May 13

Ward 5 Councilman Juan TorresPATERSON - In a bruising re-election battle, two-term Ward 5 Councilman Juan Torres personally went to the campaign headquarters of challenger Julio Tavarez over the weekend warning his rivals to stay away from his street signs.

"They must be scared," Torres said of the Tavarez campaign.

An ally of Mayor Jose "Joey" Torres, the councilman said that Tavarez partisans removed 14 of his signs in the competitive ward.

Tavarez today was gearing up for his campaign’s "victory rally," where the council candidate intends to prepare his troops to take to the streets tomorrow on Election Day.

ORANGE Candidates for mayor: At-Large Councilman Donald Page, North Ward Councilwoman Tency Eason, West Orange Patrolman Eldridge Hawkins, Jr., Zoning Board Chair Janice Morrell, activist Betty Brown, Planning Board Chair Dwight Holmes.

ORANGE - Senate President Richard Codey (D-Essex) has invested his time, name and $2,600 in Eldridge Hawkins, Jr., son of his former seat mate in the Assembly, who voted in his first Orange election just last year.

Codey’s political enemies will crow if his candidate fails to get anything short of a first place finish, but the former governor’s pick of a 28-year old with "it factor" potential could pay political dividends in the future.

ORANGE - Newark Mayor Cory Booker todayNewark Mayor Cory Booker lent his public support to the mayoral candidacy of Eldridge Hawkins, Jr.

"I know what it takes to restore hope and a new direction to a city in crisis," Booker wrote in a message to Orange voters that appeared on Hawkins campaign mailers throughout the Essex County city on the eve of the last weekend before Election Day.

"Eldridge Hawkins has the competence, good ideas and determination to create a bright future for Orange," Booker wrote of the 28-year old West Orange police officer.

Nutley Commissioner Peter Scarpelli and his son, Joseph Scarpelli, a candidate for the Nutley Board of Commissioners. 

NUTLEY - At a party in his son’s campaign headquarters Thursday night, retiring Commissioner Peter Scarpelli sent the man he hopes will succeed him, Dr. Joseph Scarpelli, into the final five-day fray of the Nutley commissioners’ race.

"I can’t say more about this young guy," said the elder Scarpelli, 70, a former mayor, who serves as his son’s campaign manager. "I’ve known him all my life. He’s probably the best candidate we’ve put forward in the Scarpelli family."

Ward Two Councilman Steve Rovell 

BELLEVILLE - Less than a week before Election Day, both sides open up with everything they’ve got, and the resulting facial expressions and body language indicate that some of the shots have landed.

A glossy mail piece hits the tightknit blue collar neighborhoods off Franklin Avenue that run up against the Parkway on the other side. The man whose face appears in unflattering photos on those mailers storms to the microphone at a rally for him and his running mates.

"It’s pure and utter B.S.," cries Ward Two Councilman Steve Rovell, referring to challenger Mario Drozdz’s charges that Rovell was part of a team that increased taxes $10 million in thee years, indulged in political favoritism and hired nearly a million dollar’s worth of town employees who don’t live in Belleville.

PATERSON - As recently as last month, Mayor Jose "Joey" Torres wasMayor Jose "Joey" Torres coy about whether he would publicly get into the Elizabeth Rosadorace against his adversary, Ward Two Councilman Aslon Goow.

"I don't know if a mayor should endorse," the mayor mused, later threatening to get into the contest  if Goow continued his public assault against his record as mayor. 

Today, Torres officially got in the game, lending his voice in a robocall to the cause of Goow challenger Elizabeth Rosado, wife of longtime Torres ally, former Councilman Jerry Luis Rosado. 

Goow, a two-term incumbent, is trying to fend off challenges from both Rosado and mason contractor John Larko. 

ORANGE - On the last full week of the mayor's race here, At LargeAt Large Councilman Donald Page Councilman Donald Page and West Orange Patrolman Eldridge Hawkins lead the pack in overall financial contributions and have opened up on each other in a mail war.

According to the state Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC), Hawkins has raised $67,395, including $25,273 in the last period, leaving him with $19,146 in the bank.

Page has raised $41,148, including $11,210 in this period. He has aEldridge Hawkins, Jr. closing balance of $5,416, according to ELEC.

The Hawkins campaign did a lit. drop early this week that charges the councilman with racking up $21,000 of travel expenses over the years he has been in office, while the Page campaign blasted away at Hawkins’s short time as an Orange resident, noting that he voted in his first election here in June of last year.

 Ward 4 challenger Kisha Manning. 

PATERSON - Shrugged off by the incumbent as too aloof to feel the pain of the 4th Ward, Kisha Manning smiles and shakes her head.

She was born here and grew up here.

"I even get my hair done and my nails done here," she says with a laugh.

Her school record at William Paterson University and subsequent success as a revenue officer with the Internal Revenue Service don’t diminish the roots, or the lifelong street cred Councilwoman Vera Ames-Garnes claims Manning lacks to maneuver in a city that has been under state-control for 18 years.

PATERSON - Supporters of Councilwoman Vera Ames-Garnes give their reasons for helping to elect the 23-year veteran of the Paterson City Council.

Ward 4 Councilwoman Vera Ames Garnes with supporters, from left, Dwight Sutton, Samuel Groce and Al Barino 

PATERSON - A man on a cellphone behind the wheel of a car with New York plates turns a pair of red eyes toward the formidable-looking woman suddenly shouting at him and jabbing her index finger at him.

"Hey, home boy," bellows Councilwoman Vera Ames-Garnes. "Stay off my streets!"

The man floors it, and seconds later a Paterson patrol car streaks past in another direction.

"They’re going the wrong way," mutters Ames-Garnes, throwing her minivan in gear and tearing after the police. She pulls her vehicle up onto the sidewalk alongside the patrol car where it’s now idling in the middle of the road next to an unmarked car facing the opposite direction.