Jeffrey Dye

PASSAIC - On the day the Herald News endorses real estate developer Jose Sandoval  in the mayor’s race, four of the five candidates sit at the front of a big room hugging highway 21 at a warehouse district debate sponsored by an alliance of community groups.

A fifth chair stands empty.

“I had other commitments and I had to make those commitments,” Councilman Joe Garcia explains later.

Garcia’s absence at the last debate forum before Tuesday’s special election fans rumors that either one of the campaigns of Dr. Alex Blanco or city super Vinny Capuana broke through and secured backing from the councilman’s supporters, thereby shutting down his campaign.

Lus Santiago, right,applauds his son at City Hall

PASSAIC – Senior lab tech and family man Luis Santiago figures the fact that he’s been married for 36 years and gone to work at the same company for as long, while striving always to be an honorable citizen and taxpayer, ought to count for something in the City Council election.

“I’m fed up,” says the 58-year old father of two sons and four grandchildren. “I’m paying $10,400 a year in property taxes. That’s almost a quarter of my salary. My wife and I, we’re happy. The job I’ve got? The best job I could ever have.”

But local government… well, it leaves something to be desired, in the view of the candidate.A long-shot, he’s vying with four other men to replace downed Councilman Marcellus Jackson, who pleaded guilty to corruption charges last year.

Kenneth Lucianin and childhood friend Lisa Wozny

PASSAIC – Look hard among the lawn signs for the 8th Congressional District race, and you might see a few in there that say “Kennedy for Congress.”

That’s because Democratic Party insider Kenneth Lucianin, a candidate for the City Council, is bringing in  U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.) tonight for a bash at his house against the backdrop of the Nov. 4th special elections.

Kennedy is the son of U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.).

Aligned with Assemblyman Gary Schaer (D-Passaic) and mayoral candidate Dr. Alex Blanco, Lucianin is a former school board member, former Port Authority employee, and the son of Kenneth Lucianin, Sr., a retired police director and Passaic patriarch.