with the coalition, he still holds Hennessy in high regard. I believe Jim Hennessy wants to do the right thing, Kelly said. He-s earnest, and I think he-s a great politician.
      But how does an Irish kid from the Walks the eighth of nine kids become a Republican?
      He just did, is all.
      My dad is a diehard Democrat in the city, Hennessy said. A union guy, with a long career at the Helmsley Palace Hotel. He ran Harry-s Bar.
      It-s probably the influence of my stepfather, Peter Lucas, Hennessy theorized. Just the highest quality moral guy. Ask anybody. All the conversations at the dinner table were about politics. He was just so sure of right versus wrong. Imagine the moral fiber of someone who would, as he did, marry a single woman with nine kids ...
      He-s Slovakian. He came here after World War II, having been in the concentration camps because he and his family were hiding Jews. He was somebody who was always active with community activities: He was on the board of the Martin Luther King Center, volunteered at the Far Rockaway JASA [Jewish Association for Services for the Aged] and at the senior citizen center. He himself is a senior citizen, but he hasn-t figured that out yet.
      So as corny as this sounds, Hennessy went on, I grew up wanting to do something for Long Beach, especially since I grew up during a time in Long Beach when kids were forbidden by their parents from going to the boardwalk by themselves.
      As a kid, he was recruited to hand out campaign posters for his neighbor, Frances Hodson, who won a seat on the City Council. Hennessy recalled being pleasantly surprised when she won although he admits now that at the time he wasn-t sure what it meant.
      So politics began to sound like fun. He became a lifeguard as a teenager, and said he was approached by his boss while sitting in his chair and was told that part of his job description included registering as a Democrat. He did, he said, then later secretly switched back.
      Another part of the lifeguard-s job description, he learned, was covering for all the other guards who had gotten their jobs through connections and not because they met even minimum qualifications. On the first day of training, everyone would introduce themselves to each other and say, ÔSo who do you know?- he recalled. A lot of these guys, and I-m being totally serious, couldn-t even swim.
      Hennessy-s older brother was a fireman who hung out with the fire chief, Jim Moriarty, who was active in the local GOP. Hennessy worked on Moriarty-s campaign for City Council, and when Moriarty won, he made Hennessy a committeeman. Today, Moriarty runs the Long Beach Republican Committee.
      But Hennessy didn-t like the direction the party was heading, and said he felt powerless to effect change under an increasingly powerful Democratic regime. He dropped out of politics, went to college, became a teacher, met a California girl, Bonnie Voda, and got married. Modeling brought in a healthy second income. His destiny seemed miles away.
      But then, one night at Jimmy Hays steak house, Hennessy ran into Lt. Tom Sofield of the Long Beach Police Department, who suggested that Hennessy and Sofield-s son, Tom Jr., quit their griping and run together. They did, along with Goodman, in 2001, and they believe they would have won if the events of Sept. 11 hadn-t derailed their ability to campaign and raise money.
      Two years later, with the city suddenly deep in debt and facing a Democratic opposition that didn-t seem to have its head in the game, Hennessy, Sofield Jr. and Goodman did win. They have three seats on the five-seat council, and will need Goodman to win re-election next November to keep their majority.
      It has been a terrific show to watch. After a generation of 5-0 council votes, Hennessy was elected council president in a 3-2 vote. The coalition-s budget passed 3-2. Their new city manager, Charles Theofan, was appointed 3-2.
      But as Hennessy is fond of saying, That-s democracy in action. Something different, for a change. Worthy of naming a Long Beach politician the Herald-s 2004 Person of the Year.