Richard Rutkowski

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.

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.