The long march in Passaic doesn't end on Tuesday

PASSAIC – It’s bleak on Monday.  The sky never disgorges the rain and people stand around in the streets and talk about what’s going to go down here tomorrow.

There’s one day left in this five-man race for a seat left vacant by a man in federal prison, and most have a good idea about who’s wearing wires and where the money’s coming from, but no one knows who’s going to win.

Not if they’re telling the truth.

Campaign headquarters are almost up to full strength several hours before real estate developer Jose Sandoval, physician Alex Blanco, code enforcement inspector/School Board President Vinny Capuana, bail bondsman Carl Ellen and landlord/City Councilman Joe Garcia head to the local Baptist Church for a final collective prayer on the eve of Election Day.

Then they’ll be back to tearing one another to pieces.

It looked three weeks ago like a two-man race between Capuana and Blanco.

The former has served for 26 years on the School Board, knows everyone there is to know, and commands a citywide base. A craggy, 72-year old Sicilian immigrant, he also has a homespun Passaic quality that’s hard to resist when he points at Blanco and tells a debate audience, “I’m proud of this man right here,” as a product of the Passaic City school system.

A lot of people are proud of Blanco, a 36-year old podiatrist in the city who runs with the blessing of Acting Mayor/Assemblyman Gary Schaer, whose 3rd Ward allies start lining up to vote on Election Day at 7 a.m.

But a Herald News endorsement of Sandoval last week coupled with dreadful front page headlines for Capuana, and Sandoval’s own pedal-to-the-metal organizing have catapulted Sandoval back into the race, according to city sources.  

The irony is that may ultimately help Capuana, because Sandoval, Blanco and Garcia are all trying to break out of the pack to be the Latino candidate with crossover appeal.  

With Schaer’s backing, Blanco can already claim some strength. But he’s also competing with Sandoval for the same base Dominican votes. A native Puerto Rican, Garcia checks both of them as they jockey to salvage broader Hispanic support.

That’s their common dilemma.

A day after his campaign showed circus-like intensity on the streets with a caravan of cars trailing a TV on wheels showing images of Sandoval’s life, the candidate projects confidence.

“We have a political structure here that’s been ongoing for the last three years,” he says in his campaign headquarters that sits on what his detractors call “the Sandoval compound” – several enormous upscale homes that he owns and personally renovated.

But for all of his campaign muscle – trucks, vans, troops, organization, impeccable appearance in pressed shirt, tie, slacks and polished shoes, manager of a giant company by the looks of him -  the candidate didn’t perform well in the city when he ran for Congress and for the Assembly.

Schaer, for example, crushed him citywide in 2005.

Now backed by Schaer, the younger Dominican success story Blanco battles both Sandoval and Capuana in casual conversation.

Across the street from his campaign headquarters on downtown Howe Avenue, a giant billboard with his face on it stretches across a piece of the gray Passaic skyline.

Blanco says that although Sandoval spent the latter part of his teen years working in factories, the older man’s lived too long on the hill and doesn’t feel the teeth of the streets anymore. For Blanco, that portrait of Sandoval as an out-of-touch Republican came most dramatically into focus during the debates when the real estate developer repeatedly pined for golf and crew teams in Passaic.

The doctor, who doesn’t play golf because he says he doesn’t have the time, thinks Sandoval’s selfishly projecting his own GOP universe into the environs.

“We have to do a survey of what people want instead of what he wants,” says Blanco, himself a former member of the GOP. “I’ve talked to people. They want more dancing activities. They want crafts. They don’t mention crew and golf. Let’s look to the needs of the community. Sandoval’s detached from the community. He’s basing his platform on himself and what he wants.”

Then there’s Capuana, who threw an Obama bash last week emceed by former Councilman Marcellus Jackson, who pleaded guilty earlier this year to taking a $26,000 bribe and forfeited his seat on the City Council.

The Herald News ran a front page story on Saturday. It may prove to be no dagger in the heart of Capuana’s campaign, however, with the campaign evidently relying on stick it to the man sentiment.

If Sandoval runs as the man who believes everyone else in the race is besmirched by the Rivera era, Blanco sets himself apart from Capuana by pointing to the Jackson incident.

“Marcellus Jackson is a voter,” he says. “He’s going to vote for Mr. Capuana. There’s nothing wrong with him being at the campaign event for Mr. Capuana. But being close to Mr. Capuana is a different story. There’s an old saying, ‘Tell me who you hang out with and I’ll tell you who you are.’”

At last Thursday’s rally for Capuana and Obama, Jackson ginned up the crowd by blasting Schaer and depicting Blanco as a tool of the acting mayor.

Yet in a 2005 endorsement letter addressed to the same African American community, Jackson lauded Schaer as the right man for the 36th District Assembly.

“As City Council President, Gary Schaer has served our City with vision and leadership, and I have had both the honor and privilege of working with him on many issues important to our City and our community,” Jackson wrote. “Along with the rest of the Council and Mayor Rivera, Gary has helped to lower crime 22 percent and has kept tax increases in the City the lowest in the County over the past four years.

“Gary understands the needs of our community, and whether it is more state aid for our Abbott school districts, or extra funding for the Boys and Girls Club, Gary has a deep understanding of the issues that affect us most. I am confident that the leadership he has always shown here in Passaic will serve our community well in Trenton.”

For his part, Sandoval wants to turn out the whole bunch of them – what he sees as the public, tortured mishmash of Schaer and Blanco and Jackson and Capuana and Garcia and the residue of former Mayor Sammy Rivera. He lumps them all together.

“Blanco’s hand-picked by Gary Schaer,” he says. “He’s Gary’s puppet. Gary can manage him. He’s working 14-hour days as a podiatrist in what he claims is a lucrative practice. How’s he going to do the job of mayor? He’s going to rely on Gary. I’m not beholden to anyone.”

Gary. Gary. Gary.

Everyone’s talking about Gary.

First it was Sammy, now it’s Gary. It’s a city that’s on a first name basis with its mayors.

It seems Blanco hears the name every time he walks down the street.

“The problem is there’s this impression out there that Gary is out to get the Hispanic community and that he wants to protect the Jewish community,” says Blanco. “Not a lot of people have this perception of Gary. To the community at large, he is an honest representative. He’s well-liked.”

But a small band of detractors out there wants to soften him up before next year’s 36th District Assembly race - where they plan to try to take Schaer down. Blanco fights them.

“When I talk to people, I tell them what Gary stands for: unity, fairness, ethics and moral standards,” says Blanco. “I tell voters that Gary’s Jewish, but he’s a person for everybody. And he’s endorsed me because he sees those qualities in me. My mother told me God hides everywhere. Every beggar who comes to you asking for a piece of bread might be God. That’s how I see people.”

Sandoval’s also religious. On the last Sunday before battle he attends services at four separate churches.

“When I’m elected,” he says, “the first thing I’m going to do is hold a meeting with the clergy, just to hear what their needs are.”

Asked if Capuana should have had Jackson at his campaign event, Sandoval doesn’t take a shot.

“I’m not going to tell him how to run his campaign,” he says.

The self-professed “change” candidate based on his never having held elected office, Sandoval says he doesn’t know who he’s going to choose for president, decrying both John McCain’s and Barack Obama’s failure to discuss immigration issues.

While an Obama campaign sign stands on Blanco’s HQ, Blanco likewise doesn’t exactly jump at the opportunity to give an Obama fist bump. Passaic sources say the 3rd Ward Orthodox Jews, whom Schaer represents, will vote overwhelmingly for McCain, based on their comfort level with the Republican’s views on Israel.

 That leaves ultimate Passaic insider and old-timer Capuana, and Ellen – the sole African American in the race – to play up the change-time Obama effect in their respective campaigns.

They all soldier onward.

At the mention of the clear-the-decks Herald News endorsement, Sandoval smiles.

Of course, none of the other candidates gives him credit for it, but “If it didn’t matter,” he asks, “why did they participate in the interviews for the profiles of each candidate?  Why did they bother going to the editorial board? We know the power of the press.”

Downtown, a car pulls up outside of Blanco’s headquarters and the candidate and some other men have a laugh about Sandoval’s plans for a golf course and crew team in Passaic. One of the men self-deprecatingly wonders if the types of boats Sandoval envisions are the same kind that Cubans use to escape to the Dominican Republic.

No one in any of the five camps can hazard an unequivocal victory statement, but they all know now there’s no escaping Tuesday.

But Tuesday's a race only to serve out an unexpired term.

Next May is the fight for the full four-year term. 

On Wednesday, presumably for at least the winner and some of the losers, the mayoral contest begins all over again.