Nicholas Sacco

When you’re a mayor in a heavily Latino district it helps to have someone around who speaks Spanish, and if you’re looking to offer favors in exchange for hogtying political rivals it is also helpful to have someone in a service organization who can help deliver those favors.

Union City Mayor Brian Stack has both in the form of Christopher Irizarry, according to mayors allied with the Hudson County Democratic Organization (HCDO), which continues to battle Stack for control of the politically-charged county, and which refuses to cede any ground to the 33rd district insurgent and presumptive state senator who ran against the organization and won the Democratic Primary in June.

This latest stanza in the Stack saga has its roots that primary, in fact, when a roomful of skeptical reporters listened as Assemblyman ( and West New York Mayor Sal Vega) played a tape he said was his opponent in the race for senate.

Already through the assembly, a bill banning dual office holding passed in the state senate on Thursday, 33-2.

Upset that the bill grandfathers legislators who currently hold two or more offices, the GOP was circling in the senate chamber, taking bites at the bill when an infuriated Sen. Ron Rice let them have it.

Emerging from the wreckage of Election Day, State Senator (and North Bergen Mayor) Nicholas Sacco, said only time can heal the political wounds in Hudson County.

Known for his blunt talk and his executive ability to convincingly say "no" in a roomful of beseeching voices, the 32nd district senator, who chairs the Senate Transportation Committee, said the civil war between Assemblyman (and Union City Mayor) Brian P. Stack and the Hudson County Democratic Organization never had to happen.

"If Stack would have simply waited for (State Senator) Bernie Kenny to retire, there would have been one ticket," said Sacco, who enjoys close ties to the organization. "I think the reality now is we all have to work together and for the people of New Jersey.

In addition to the Big Seven Primaries -- districts 24, 26, 28, 29, 31, 33, and 40 -- there are intra party contests for State Senate and Assembly in five other districts tomorrow:

Voters in six New Jersey towns will elect a Mayor in Tuesday's non-partisan municipal elections. The premier race is in Evesham, a swing town of 42,275 people in Burlington County that has become increasingly competitive in recent general elections. While the race is technically non-partisan, both parties have horses in the contest.