PASSAIC – Yesterday’s mayoral victory by physician Alex Blanco in a 62 percent turnout election depended heavily on the endorsement of Acting Mayor/Assemblyman Gary Schaer (D-Passaic).

The city is split in half, with the 3rd and 2nd wards on the south side of town and 4th and 1st wards to the north.

In the heart of Schaer’s Orthodox Jewish community, Ward 3 totals show that Blanco earned 1,965 of his 3,859 total votes, according to the Passaic City Clerk’s Office.

That’s where nearly a third of the city’s total 25,543 registered voters are concentrated.

Monmouth County Freeholder Director Lillian Burry won comfortably tonight, but the second seat remains up for grabs with provisional ballots left to be counted, according to the Monmouth County Clerk’s Office.

Burry won with 136,875 votes.  As it stands now, Democrat Amy Mallet leads Republican John Curley by 18 votes, or 135,688 to 135,670.

Mallet’s running mate, Glenn Mason, lost with 127,699 votes.

In the race for Atlantic County Sheriff, Republican Frank Balles ousted five-term Democrat Jim McGettigan by a 55%-45% margin.  McGettigan

Democrats picked up a Freeholder seat and ousted a Republican Surrogate tonight in Cumberland County, giving Democrats a 7-0 majority on the Freeholder Board.  Republican Surrogate Arthur Marchand lost to Freeholder Douglas Rainear by a 55%-45% margin. 

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.

Democrats Chris Brown and Maryanne Reinhart have ousted Republican Freeholders Aubrey Fenton and Stacey Jordan in Burlington County, and Democrat Timothy Tyler defeated Republican Gary Woodend in the race for County Clerk by a 54%-46% margin.  The GOP majority on the Burlington Board of Freeholders is now reduced to 3-2, and Democrats now have a County Clerk and Surrogate.

Democrat Lorenzo Langford has defeated Republican John McQueen by a wide margin the race for Mayor of Atlantic City.  Langford, a former Mayor, beat McQueen by an 87%-13% margin.  

With 99% of the vote counted, Democrats narrowly lead in their bid to win control of the Monmouth County Board of Freeholders with Amy Mallet leading John Curley by 26 votes, 135,337 to 135,311. Republican incumbent Lillian Burry (136,521) is the top vote-getter, and Democrat Glenn Mason (127,367) is running 4th.

NEW BRUNSWICK – Newark Mayor Cory Booker and U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone (D-Long Branch) did some microphone tag team in the build-up to what everyone here seems to read as an imminent Obama victory.

 “I am so proud that the candidate who is going to be our victor is someone about whom they said it can’t be done,” said Booker. “In America, we are a place of impossible dreams.”

Pallone shouted, “We’re going to end this war! We’re going to have universal healthcare.”

PASSAIC – Sandoval headquarters appears under siege by the campaigns of the two other Latino mayoral candidates.

First, there’s the Blanco presence two doors down from Sandoval’s front door, where a huge sign stands at the head of the block, as if to make it clear this is Blanco country.

Of course, Sandoval owns half the buildings on the block.

At the other end of the street, a gathering of red-shirted Garcia forces shake their signs at passing cars underneath an enormous Sandoval sign on the side of one of Sandoval’s houses.