NEWARK – As the juggernaut campaigns of Charles Bell and Eddie Osborne hit each other at full speed in the Central Ward, Mary Rone mounts a grassroots operation from below that she hopes will knock both of the bigger operations to their knees on Nov. 4th.

“I’m going to win it for the people,” says the community activist, who with her late husband, James Rone, advocated for fair housing in the city going back to the late 1960s. “I’ve had enough of the ring-kissing style of politics, and I know the people of the Central Ward have too.”

She comes at the campaign with an extra burst of motivation.

Thirteen candidates are vying in a special election to fill the seat of Rone’s daughter, former Councilwoman Dana Rone, whom an assignment judge removed in August after determining that the councilwoman used her office to impede the work of Rutgers University cops in a Dec. 2006 traffic incident involving her nephew.

“You could say Dana losing her seat was my fault,” says the older Rone. “I instilled in her what my family instilled in me. If a family member is in distress, you help them. That’s all it was. It’s not about her improperly using her authority. My daughter is very protective, both of her community – and of her own family.”

Former Councilman Charles Bell: Politicker photo 

NEWARK - The crowded race for a vacant Central Ward Council seat features a veteran with the stalwart backing of Newark’s gray-haired fathers, versus a labor-cash infused newcomer who may or may not receive support from a wobbling Mayor Cory Booker.

Thirteen candidates hope to fill the seat an assignment judge separated from Central Ward Councilwoman Dana Rone after Rone this summer exhausted her appeals process going back to a 2006 obstruction of justice case.

But apparent frontrunner Charles Bell sees his chief challenger - both for Obama affection and for the local council seat - as fellow labor brother Eddie Osborne, whose billboards and signs laden with Obama iconography have hit the Central Ward like an orange blizzard.

The Osborne campaign sizes up the contest similarly.

In their sights, they see Bell, a former councilman, school board member for nearly 30 years and retired labor official with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Workers Union, who combines name ID and an alliance with time-tested political infrastructure.

Rob Andrews appears to be entering the race for the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination, even though a DSCC poll shows him 35-points behind incumbent Frank Lautenberg. The ten-term Congressman from South Jersey had a rough day yesterday after expected endorsements from Bergen County Democratic Chairman Joseph Ferriero and State Sens. Raymond Lesniak and Brian Stack failed to materialize (Ferriero, under considerable pressure, is now backing Lautenberg), but he’s staged a comeback with support from Newark powerhouse Steve Adubato, Jr., labor leaders Ray Pocino and Frank Spencer, three State Senators from Middlesex County, and State Sen. Paul Sarlo, a close Ferriero ally, who will back Andrews after an official announcement of candidacy.  Look for Stack and Lesniak to move to Andrews now that they have some cover, as well as Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo, Edison Mayor Jun Choi and more local officials from Middlesex.

Raymond Pocino, the national Vice President and Eastern Regional manager of the Laborers International Union of North America (LIUNA), says that Rob Andrews should run for the U.S. Senate.

“I want to make it clear that my support of you is not done in protest of Senator Lautenberg,” Pocino wrote to Andrews. “The goal of any election should always be to elect the absolute best candidate to serve. The fact that someone is (the) incumbent should have no bearing; who would make the best United States Senator should.”