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At Large Councilman Jeffrey Jones 

PATERSON - Ward races will dominate the polling places tomorrow on Election Day, and one person who will watch the results come in but does not expect any surprises is At-Large Councilman Jeffrey Jones.

Jones already has his sights on 2010, and whatever happens Tuesday will not interfere with his plans.

"I have every intention of running for mayor," says Jones, a 50-year old native Patersonian who was first elected to the council in 1996.

North Ward Councilman David Lyons in his campaign headquarters on Monday night. 

IRVINGTON - Gene Etchison approaches a sprawling old house on the corner of Clinton Avenue and tells the resident when he steps outside, "I love your grass. It’s cut real nice. I love to lie down in the grass, that’s why I always notice it when I go by here."

The man shakes the candidate's hand. He knows it’s the day before Election Day.

He confesses he has a problem with the way Mayor Wayne Smith’s administration is running the town, and he tells Etchison he’d like to go to Town Hall and tell them they need to improve the sanitation department - and everything else for that matter, but he just doesn’t have the energy anymore.

Ward 6 council candidate Andre Sayegh and supporter Elsa Montoya 

PATERSON - When Ilia Villanueva nearly brought Councilman Thomas C. Rooney to his knees in their 2004 showdown, losing by just 68 votes to the Ward 6 legend in her second campaign against him, she figured she was in a good position to knock off the 80-year old Irish-American come 2008.

But when Rooney announced his retirement this year and heartily endorsed School Board President Andre Sayegh, the rules changed for Villanueva - even more dramatically when 21st Avenue businessman (and fellow Latino) Eliecar Montoya entered the race.

Paterson’s 6th Ward is home to 72 ethnic groups, but Latinos, Arabs and Middle Easterners and whites make up the bulk of the areas’s dedicated voting block. Montoya’s running a soft campaign. He was a no-show at the city-sponsored debates two weeks ago, and doesn’t have the grassroots support that Villanueva built over 27 years in Paterson.

The NARAL Pro-Choice America Political Action Committee endorsed incumbent Sen. Frank Lautenberg for Senate today.

A press release from the organization cited Lautenberg’s support for the Freedom of Choice Act and the Prevention First Ac -- which it said were the “pro-choice community's two flagship pieces of legislation” – along with his opposition to President Bush’s policies on abstinence-only education and his authoring of legislation to prevent pharmacists from refusing to fill birth control prescriptions.

Frank Lautenberg’s campaign said today that a political blog’s story about the Senator designating his Washington, DC condo as his permanent residence was old news and inaccurate.

The blog claimed that, prior to 2005, Lautenberg had claimed Washington as his primary residence in order to take advantage of the city’s Homestead Tax Rebate, and that he only stopped listing Washington as his “permanent address” in 2005 after reporters started asking questions about the deduction.

But Lautenberg’s campaign today released a letter sent to the Senator in 2005 by the city’s Real Property Tax Administration that took responsibility for the mistake.

Democratic Senate candidates Frank Lautenberg and Rob Andrews each released endorsements today from prominent African-Americans.

Andrews announced the support of Newark Councilman Oscar James, Jr., an ally of Mayor Cory Booker who managed former Mayor Sharpe James’s successful 2002 reelection campaign against him.  According to the Newark Municipal Council’s Web site, James, the son of a grassroots activist, was the youngest person ever to be elected to public office in the city’s history.

"Rob Andrews has always recognized the challenges faced by inner-city Americans, especially our urban youth, and has worked hard as a member of Congress to find solutions to their problems," said James.  “He represents change and the passing of the torch to the next generation of leadership in the Senate.”

PATERSON - Passaic County Sheriff Jerry Speziale jumped intoCouncilman Aslon Goow Paterson municipal politics over the weekend, publicly endorsing Ward 2 Councilman Aslon Goow, chair of the council's public safety committee and a vocal critic of Mayor Jose "Joey" Torres.

Speziale's picture and declaration of confidence appeared on a Goow mail piece that hits the streets in Ward 2.

"Goow is the only (council) candidate the sheriff is endorsing," said Goow campaign spokesman Ryan Yacco. 

Yacco says the endorsement is significant, particulalry in the Hillcrest section of the ward.

A two-term concilman, Goow is running against John Larko and Elizabeth Rosado.

Rosado has  the public support of Mayor Torres.   

Ward 5 Councilman Juan TorresPATERSON - In a bruising re-election battle, two-term Ward 5 Councilman Juan Torres personally went to the campaign headquarters of challenger Julio Tavarez over the weekend warning his rivals to stay away from his street signs.

"They must be scared," Torres said of the Tavarez campaign.

An ally of Mayor Jose "Joey" Torres, the councilman said that Tavarez partisans removed 14 of his signs in the competitive ward.

Tavarez today was gearing up for his campaign’s "victory rally," where the council candidate intends to prepare his troops to take to the streets tomorrow on Election Day.