Wilfredo Caraballo

It hurts. It hurts to go through it and it hurts to sit there and look at it when it goes down.

But there they were in Trenton, the lately vanquished making an effort in that stately chamber to appear at the office as usual.

Come New Year they’d be out the door.

There was Assemblyman Sal Vega, beaten by Assemblyman Brian Stack at the polls, sitting next to none other than Stack, who mostly stayed occupied on a cell-phone in the lead up Monday’s session.

"I was here working last Thursday, right after the election," said Vega

Assemblyman Wilfredo Caraballo makes his stand

It’s the Paynes in the South Ward, the Adubatos in the North, two old families beating each other up with politics, while a young mayor in the middle hopes to assert his own will upon this city but in the meantime must pick a side.

No one gets out of Newark without picking a side.

Right now, the Paynes control that lifeline to the federal government in the person of U.S. Rep. Donald Payne, and hold sway in the Statehouse with older brother Assemblyman William Payne and his allies.

Founder of the North Ward Cultural and Educational Center, Adubato controls the city’s vital link to the county with Joseph DiVincenzo. DiVincenzo grew up in the North Ward, and was a star quarterback turned recreation supervisor for Adubato before becoming Essex County Executive. In addition to his own North Ward, Adubato controls the largely Portugese and Hispanic East Ward.

Mayor Cory Booker has organization of his own in the mostly African-American Central Ward, where he was a community activist before running for city council. And he also has a toehold in the South. But as usual Booker’s up against old Newark, and much of that African-American territory to southward is organized by the Paynes, and Ras Baraka, former councilman and son of the poet Amiri Baraka.

District 29 Assembly candidates Albert Coutinho and Grace Spencer this week received the endorsements of SEIU Local 32BJ, UniteHere! and CWA Local 1081, according to a news release isued by campaign spokesman Phil Alagia.

The New Jersey Education Association and the Newark Teachers Union -- longtime rival unions -- have joined forces to support the re-election campaigns of State Sen. Ron Rice, Assemblyman Craig Stanley and Assemblywoman Oadline Truitt in the 28th district, and Assemblyman Wilfredo Caraballo in the 29th.

Newark City Councilman Luis Quintana is on his way to Trenton to file petitions to run in the general election for State Senate to represent the 29th District, according to incumbent Assemblyman Wilfredo Caraballo. 

This sets up a potential three-way race in November for the open seat.  Assemblyman William Payne has also indicated his intention to run as an independent, and would become the only African-American candidate in the race. 

Two New Jersey Congressmen are potentially vulnerable if they seek re-election in 2008 -- both in Democratic primaries.  Albio Sires, a former Assembly Speaker who took Bob Menendez's 13th district House seat last year, is knee-deep in an epic Hudson County Civil War; the freshman Congressman is actively backing his former running mate, Brian Stack, for the Democratic State Senate nomination in the 33rd district. Stack is running off the line against the Hudson County Democratic Organization against Sal Vega, his handpicked successor as Mayor of West New York and as an Assemblyman. He's also backing Assemblyman Louis Manzo for State Senate against the HCDO candidate, Sandra Bolden Cunningham.

Assemblyman Wilfredo Caraballo has nailed down the endorsement of U.S. Rep. Donald Payne, and is using pictures of himself with Payne in campaign literature as he fights the power structure that spit him out after he bucked the bosses last year.

"He told me he didn’t believe he could sit on the sidelines, and he thought my record and my tenure made my re-election important," said Caraballo, speaker pro tempore in the Assembly. "He made it a very personal thing."

Several public officials today expressed surprise at the complaint filed against Supreme Court Justice Roberto Rivera-Soto, but legal insiders for years have considered the McGreevey-appointee has one of the Judiciary’s most narcissistic jurists. Even prior to his confirmation to the bench, his former adversaries were quoted in an April 2004 Star-Ledger profile describing him as “pompous,” “arrogant and abrasive,” and questioned whether he had the temperament for the post.

He’s been around long enough to know people get punched hard in this business, but Assemblyman Wilfredo Caraballo from district 29, the third ranking member in the Assembly and the highest ranking Latino, finds it no less difficult to fight off his anger.

"I wouldn’t change my vote, no, no way," he says. "I have absolutely no regrets about that vote."

It was the sales tax increase proposed during the budget season last year.

The governor wanted the Essex County delegation to vote for it but Caraballo didn’t do it, arguing the tax would unfairly impact his constituents, particularly those making minimum wage or less. Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo didn’t appreciate that, and neither did the governor.

CARABALLO: Q-POLL SHOWS WIDESPREAD SUPPORT
FOR REFORM PLAN OF TAX CUTS & SPENDING CONTROLS

(NEWARK) - Citing the findings of a new Quinnipiac University poll, Assembly Speaker Pro Tempore Wilfredo Caraballo today said the property tax reform plan advanced by the Democratic-controlled Legislature and signed into law by Governor Corzine is receiving broad support among all New Jersey residents, regardless of party affiliation or where they live.

In what might be viewed as the first-round of the upcoming Democratic primary contests, a slate of Newark Board of Education candidates backed by North Ward Democratic leader Stephen Adubato, Sr. -- and to a lesser extent, Mayor Cory Booker -- scored an easy victory in yesterday's school board election. The top-votegetter was Samuel Gonzalez (3,321), the husband of Democratic State Senate candidate Teresa Ruiz. He was followed by Tharien Arnold (3,008), an unsuccessful South Ward City Council candidate last year, and Shanique Davis-Speight (2,351). Among the losing candidates was incumbent Anton Wheeler (1,429), who made unsuccessful bids for the State Assembly in 2005 and 2006.