Alex Blanco

Mayor Alex Blanco, right, and Assemblyman Gary Schaer (D-Passaic).

PASSAIC – With backing from Gov. Jon Corzine and U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez (D-Hoboken), the re-election campaign of Mayor Alex Blanco showed every early sign of moonwalking to victory today.

That was until operative Kevin Collins, who recently left the gubernatorial campaign of Steve Lonegan, surfaced as an opposition researcher for Blanco nemesis Vincent Capuana, and a week and a half ago muddied the incumbent mayor with mailers describing his financial woes, which at the very least seized the attention of Team Blanco.

The favorite immediately retaliated, issuing counterpunch lit. detailing Capuana’s salary climb to over $100,000 during the years of disgraced and jailed former Mayor Sammy Rivera, and highlighting Capuana’s receipt of a loan from the same mortgage company owned by a developer with whom Capuana had school board dealings.

Non-partisan local elections will be held in 28 municipalities today, and Republican gubernatorial candidates Christopher Christie and Steven Lonegan will hold their first official televised debate tonight.

Key mayoral races will be held in Jersey City, where the popular incumbent, Jerramiah Healy, must win 50% of the vote in a five-man field to avoid a runoff; in Passaic, where newly-elected Mayor Alex Blanco faces voters for the second time in six months; in Hoboken, where David Roberts is stepping down after two terms; and in Hillside, Robbinsville, and West Windsor.

New Jersey Network (NJN) will air the debate, sponsored by Gannett New Jersey and the Philadelphia Inquirer, at 8PM.  It will be available on streaming video at njn.net.  NJN News anchor Jim Hooker will be the moderator, and NJN reporter Zach Fink will offer debate commentary on Twitter.

NJN Senior Political Correspondent Michael Aron will host a post-debate analysis on NJN2 and njn.net will Seton Hall University Prof. Joe Marbach, Rutgers University Prof. Ingrid Reed, former EPA Regional Administrator Alan Steinberg, and former State Sen. Richard LaRossa.  Marbach, Steinberg and LaRossa are unpaid contributors for PolitickerNJ.com.

A second GOP debate, sponsored by the League of Women Voters of New Jersey, will be held at 11AM on Sunday, May 17 on WABC-TV/Channel 7 in New York and on WPVI-TV/Channel 6 in Philadelphia. 

A third candidate, Assemblyman Rick Merkt (R-Mendham), will join Christie and Lonegan in two other debates: New Jersey 101.5 on May 26 at 7PM, and WOR 710 on May 27 at 4PM.

Voters in ten municipalities going to the polls to elect a Mayor: Jersey City, Hoboken, Passaic, Hillside, West Windsor, Robbinsville, Byram, Stafford, Tinton Falls, and Island Heights.  Municipal elections will also be held in Asbury Park, Avalon, Audubon Borough, Bordentown City, Cedar Grove, Collingswood, Evesham, Hackensack, Haddonfield, Lyndhurst, Millville, Monmouth Beach, Pohatcong, South Orange, Tavistock, Verona, West Cape May, and Wildwood Crest.

Vincent Capuana, center, with supporters in 2008.

PASSAIC - Shaking off a punch thrown by the mayoral campaign of city super Vinny Capuana targeting the mayor’s financial troubles, the re-election campaign of Mayor/Dr. Alex Blanco retaliated this week by calling out Capuana on an alleged conflict-of-interest. 

Capuana, a long-serving member of the Passaic School Board, presided as board president in 2001 when the state Schools Construction Corporation (SCC) asked the board to consider six properties for the siting of schools, including property on Henry Street owned by local developer Richard Doren. The board approved the acquisition  of those properties.  

Doren’s wife’s subsequently made a personal mortgage loan to Capuana in the amount of $100,000, Capuana acknowledged.

Mayor Alex Blanco and Councilman Daniel Schwartz meet Roberto Clemente, Jr.

PASSAIC – The chest-thumping out of Camp Capuana didn't reach enough of a din Tuesday to diminish the perception of Team Blanco’s momentum as the mayor and his running mates joined Little Leaguers at La Sevilla and shook hands with ex-slugger Roberto Clemente, Jr., who sat at a table and signed baseballs.

The mayor would soon feel the uncomfortable fat of the bat from his rival’s campaign when a mailer targeting his personal financial difficulties made contact on the city streets today, but Dr. Alex Blanco said he gutted it up the hard way, is taking care of business, and consequently is unashamed of those challenges.  

Vincent Capuana, the longtime city supervisor who lost to Blanco by 203 votes in a special election last November and now runs against him in an otherwise cleared mayoral field, maintained control of the School Board by a 5-4 vote Monday.

PASSAIC – The School Board candidates supported by Mayor Alex Blanco buried their opponents in tonight’s School Board elections, according to unofficial results from the Clerk’s Office. Byron Bustos received 1,420 votes; Salim Patel 1,338; and Ronald Van Rensalier 1,363.

The next closest competitor earned in the neighborhood of 800 votes. 

The victories bode well for Blanco as he considers his own reelection bid against city super Vincent Capuana on May 12th.

PASSAIC – A show of force rally Monday on the steps of City Hall featuring U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez (D-Hoboken) raising the arm of Mayor Alex Blanco didn’t intimidate city supervisor Vincent Capuana, who’s challenging Blanco in the May 12th election.

“You don’t think Menendez was there to protect that big (legal) contract of his friend, Donald Scarinci?” queried Capuana, a longtime School Board member who lost to Blanco by 200 votes in last year’s special election for mayor.

Scarinci’s firm gets $350,000 annually for the legal work it performs in Passaic. He has had the contract since 1992 and in that time has served the administrations of four mayors. 

“I have not been involved in the campaign or contributed to any candidate,” longtime Menendez backer Scarinci told PolitickerNJ.com. 

U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-Hoboken), right, endorses Passaic Mayor Alex Blanco

PASSAIC – The city stood at City Hall, or so it seemed, as a large crowd gathered to give its blessing to Mayor Alex Blanco, who tonight announced his intentions to run for mayor again, with the backing of U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-Hoboken), State Democratic Party Chairman Joe Cryan and Passaic County Democratic Chairman John Currie all present to augment the voices of the people.

Trumpeted as a long time coming crumbling of wink and nod politics in Passaic, the mayor’s “Honesty in Action” campaign kick-off flew in the face of a ragtag assortment of Vincent Capuana allies, who heckled the speakers from their campaign HQ on the other side of Passaic Avenue, but were mostly drowned out by the merengue-salsa-soul rhythm spectacle of Blanco and his base.  

“Let no one, not even an opponent we defeated in November, stop our forward progress,” cried Blanco. “When people ask you, ‘Why are you so confident you can make change?’ You tell them, ‘The doctor is in!’”

Running on the heels of a mayor indicted - and later jailed - on corruption charges by then-U.S. Attorney Chris Christie, podiatrist Blanco defeated city super/School Board President Capuana last year, 3,859 to 3,656, after he secured the powerful 3rd Ward backing of Assemblyman/Council President Gary Schaer (D-Passaic).

U.S. Senator Robert Menendez will attend a rally in Passaic tonight to endorse Mayor Alex Blanco for re-election.  Blanco won a special election last year to replace Gary Schaer, who became Acting Mayor after Sammy Rivera’s criminal conviction. 

State Sen. Paul Sarlo (D-Wood-Ridge)

Passaic Democratic Committee Chairman John Currie’s decision to welcome three strikes and you’re out (Assembly, Congress, mayor) Republican candidate Jose Sandoval into the Democratic Party this afternoon triggered a curiosity wave in the city as Democrats wondered about Sandoval’s intentions.

The chief question was whether the real estate developer with a bug for politics and access to cash would turn around and run in the 36th Legislative District Democratic Primary against his former conqueror Assemblyman Gary Schaer (D-Passaic)?

Currie said he did not discuss that possibility with Sandoval.

“I first heard that he might do that on Friday night, but I couldn’t stop him if I wanted to,” said the party chairman. “All he told me is he’s bringing 1,000 of his people into our party, and if you ask me, that’s pretty positive. Anyone can challenge anyone at anytime. I told him you don’t really need me to change parties but if you want to do something publicly, that’s fine.”

From left: Passaic Mayor Alex Blanco, Passaic Freeholder Director Tahesha Way, and U.S. Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy (D-R.I.)

PASSAIC – Joe Kennedy wasn’t in the room but he likely would have marveled at the political challenge.

Quietly wrestling with the karma of what Jose Sandoval’s entry into his party means, Passaic County Democratic Party Chairman John Currie welcomed an opportunity Friday night to reflect on the larger dimensions of his party’s history as he stood beside U.S. Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy (D-R.I.).

“I remember when I learned of the death of President John F. Kennedy,” said Currie. “I was walking across the bridge over the falls in Paterson on my way to football practice.” 

Still, there was no escaping local politics as the younger Kennedy stood next to Passaic Mayor Alex Blanco in the crowded living room of the parents of local Councilman Kenneth Lucianin.