Alex Blanco

Marcellus Jackson, who pleaded guilty to corruption charges and is awaiting sentencing, stumps for Passaic mayoral candidate Vinny Capuana last night

PASSAIC – A crowd packed the VFW Hall on Thursday night as former Councilman Marcellus Jackson, who pled guilty last year to corruption charges and is awaiting sentencing, seized a microphone and launched into a raise-the-roof speech in favor of Vinny Capuana for mayor and Barack Obama for president.

“Vinny’s done a lot for us and I’m doing all I can to help him in spite of my present troubles,” Jackson told PolitickerNJ.com.

Busted for taking $26,000 in bribes from federal agents posing as members of an insurance agency as part of Operation Broken Boards, Jackson, in the role of emcee, praised Capuana as a loyal man of the people who backed him in tough times.

In at least two special elections for mayor on Nov. 4th – in Passaic and Bayonne - attroney and big money Democratic Party donor Donald Scarinci stands to lose money if the other side wins.

In Passaic, Scarinci’s powerful firm, Scarinci and Hollenbeck, has the lucrative city attorney contract, with a base salary as high as $600,000 annually, not including add-ons.

City supervisor Vincent Capuana says if elected mayor he would look at trimming the firm from the payroll.

Countering that claim on the day he endorsed former School Board President Alex Blanco, Acting Mayor Gary Schaer said Capuana’s designs on in-house legal work likely wouldn’t save the city money.

In Bayonne, Scarinci represents Fidelco-Roseland Property, a residential developer of the Bayonne peninsula, site of the former Military Ocean Terminal.

Kenneth Lucianin and childhood friend Lisa Wozny

PASSAIC – Look hard among the lawn signs for the 8th Congressional District race, and you might see a few in there that say “Kennedy for Congress.”

That’s because Democratic Party insider Kenneth Lucianin, a candidate for the City Council, is bringing in  U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.) tonight for a bash at his house against the backdrop of the Nov. 4th special elections.

Kennedy is the son of U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.).

Aligned with Assemblyman Gary Schaer (D-Passaic) and mayoral candidate Dr. Alex Blanco, Lucianin is a former school board member, former Port Authority employee, and the son of Kenneth Lucianin, Sr., a retired police director and Passaic patriarch.

Acting Mayor Gary Schaer: Politicker file photo

PASSAIC - With his career at the state level apparently in ascendency, a handful of Trenton allies didn’t think Assemblyman Gary Schaer(D-Passaic), the new chairman of the Financial Institutions and Insurance Committee, should get in the middle of this ground-level, five-man mayor’s contest.

Other factors are already at work, none of them good, including a jailed former mayor, two busted former councilmen who are still visible in city politics, a third councilman defiantly digging in on the governing body against federal corruption charges, and an impaneled grand jury, which each day threatens to intrude on the campaign process by toppling yet another public official.

Moreover, some of the candidates competing - seemingly nice guys - in any event seemed too close to the man everyone still refers to around here as "Sammy," as in Sammy Rivera, the former mayor who had a good run for about five years before corruption caught up with him in his second term and the feds bagged him on bribery charges.

Passaic Mayor/Assemblyman Gary Schaer (D-Passaic) today endorsed Dr. Alex Blanco for mayor and Kenneth Lucianin for City Council.

Rumors that U.S. Senator Robert Menendez will endorse Dr. Alex Blanco for Mayor of Passaic are not true, according to sources close to the Menendez camp.  Menendez met privately with Blanco about two months ago, but has decided to stay out of the race and will not endorse anyone.

Former School Board President Alex Blanco: Politicker photo

Passaic mayoral candidate Alex Blanco says he is not the high-ranking public official implicated in a new indictment of former Councilman Jonathan Soto.  

Federal prosecutors added to Soto’s indictment yesterday, alleging the former councilman received cash payments from undercover agents posing as health insurance contractors. The government says Soto received money in exchange for exercising his official authority to secure business with the City of Passaic, including the Board of Education.

Blanco, who served as school board president during the time, insisted he never played any role in the case.

"I absolutely deny any involvement in that, and I unequivocally deny that Mr. Soto solicited any payments on my behalf," said Blanco, who called Wednesday’s news regarding Soto "shocking."

County Chairman John Currie: Politicker file photo 

As five candidates for mayor continue to slug it out in Passaic City, John Currie, chairman of the Passaic County Democratic Party, said he doesn't want to get in the middle of the action.

"I'm keeping out of that one," the chairman told PolitickerNJ.com moments before joining elected officials at an Obama rally in Paterson on Monday.

He's mostly focused on presidential politics and on his freeholder candidates, not the county's biggest local battle, he insisted. 

"I'm spending more money than I'd like on the freeholders' race, but that's all right," said Currie. "Registration's through the roof."

Jose Sandoval

PASSAIC - Mayoral candidate Jose Sandoval stands on the porch of a voter who’s frustrated by gangs, sexual predators, drug dealers, cops and politicians. 

The voter says the cops own local bars and nitpick residents with parking violations if they get in the way of business traffic. If the drug dealers harass the pit-bull that guards his property, he’s convinced the cops will kill his pit-bull. 

It’s frustrating. 

He calls to his son-in-law, who stands dutifully at attention as the man grasps the child’s slender shoulders in two calloused hands. The boy shows no emotion in the face of three strangers who tower over him.

“He’s autistic,” explains the man. “He can’t play outside here. There’s a child molester who lives up the street with three children. His wife’s a crack head. There are gangs in the streets. How can this boy play outside?” 

As for politicians...don’t get him started.