David Lyons

Jon Corzine' early endorsement of Irvington Mayor Wayne Smith appears to have angered a group of local Democrats planning to challenge Smith when he comes up for re-election in May 2010.  Corzine took sides even though one likely Smith rival, Councilman David Lyons, is also backing Corzine.   Former Assemblyman Craig Stanley (D-Irvington), who is part of the Payne political dynasty, is also a possible candidate.  And the governor endorsed in a race knowing that State Sen. Ronald Rice (D-Newark), who represents Irvington, is unlikely to support the incumbent.

Gov. Jon Corzine with Irvington Mayor Wayne Smith, left, and Team Irvington founder Freeholder/Councilman D. Bilal Beasley.

IRVINGTON - Gov. Jon Corzine's informal endorsement tonight of Mayor Wayne Smith when the two walked on Springfield Avenue came shortly after Smith heartily endorsed the incumbent governor on the steps of City Hall as someone who understands the plight of this Essex County town of perennial hard knocks.

The knock on Smith usually comes in the form of a whisper.

"We've been together from the beginning," the governor said of the mayor, who for almost two years has heard the murmurs when he walks past - "Keith Reid named him in court as Irvington Official #1," and inevitably fielded reporters' repeated phone calls asking him if he plans to resign.

If not today, what about tomorrow?

"What you learn in this business is a public official can be accused of anything," Smith told PolitickerNJ.com. "You live with these things and you live through them. I haven't heard anything from the U.S. Attorney's Office, but more importantly, I didn't do anything wrong."

Howell: The School District’s decision to close Southard Elementary School opens up the prospect of where to route the children displaced by the closing – but that decision occurs only if voters approve the School Board’s proposed budget today.

Robbinsville: This is one of those towns where the School Board hopes to reverse a tide of voter discontent, but faces a political environment worse than last year, when voters rejected the budget. Robbinsville’s $38.6 million price tag for schools represents an increase of about $1.4 million from what it is now. The increase would result in an extra $189 for a homeowner assessed at $400,000, from $4,334 to $4,523. Last year, after killing the School Board's initial proposal, residents settled for a 3-cent hike engineered by the Town Council.

Hoboken: While the Zimmer Team supports the Kids First Slate in the School Board Elections, her opponents are ostensibly staying out of today's fight. “Part of that reason is I wanted to keep politics out of it - the mayor doesn’t support the Board of Education,” said councilwoman Beth Mason, while the Cammarano Team this morning issued an email blast reminding people to remember to register to vote.

North Ward Councilman David Lyons

IRVINGTON - North Ward Councilman David Lyons, a likely 2010 mayoral candidate, has long been the nemesis of Irvington Mayor Wayne Smith, for whom Keith Reid at his trial today said he accepted a $5,000 bribe.

“Number one, if that’s true,” said Lyons, “Wayne needs to resign. He should do the honorable thing and resign.”

Last year, the U.S. Attorney’s Office indicted Reid and ten other officials throughout New Jersey for accepting bribes from representatives of Coastal Solutions, LLC., an FBI operation posing as an insurance brokerage business offering services to municipalities. The indictment accused Reid of accepting $10,000 bribes from a cooperating witness in exchange for his assurance that he would influence Newark City Council President Mildred Crump and other public officials in Newark and Irvington to help secure insurance brokerage contracts.

IRVINGTON - It's been a tough year for Mayor Wayne Smith, whose name was spun into a federal scandal that knocked down 11 other public officials in late 2007.

As part of a U.S. Attorney's Office bribery investigation called Operation Broken Boards, FBI agents posing as dummy insurance salespeople last year identified two public officials in Irvington, one of whom directed them to give $5,000 to Keith Reid, former chief of staff to Newark Council President Mildred Crump.

The U.S. Attroney's Office indicted Reid on corruption charges, but as yet he remains the only public official as part of Operation Broken Boards who has not gone to trial.

To date, Smith has not spoken publicly about the incident or addressed rampant speculation that he is one of those Irvington officials who directed the FBI to give money to Red, but today in the face of a rumor in his city that he intends to imminently step down, the mayor said no way.

Council President John SowellIRVINGTON - Council President John Sowell said he is not ruling out a mayoral run in 2010, however, he said he would not run against Mayor Wayne Smith if Smith decides to pursue a third term.

"I don’t rule out anything, two years out," Sowell told PolitickerNJ.com, "But I wouldn’t run against Wayne, that’s not my style."

IRVINGTON - All of the incumbents won here, including North WardAt -Large Councilman David Lyons wins Councilman David Lyons, who eked out a victory over tough challenger Gene Etchison, a Newark police detective.

Often the lone dissenter on Irvington’s City Council, Lyons won 451 votes (51% ) to Etchison’s 427 votes (49%).

Lyons’s West Ward running mate, Keith White, lost to Council President John Sowell. In that ward, the incumbent earned 345 votes (60%) to White’s 222 (38%). A third candidate in the race, Cedric Hunter, earned just 9 votes.

A three-term incumbent, Lyons received the backing of Sen. Ronald Rice (D-Essex) in his second close win over Etchison in four years.

North Ward Councilman David Lyons in his campaign headquarters on Monday night. 

IRVINGTON - Gene Etchison approaches a sprawling old house on the corner of Clinton Avenue and tells the resident when he steps outside, "I love your grass. It’s cut real nice. I love to lie down in the grass, that’s why I always notice it when I go by here."

The man shakes the candidate's hand. He knows it’s the day before Election Day.

He confesses he has a problem with the way Mayor Wayne Smith’s administration is running the town, and he tells Etchison he’d like to go to Town Hall and tell them they need to improve the sanitation department - and everything else for that matter, but he just doesn’t have the energy anymore.

Sen. Ron Rice (D-Essex)Sen. Ronald Rice (D-Essex) hopes his written request to Attorney General Anne Milgram for an investigative audit of Irvington, cc’d to voters, will give North Ward Councilman David Lyons a leg up in Tuesday’s municipal elections.

A vocal critic of Mayor Wayne Smith’s management of the Essex County town and often the lone dissenting vote on the council, 12-year incumbent Lyons is in a competitive race with Newark Det. Gene Etchison.

Lyons has questions about his town’s obligation to pay the state back $8 million over a 20-year period, a result of the Smith administration’s bonding without the permission of the state Department of Community Affairs.

Rice has the same questions.

Council President John SowellIRVINGTON - A political pragmatist who insists his insider knowledge of how government works does not diminish his closeness to the community, Council President John Sowell says an aggressive opponent in the West Ward doesn’t know enough about the process to serve.

An executive with the sheet metal workers union, Sowell originally thought he was only going to be running against 21-year old Keith White, political acolyte of North Ward Councilman David Lyons.

Now he’s also trying to stare down an old contemporary.

It’s a three-way race in Irvington’s West Ward with Sowell intending to fend off not just National Guardsman White but one-time ally turned vocal detractor, security guard Cedric Hunter.

Challenger Cedric HunterHunter and Sowell fell out after Hunter, a leader of the Irvington Alliance, failed to spirit the council president away from Team Irvington, a group founded and run by At-Large Councilman (and Freeholder) Bilal Beasley, who was wounded in an unsuccessful challenge last year of Sen. Ronald Rice (D-Essex).

"Bilal Beasley’s run of victories at the county level are over and soon the people who so openly supported him will besiege him to rid themselves of his disgrace," Hunter wrote to Sowell soon after Beasley’s loss. "As one of his most obedient cohorts, your name is closely aligned with his. Hopefully, you will see that the handwriting is on the wall and Bilal Beasley’s career in politics will (not) last for too much longer."