Ralph Caputo

Tonight at 6:30 and Sunday at 10:00 a.m., catch The Bergen Record’s Charles Stile, Trish Graber of the Gloucester County Times, and PolitickerNJ.com’s own Matt Friedman on Reporters Roundtable, hosted by Michael Aron. The reporters will discuss the state budget, Gary Rose’s departure and county chairman contests.

On the Record, airing Sunday at 9:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m., will feature NJEA President Joyce Powell and Assemblymen Declan O’Scanlon (R-Monmouth) and Gordon Johnson (D-Bergen) discussing the budget.

If you can’t get enough Stile and Friedman, tune in to My9’s New Jersey Now, airing at 12:00 on Sunday, where the two will discuss political rumors. Also appearing on the show are Assemblymen Jon Bramnick (R-Union) and Ralph Caputo (D-Essex), who will debate what’s causing residents to flee New Jersey.

Incumbent Ralph Caputo beat challenger Bob Russo by 311 votes Caputo survives Russoin their 5th District scrap for Essex County Freeholder.

Running a campaign of outrage against Caputo's status as a dual office holder (assemblyman and freeholder), Russo, a former Montclair mayor, ran off-the-line.

It marks the second close freeholder loss suffered by Russo in 30 years.

In 1978, Russo ran for freeholder and lost to James P. Piro of Nutley by 36 votes.

NEWARK - Freeholder Ralph Caputo, battling to hold onto his 5th District seat in the face of a contentious challenge from former Montclair Mayor Bob Russo, is leading comfortably with 45.53% of the vote counted.

With 56 out of a toal 123 districts reporting, Caputo has 58.76% (1,664 votes), compared to 41.24% (1,168 votes) for Russo.

Assemblyman/Freeholder Ralph Caputo, battling to hold onto his District 5 freeholder seat, today hopes to break a bad streak in which candidates he backed for school board and Belleville Town Council recently lost.

Now Caputo himself is the candidate, and facing a revved former Montclair Mayor Bob Russo, who’s challenging the freeholder off the line.

Russo has ties to the three most populous Democratic Primary towns in the fifth district: Montclair (13,021 registered Democrats), Bloomfield (9,724 Democrats), and Belleville (6,394 Democrats).

Freeholder candidate Rob Russo goes for a second helping of double-dip ice cream from Gary Manageri. 

BLOOMFIELD - In a big, converted showroom filled with people, Gary Manageri reached way down into a bucket of toasted toffee ice cream, rotating his forearm and putting his shoulder into the action to get a full-fledged rounded scoop, which he proceeded to plop into a cone held by former Montclair Mayor Bob Russo.

Then he retrieved a second dip, which he dropped on top of the first, making Russo’s cone a double, and in the process illustrating what Russo wants voters to know in the Essex 5th District freeholder race. 

As a dual-office holder, incumbent Ralph Caputo is an assemblyman and freeholder who collects two pensions, or "double-dips," in the common parlance.

Former Montclair Mayor Bob Russo this week unveiled a list ofFormer Montclair Mayor Bob Russo endorsements in his underdog campaign against Freeholder Ralph Caputo.

From Belleville, Russo says he has Mayor Ray Kimble, Councilman at-large Kevin Kennedy, Second Ward Councilman Steve Rovell, Fourth Ward Councilman John Notari, Third Ward Councilman-elect Paul (PJ) MacDonald, and Board of Education members Bill Freda and Joe Longo.

In Bloomfield, Russo racked up Councilwoman at-large Patricia Spychala, Councilman at-large Bernard Hamilton, Councilwoman at-large Patricia Barker, First Ward Councilwoman Janice Maly and Third Ward Councilwoman Patricia Ritchings.

BELLEVILLE - A day after P.J. Mac Donald beat one of FreeholderAssemblyman/Freeholder Ralph Caputo (D-Belleville) Ralph Caputo’s three vanquished candidates to fill a vacated 3rd Ward seat, Mac Donald campaign signs on his Washington Avenue headquarters came down.

In their place now stand Bob Russo for Freeholder signs.

"Ralph Caputo’s school board candidates got wiped out, and now his council candidates got blown out," said Russo campaign manager Gary Iacobacci. "What happened last night means Bob can actually win Belleville. It’s a dire situation for the incumbent."

A defiant Caputo said the Russo people are mistaken if they believe Elvin Pereira’s 70-vote margin loss to Mac Donald in the 3rd Ward demonstrates Caputo’s weakness in the 5th district, which includes Belleville, Bloomfield, Glen Ridge, Montclair and Nutley.

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.

Ward Three Council candidate Paul "P.J." Mac Donald, right, with his ally, Belleville Mayor Ray Kimble. 

BELLEVILLE - All over town, the headquarters of candidates are shuttered on a Monday afternoon, with the exception of Paul "P.J." Mac Donald’s campaign digs on Washington Avenue.

The mood is grimly combative in this roomful of politicians and former cops as Mac Donald recounts what led him to this point, eight days before the May 13 election.

"There was an empty seat and some friends asked me if I’d be interested in running," he says. "I went down to the mayor’s office and sought his support. I called every public official and every one of them gave me his blessing.

"Then I called Caputo."

The retirement this year of Johnny Jones from the Essex County Board of Chosen Freeholders left a vacancy, which Newark Mayor Cory Booker wanted to fill with long time South Ward ally Terrance Bankston. 

On Saturday, however, the party selected Rufus Johnson - chief of staff to Sen. Ronald Rice (D-Essex), the man Booker defeated for mayor in 2006.

Johnson will run on the line with incumbent freeholders Ralph Caputo, Linda Cavanaugh, Carol Clark, Blonnie Watson, Bilal Beasley, Patricia Sebold, Samuel Gonzalez and Donald Payne, Jr.