Eddie Osborne

Booker emerges from voting booth at University High School.

Newark – There’s a big show of Booker force in the Central Ward that even has hardened campaign veterans backing former Councilman Charles Bell doing an early gutcheck .

“It’s David and Goliath,”’ says Central Ward Democratic Party Chairman Dwight Brown, watching the fusion of unions working for Mayor Cory Booker’s candidate and their fellow Laborer, Eddie Osborne, overrun the giant Central Ward, pop. 58,000.

“Their forces outnumber us, 10-1,” says Brown. “And they’ve got a drag operation going, hoping new Obama voters are going to drag down the ballot to vote for Osborne. I’ve been telling people not to confront them. Just stay in your spots. We can’t win if we confront them. They’re too many of them.”

Eddie Osborne, foreground

NEWARK – Thanksgiving came early in the Central Ward as Eddie Osborne and company hit the streets with turkeys for seniors, while the same lone, apparently paid, sentinel stood at the corner of McCarter Highway and Market Street with a sign dissing Charles Bell.

The whole ward is wired with candidates but it’s Bell versus Osborne overtime.

To look at the cityscape on its face, Osborne has the edge, for here in the city’s most populous ward there are Osborne signs, Osborne television ads, Osborne organizational muscle, vans mounted with megaphones and high visibility t-shirted LIUNA union workers passing out, yes, turkeys.

Mary, left, and former Councilwoman Dana Rone

 NEWARK – Spackled over with “Fight the Power” signs, the sedan cruises up 14th Avenue, and Georgia Maye Ransome’s voice sounds on the intercom, urging residents to get out there for the Rone ticket on Election Day. 

At the wheel of the car sits candidate Mary Rone, longtime community activist and mother of former Councilwoman Dana Rone, whom an assignment judge stripped of her Central Ward Council seat in August after concluding that Rone used her office to try to obstruct justice in a Dec. 2006 traffic incident.

Fifteen people, including her mother, vie to replace Dana Rone in a special election come Tuesday. There were originally 16 candidates but city job counselor Marcell Robinson dropped out of the race and now backs Rone.  

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.

Mary Rone, Central Ward council candidate

NEWARK – As the juggernaut campaigns of Charles Bell and Eddie Osborne hit each other at full speed in the Central Ward, Mary Rone mounts a grassroots operation from below that she hopes will knock both of the bigger operations to their knees on Nov. 4th.

“I’m going to win it for the people,” says the community activist, who with her late husband, James Rone, advocated for fair housing in the city going back to the late 1960s. “I’ve had enough of the ring-kissing style of politics, and I know the people of the Central Ward have too.”

She comes at the campaign with an extra burst of motivation.

Thirteen candidates are vying in a special election to fill the seat of Rone’s daughter, former Councilwoman Dana Rone, whom an assignment judge removed in August after determining that the councilwoman used her office to impede the work of Rutgers University cops in a Dec. 2006 traffic incident involving her nephew.

“You could say Dana losing her seat was my fault,” says the older Rone. “I instilled in her what my family instilled in me. If a family member is in distress, you help them. That’s all it was. It’s not about her improperly using her authority. My daughter is very protective, both of her community – and of her own family.”

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.