Wayne Smith

IRVINGTON - They bellowed a lot of praise down on Gov. Jon Corzine from the pulpit of Christian Love Baptist Church on Wednesday night but the signature hymn, "Your struggle is over," sung with deep feeling and a full chorus on high volume, hardly projected a Biblical battle cry as the governor faces eight weeks more of hard-slog campaign season before Election Day.

When the big baskets appeared and it was collection time, Pastor Ron Christian made sure Corzine knew the drill.

"You never know when he might leave," joked the reverend, host for the governor, an altar filled with other emissaries of ecumenism, among them the Rev. Pastor Reginald Jackson of St. Matthew AME Church - and other public officials all gathered to salute law enforcement officers and firemen on the eighth anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001.

There was a lot of love for Corzine throughout the course of the ceremony, which Christian stoked even as he deflected any of the praise directed at himself and his thriving Irvington church by reminding the congegation - to growing applause - that he's just a simple sinner - a former corrections officer turned thief, in fact, turned repentant minister.

Jon Corzine' early endorsement of Irvington Mayor Wayne Smith appears to have angered a group of local Democrats planning to challenge Smith when he comes up for re-election in May 2010.  Corzine took sides even though one likely Smith rival, Councilman David Lyons, is also backing Corzine.   Former Assemblyman Craig Stanley (D-Irvington), who is part of the Payne political dynasty, is also a possible candidate.  And the governor endorsed in a race knowing that State Sen. Ronald Rice (D-Newark), who represents Irvington, is unlikely to support the incumbent.

Gov. Jon Corzine with Irvington Mayor Wayne Smith, left, and Team Irvington founder Freeholder/Councilman D. Bilal Beasley.

IRVINGTON - Gov. Jon Corzine's informal endorsement tonight of Mayor Wayne Smith when the two walked on Springfield Avenue came shortly after Smith heartily endorsed the incumbent governor on the steps of City Hall as someone who understands the plight of this Essex County town of perennial hard knocks.

The knock on Smith usually comes in the form of a whisper.

"We've been together from the beginning," the governor said of the mayor, who for almost two years has heard the murmurs when he walks past - "Keith Reid named him in court as Irvington Official #1," and inevitably fielded reporters' repeated phone calls asking him if he plans to resign.

If not today, what about tomorrow?

"What you learn in this business is a public official can be accused of anything," Smith told PolitickerNJ.com. "You live with these things and you live through them. I haven't heard anything from the U.S. Attorney's Office, but more importantly, I didn't do anything wrong."

Howell: The School District’s decision to close Southard Elementary School opens up the prospect of where to route the children displaced by the closing – but that decision occurs only if voters approve the School Board’s proposed budget today.

Robbinsville: This is one of those towns where the School Board hopes to reverse a tide of voter discontent, but faces a political environment worse than last year, when voters rejected the budget. Robbinsville’s $38.6 million price tag for schools represents an increase of about $1.4 million from what it is now. The increase would result in an extra $189 for a homeowner assessed at $400,000, from $4,334 to $4,523. Last year, after killing the School Board's initial proposal, residents settled for a 3-cent hike engineered by the Town Council.

Hoboken: While the Zimmer Team supports the Kids First Slate in the School Board Elections, her opponents are ostensibly staying out of today's fight. “Part of that reason is I wanted to keep politics out of it - the mayor doesn’t support the Board of Education,” said councilwoman Beth Mason, while the Cammarano Team this morning issued an email blast reminding people to remember to register to vote.

Keith Reid, the former Chief of Staff to Newark City Council President Mildred Crump, was sentenced to 51 months in a prison.  Last November, after his federal corruption trial had already started, Reid pleaded guilty to accepting $15,500 in bribes from an undercover FBI agent seeking insurance brokerage business for at least two municipalities, Newark and Irvington.

"That is an appropriately long prison sentence that indeed sends a strong message and warning to public officials like Reid who want to leverage their positions for unlawful personal gain," said Acting U.S. Attorney Ralph Marra, Jr.

Reid admitted that in July 2007 he used his influence to set up a meeting between Crump and the FBI undercover company and advocated for that company at the meeting.  After the meeting, he met an FBI cooperating witness in a parked car and accepted a cash bribe.  The following month, he set up a meeting with an Irvington official - believed to be Mayor Wayne Smith - and the FBI sting operation.

Sen. Ronald Rice (D-Essex)

TRENTON- Challenged by Mayor Wayne Smith and Team Irvington in his squeak-out, off-the-line re-election victory last year, state Sen. Ronald Rice (D-Essex) said he hopes Smith did not authorize Keith Reid to accept a $5,000 bribe on his behalf – which is what Reid told a jury in Newark earlier today.

“Wayne is a real hard working mayor, always has been, and he’s committed to his township,” said Rice, who in 2007 fended off a challenge by Smith ally Councilman L. Bilal Beasely after Smith himself expressed a desire to go up against Rice.

“Hopefully that’s not the case,” Rice added of the under-oath statement by Reid, former chief of staff of Newark City Council President Mildred Crump.

North Ward Councilman David Lyons

IRVINGTON - North Ward Councilman David Lyons, a likely 2010 mayoral candidate, has long been the nemesis of Irvington Mayor Wayne Smith, for whom Keith Reid at his trial today said he accepted a $5,000 bribe.

“Number one, if that’s true,” said Lyons, “Wayne needs to resign. He should do the honorable thing and resign.”

Last year, the U.S. Attorney’s Office indicted Reid and ten other officials throughout New Jersey for accepting bribes from representatives of Coastal Solutions, LLC., an FBI operation posing as an insurance brokerage business offering services to municipalities. The indictment accused Reid of accepting $10,000 bribes from a cooperating witness in exchange for his assurance that he would influence Newark City Council President Mildred Crump and other public officials in Newark and Irvington to help secure insurance brokerage contracts.

Irvington Mayor Wayne Smith

NEWARK – The last member of Operation Broken Boards in his trial today implicated Irvington Mayor Wayne Smith as someone for whom he took a bribe. 

Keith Reid admitted that he accepted cash bribes totaling $10,000 in exchange for his influence with public officials in Newark, Irvington and elsewhere.

The former chief of staff to Newark Council President Mildred Crump, Reid, 49, of Carteret, agreed during his guilty plea to forfeit a total of $15,500, representing the entire amount of bribes he took as described in the indictment on which he was being tried in federal court, according to a release issued by U.S. Attorney Spokesman Michael Drewniak.