Mark Smith

Mayor-elect Mark Smith

Triumphant last week in the mayor’s race, Acting Police Director Mark Smith will officially take office today in Bayonne.

Five O’clock Mass at St. Henry’s Church will be followed by a 6 p.m. swearing-in ceremony at City Hall on Avenue C.

Smith topped a five-man field that included retired municipal Judge Pat Conaghan, former Mayor Richard Rutkowski, Zoning Commissioner Ray Rokicki and city clerk Robert Sloan.

Smith won with over 45 percent of the 20,000 votes cast.

Mark Smith has been elected Mayor of Bayonne, defeating former Muncipal Court Judge Patrick Conaghan by a 46%-33% margin. Smith is the city's  Police Director.  Former Mayor Richard Rutkowski finished third with 15%, followed by 5% for City Clerk Robert Sloan and 1% for Raymond Rokicki, a city zoning official.

In at least two special elections for mayor on Nov. 4th – in Passaic and Bayonne - attroney and big money Democratic Party donor Donald Scarinci stands to lose money if the other side wins.

In Passaic, Scarinci’s powerful firm, Scarinci and Hollenbeck, has the lucrative city attorney contract, with a base salary as high as $600,000 annually, not including add-ons.

City supervisor Vincent Capuana says if elected mayor he would look at trimming the firm from the payroll.

Countering that claim on the day he endorsed former School Board President Alex Blanco, Acting Mayor Gary Schaer said Capuana’s designs on in-house legal work likely wouldn’t save the city money.

In Bayonne, Scarinci represents Fidelco-Roseland Property, a residential developer of the Bayonne peninsula, site of the former Military Ocean Terminal.

Obama volunteer Karin R. White Morgen: Politicker photo 

BAYONNE - Forget about president, there’s a war for mayor going on, and millions of contract dollars at stake as this hard knock dock town faces redevelopment of the Navy peninsula.

But the mayor’s race and its implications for next year’s politics have now produced a smaller - but no less intense - spin-off war between regular and renegade Democrats scrambling to prove their allegiance to Sen. Barack Obama (D-Il.) with a little more than two weeks until Election Day.

Leading mayoral candidates, police director Mark Smith and retired judge Pat Conaghan, don’t want to publicly back Obama as they court 7,453 independent voters and 2,157 Republicans in what is billed as a nonpartisan election in an overwhelmingly Democratic (15,894 registered voters) yet historically white city.

The Republicans see opportunity here in this onetime Reagan Democrat stronghold, and have made targeted phone calls on behalf of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). But Obama’s 13-point lead over McCain in New Jersey and the Democrat’s frontrunner status nationally have at least one conspicuous Conaghan ally rushing to quell the perception that he’s operating outside the auspices of Obamaland.

On Saturday, Assemblyman Anthony Chiappone (D-Bayonne) enlisted the help of his ally, state Sen. Sandra Cunningham (D-Hudson), and opened an Obama for President headquarters at the corner of Avenue C and Andrews Street.

From that vantage point, he launched an attack on what he sees as a stalled-in-the-past local party organization he said has soft-pedaled its Obama outreach.

Sources say that U.S. Rep. Albio Sires will endorse Mark Smith for Mayor of Bayonne next week. Sires' support of Smith isn't a surprise: the Hudson County Democratic Organization is supporting Smith in the November non-partisan special election to replace Joseph Doria, and Sires is closely allied with the HCDO.  And Sires staffer Erica Daugherty has been working hard to help Smith win the mayoralty.

BAYONNE - In the special election for mayor here, the campaign of Police Director Mark Smith this week reported the biggest influx of cash.

Leading the four other men in the money race, Smith has raised $212,902.38 for his campaign, including $154,527.38 since the last period, which ended in July. He reports $33,670.23 on-hand.

His chief rival, retired municipal Judge Patrick Conaghan, reported raising $109,197.77, which includes a self-loan to his campaign totaling $50,247.77. He has $16,321.75 in the bank.

Retired municipal Judge Pat Conaghan walks the streets on Monday evening.: Politicker photoBAYONNE - The bands of men move through the streets on separate ends of Avenue C, claiming city blocks as territory for their respective campaigns.

There are other men running for mayor in Bayonne, but Police Director Mark Smith and retired Municipal Judge Pat Conaghan remain the most dogged public competitors, and their followers the most intense.

The signs stare out from everywhere as evidence: Conaghan for Mayor, or Smith for Mayor.

Across the river, Wall Street’s tanking. Worst day in its history. Police Director Mark Smith outside his Broadway campaign headquarters on Monday evening: Politicker photo

But Bayonne’s been feeling pain for years. They have a history of pain, of course. Not for nothing the local boy who once challenged Mohammed Ali for the heavyweight crown, Chuck Wepner, still walks Broadway Avenue and goes by the nickname "Bayonne Bleeder" in boxing circles.

Here they prefer to call him the "Bayonne Battler."

The former title may be more appropriate, for now the city faces a $22 million budget deficit. A mixed use project slated for the closed down Navy yard once was supposed to save this maritime blue collar capital at the bottom end of Hudson County, yet at this point, even that project’s champions say they need to reexamine the harbor.

Clerk Barbara Netchert gives renewed meaning to an old form of Hudson County political spin.: Politicker photo 

JERSEY CITY - Police Director Mark Smith took the pole position here today in a ballot drawing for the special election to be held Nov 4th for Bayonne mayor.

In the Division of Elections Office at the William Brennan Court House, Hudson County Clerk Barbara A. Netchert put the names of the five mayoral candidates in small plastic tubes and then placed the tubes in a revolving holding chamber.

"This ballot box probably goes back to the days of (Jersey City Mayor) Frank Hague," she said.

The clerk spun the chamber a number of times before withdrawing Smith's name first.

Police Director Mark Smith makes his mayoral announcement in Bayonne County Park.: Politicker file photo 

A month ago, Police Director Mark Smith looked very strong in the Bayonne's mayor race.

He was on the streets with that personal touch. People know him in Bayonne. And they like him. If success in American politics hinges on making an emotional connection with voters, Smith, runnning in his first political campaign, showed talent early and often.

He has personality and presence, not to mention a compelling story: that of a hero cop who diffused a potentially deadly situation in Bayonne 17 years ago. In an advertisement run by his campaign, an old black and white news clipping of the incident involving a rifle-toting Richard Barba is superimposed on fresh, color images of the dynamic mayoral candidate.

"A police officer faces down a gunman holding a young family hostage," says the voice-over, referring to a standout moment in the long career of the 46-year old Smith, who has received over 40 commendations.

In a takeoff of a Hillary Clinton television ad about who is best prepared to handle an emergency 3AM phone call, Unite Bayonne Today – which supports mayoral candidate Mark Smith – had developed an internet video that questions whether retired Judge Patrick Conaghan will be around to handle those middle of the night calls.