George Spadoro

Councilwoman Toni Ricgliano

At the center of Gov. Jon Corzine's turmoil in Middlesex County stands Edison, the biggest town of 25 Middlesex towns, and home to the most registered Democrats, where for Corzine, a civil war primary has bled dangerously into the general election.

On paper - 24,579 registered Democrats to 6,012 Republicans - Edison should be a steamroll win for Democrats, but the town's 17,842 undeclared voters typically don't let mayoral contests pass without a fight. Given the unholy alliances emblematic of Edison politics, the last four general elections here have been close. Top of the ticketwise, Corzine won Edison by single digits in 2005, the same year Mayor Jun Choi pulled out a squeaker against independent Bill Stephens.

Now the fact that Choi, beaten in the June primary, 6,582 to 6,204 votes, does not intend to endorse his Democratic Party conqueror, Councilwoman Antonia "Toni" Ricigliano, creates an especially troubling wrinkle for Team Corzine, who had hoped Choi would call on his troops to unify behind the Democratic ticket and mitigate any independent voter stampede away from Corzine.

Edison Mayor Jun Choi

****UPDATED 

Mayor Jun Choi once again plans to run against the local machine in the Democratic Primary, as the Edison Democratic Committee will back Councilwoman Toni Ricigliano for mayor in the June Primary, according to veteran Chairman Thomas Paterniti.

Pursuing reelection as mayor of New Jersey’s fifth biggest municipality, Choi did not submit his name to screen before the organization on Friday, which was the deadline - but sources close to the mayor say he has every intention of running with his party in this mostly Democratic town.

An early supporter of Barack Obama’s in the 2008 Democratic Presidential Primary, Choi went to Washington, D.C. as recently as last month to attend a meeting of the nation’s mayors with the new president. 

Edison Mayor Jun Choi outside one of his favorite haunts in his hometown.

EDISON – His town’s paved over compared to some of the more quaint rural reaches of the Garden State, but Mayor Jun Choi of Edison never had the luxury of acting like a politician who can stand on an unbreakable political foundation. 

He’s running for re-election next year, and this one will be no give-me for the first-term mayor who ran as an underdog the first time and despite the advantage he enjoys as an incumbent, can probably still claim the underdog brand as he squares off against a regenerated opposition. 

There are three council members up for re-election in 2009, and they are all prospective mayoral candidates: Council President Robert Diehl, Councilwoman Antonia Ricigliano, and Councilman Anthony Massaro.  

If it sounds like an easy divide and conquer opportunity for an incumbent with especially good name ID and blue collar celebrity status whose change-time election three years ago made the national magazine circuit, it’s actually not. 

EDISON - Diners anchor what’s left of the train-track and warehouseEdison Mayor Jun Choi: Politicker file photo girded countryside in this sprawling town, fifth biggest in New Jersey, where Mayor Jun Choi drinks his coffee on a summer morning in one of the more recognizable roadside haunts called the Plaza Diner.

The suit and tie and modest demeanor belie a man restlessly at work, for if Choi was an enigmatic upstart when he hit the scene three years ago, he has built himself into a surging political force, three-fourths of the way into his first term.

"And I’m running again," he says with a smile.

The Edison-raised kid who came from the inner sanctum of Bill Bradley’s machine-bucking 2000 presidential campaign, former state Department of Education wonk, Choi remains the Democratic Party outsider in a party that still does not know quite what to do with him.