Charles Bell

NEWARK – Getting caught in the middle of political theater involving other, bigger antagonists goes with the territory when it comes to the fledgling career of Nakea White, Central Ward council candidate.   

No big deal.

Politics here with all of its intrigue still generally has fewer hard edges than crime.

“The number one issue in our ward is crime, especially with the recent shootings on Boyd, these are the issues affecting people,”  says White, sitting in her gritty, second story campaign headquarters on Springfield Avenue. “People are scared.  A woman told me the other day she’s scared that she might be the next person to get shot.”

Central Ward Democratic Chairman Dwight Brown,left, and Central Ward Council candidate Charles Bell.

NEWARK – Holding a street sign accusing him of waste and corruption, former Councilman Charles Bell denounced a high-end campaign launched against him by “They Work for Us,” a labor organization based in Washington, D.C.

Neither his most visible rival in the Central Ward Council race, labor leader Eddie Osborne, nor Osborne’s campaign, would take responsibility for the signs.

“The only campaign Eddie Osborne is running is a positive, grassroots campaign focused on creating jobs, protecting jobs and making Newark a safer place for Central Ward families," said spokesman Joshua Henne. "We don’t know anything about any other groups independently highlighting issues they think might be important to the voters. The only thing Eddie Osborne is focused on is bringing Barack Obama’s change to the Central Ward next Tuesday." 

“They Work for Us” didn’t respond. Their signs hit the streets this week, along with a couple of glossy anti-Bell mailers.

The former councilwoman wants her former colleague to win in the Central Ward

The Central Ward council race has horizon line implications for 2010, as former Councilwoman Gayle Chaneyfield-Jenkins seeks traction for her own comeback by backing her former colleague, Councilman Charles Bell on Nov. 4th.

It was Chaneyfield-Jenkins who started circling allies around Bell in the late summer to break up Mayor Cory Booker’s team on the city council with a throwback candidate in the special election to fill the seat left vacant by former Councilwoman Dana Rone.

Chaneyfield-Jenkins served on the governing body for 12 years as an at-large councilwoman before the Booker Team turned her – and Bell – out of office in 2006. 

Eddie Osborne and Newark Mayor Cory Booker today in the Central Ward: Politicker photo 

NEWARK - Mayor Cory Booker today said he stands with Eddie Osborne, business manager of Laborers Local 1153, who’s in a special Nov. 4th contest to succeed ousted Central Ward Councilwoman Dana Rone.

The money candidate in a 13-person race, Osborne enjoys state and countywide Labor connections, and he smiled happily as a force of orange-shirted Laborers International Union of North America (LIUNA) volunteers chanted his name: "Eddie! Eddie! Eddie!"

Booker used to be the councilman in this ward, and he remembered Osborne as a humble, hard-working family man.

"I was very blessed when I ran for Central Ward Council and a whole bunch of people stood up for a reform movement that started a decade ago," Booker said, standing with Osborne in a vacant lot slated to become First Street Park.

Laborers' business manager Eddie Osborne: Politicker file photo 

NEWARK - The old guard's gauntlet down, Mayor Cory Booker seeks to stem the local losses of the past few months by making a stand with the campaign of Central Ward Council candidate Eddie Osborne. 

Booker on Monday will officially endorse labor leader Osborne for Central Ward Council, according to Newark sources.

One of 13 candidates seeking to replace ousted Councilwoman Dana Rone, Osborne this week said he didn't know if he would receive Booker's backing.

"But I definitely would like to have it," he told PolitickerNJ.com.

Sources say an 18-day Osborne/Booker lit-blitz starts in the ward tomorrow, as Booker's soldiers join union workers in an effort to propel Osborne past apparent frontrunner, former Councilman Charles Bell.

Former Councilman Charles Bell: Politicker photo 

NEWARK - The crowded race for a vacant Central Ward Council seat features a veteran with the stalwart backing of Newark’s gray-haired fathers, versus a labor-cash infused newcomer who may or may not receive support from a wobbling Mayor Cory Booker.

Thirteen candidates hope to fill the seat an assignment judge separated from Central Ward Councilwoman Dana Rone after Rone this summer exhausted her appeals process going back to a 2006 obstruction of justice case.

But apparent frontrunner Charles Bell sees his chief challenger - both for Obama affection and for the local council seat - as fellow labor brother Eddie Osborne, whose billboards and signs laden with Obama iconography have hit the Central Ward like an orange blizzard.

The Osborne campaign sizes up the contest similarly.

In their sights, they see Bell, a former councilman, school board member for nearly 30 years and retired labor official with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Workers Union, who combines name ID and an alliance with time-tested political infrastructure.

In a race to fill a vacant seat on the Newark City Council in the Central Ward, union rep. Eddie Osborne continues to draw considerable dollars from his friends in Labor.

According to his filing this week with the state Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC), Osborne pulled in $40,800, with contributions ranging from ironworkers ($8,200) to the NJ Laborers PAC ($8,200) to the Building and Construction Trades of Essex County ($2,600).

Osborne is fighting for a seat on the council in a field of 13 candidates jockeying to replace former Councilwoman Dana Rone, whom an assignment judge dumped from the governing body this past summer after Rone exhausted her appeals in an obstruction of justice case.

Sources say that Newark Mayor Cory Booker will endorse Eddie Osborne for the Central Ward City Council seat.  Osborne, a union organizer with close ties to the Booker camp, is seeking the seat of Dana Rone, who was removed from office by a Superior Court Judge after her conviction on charges that she interfered with police during a routine traffic stop of her nephew. 

It’s no surprise, given his public comments the last few weeks regarding a possible replacement for former Central Ward Councilwoman Dana Rone.

But any doubt regarding where North Ward Democratic leader Steve Adubato stands in the special elections for her replacement on Nov. 4th evaporated on Saturday when Adubato prodded Charles Bell into a picture with New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and local elected officials at the Flamboyan.

Running as part of Team Booker, Rone defeated incumbent Councilman Bell in the 2006 mayoral election. Citing Rone’s use of her public office to obstruct justice in December of 2007, an assignment judge this summer relieved Rone of her council seat and barred her from public office.

Newark Council President Mildred Crump with Brendan Gill, campaign manager for Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-Cliffside Park): Politicker photo 

DENVER - The Rone drama drones on even though it’s Denver and not Newark.

Mayor Cory Booker, who today is scheduled to speak at the Black Caucus Town Hall at the convention center, says he would prefer a woman representative in the Central Ward.

His first choice is ousted Councilwoman Dana Rone, whom an assignment judge released from her elected duties last month after concluding that the councilwoman’s punishment for using her office to obstruct justice merited being barred for life from public office.

Rone remains in appeals mode. Meanwhile, support for former Central Ward Councilman Charles Bell - vanquished by the Booker Team in 2006 - grows, according to Newark sources.