Anibal Ramos

The Governor of Puerto Rico, Anibal Acevedo, will be in Newark next Monday to endorse North Ward Council candidate Anibal Ramos in his bid to unseat incumbent City Councilman Hector Corchado.

Newark City Councilman Hector Corchado, one of Mayor Sharpe James' strongest supporters, endorsed Cory Booker for Mayor just a few hours before James announced he would not seek re-election -- but there is no evidence that Booker cares. Corchado's opponent in the race for the North Ward Council seat, former Board of Education member Anibal Ramos, is a longtime Booker supporter. Tomorrow, some key members of Team Booker, including Councilmen Luis Quintana and Augusto Amador, and former Councilwoman Mildred Crump, will join Ramos to "accept" his endorsement of Booker for Mayor and of the Booker Council slate.

A source involved in Cory Booker's campaign for Mayor of Newark say that the "train has not yet left the station, but it will soon and people will most definitely be left behind" -- strongly suggesting that Booker will win the May election and that there is still time for former supporters of incumbent Sharpe James to join their team.

Hector Corchado has become the third Newark City Councilman to endose Booker; Corchado is in a competitive race with former Board of Education member Anibal Ramos, who has the backing of Corchado's political foe, Steven Adubato, Sr. Adubato is expected to back James, but Ramos is supporting Booker. Ramos, who called Corchado a key member of James' inner circle, said that "Corchado's ridiculous about-face endorsement of Cory Booker's candidacy reminds us of something out of a bad episode of TV's 'Survivor.' That he would throw his mentor, Sharpe James, under the bus so fast to save what's left of his weak campaign only shows you what he's all about - himself."

There continues to be intense speculation that James will drop his bid for a sixth term as Mayor of Newark. Several sources reported last Friday that James would talk to the press about his campaign, but that never happened.

City Council President Donald Bradley decided last Friday that he would not seek re-election to a sixth term, avoiding a nasty battle with Oscar James, Sharpe James' former campaign manager and advisor, and John James, the son of the Mayor, who is running as J. Sharpe James. James held the South Ward Council seat from 1974 to 1982, when he ran for an At-Large seat. He was replaced by Donald Payne, a former Freeholder, who served until his election to Congress in 1988. Payne's son, Donald Payne, Jr., who has been an Essex County Freeholder since January, is running for Councilman-At-Large; Payne Jr. had initially been slated to run on Sharpe James ticket, but withdrew from that slate last week.

One race to watch in the Newark municipal election in May is for the North Ward City Council seat, where incumbent Hector Corchado faces Anibal Ramos, a former school board member. One of the other candidates, Abinoam Ramos, filed his nominating petitions as A. Ramos -- a move that caused Anibal Ramos to allege that Corchado recruited the other Ramos in a deliberate effort to confuse voters. But Superior Court Judge Patricia Costello ruled today that state law does not allow a candidate to file petitions using just an initial and removed A. Ramos from the ballot.