Grace Spencer

Obama Campaign State Director Mark Alexander. 

The campaign was about to change.

On Oct, 9, 2007, an announcement came down from Chicago regarding New Jersey operations. 

Mark Alexander, a Seton Hall University law professor and Obama’s senior policy advisor, would be the campaign’s official state director.

"I am grateful that he is going to carry the fight forward to and through the Feb. 5 contests," Obama said of Alexander. "He is a valued and trusted advisor, and at the same time has deep ties in his home of New Jersey that will be invaluable to our efforts. 

"I am proud of the policy work we have done on this campaign and through Mark’s leadership we have built a team of key advisors from the ground up that will continue to offer new and innovative approaches to the challenges this country faces," added the presidential candidate.

A personal friend of Barack and Michelle Obama’s going back a dozen years, Alexander as a child worked on the 1974 Washington, D.C. mayoral campaign of his father, Clifford Alexander, former chairman of the Equal Opportunity Commission. Later, he ran Sen. Bill Bradley’s 2000 presidential campaign and served as counsel to Cory Booker.

Gov. Jon Corzine and Essex County Sheriff Armando Fontoura prepare to head the parade. 

NEWARK - Gov. Jon Corzine reveled with members of the 29th Legislative District at the 29th annual Portugal Day Festival in the Ironbound on Sunday.

The massive, two-day event, which was founded and organized by businessman Bernardino Coutinho, father of Assemblyman Albert Coutinho, featured the parade on Sunday afternoon and the participation of Portugal’s secretary of state.

Donald Payne, Jr., campaigns down to the wire in the face of an off-the-line challenge engineered by Booker allies. 

NEWARK - The Andrews-Lautenberg battle might as well be some other era’s war here in the South Ward, where U.S. Rep. Donald Payne (D-10) and his "B" line allies are trying to withstand a line "E" challenge by Mayor Cory Booker and the South Ward Independent Democrats.

The city’s been quiet all day for the most part - except here, and now is no exception. The mood intensifies.

"Ward control," says Assemblywoman Grace Spencer (D-Newark), when asked what’s at stake here on Election Day. "The fight isn’t at the top of the ticket. For once the fight is at the bottom of the ticket, way at the bottom, county committee."

Gov. Jon Corzine in Newark today 

NEWARK - Gov. Jon Corzine stood with Assemblyman Albert Coutinho (D-Newark), Assemblywoman L. Grace Spencer (D-Newark) and other lawmakers in the East Ward today and promised to back legislation to pay for new urban schools construction.

"We need action before June 30th, so that we can fulfill our Constitutional obligation to provide our children with a thorough and efficient education," said the governor, moments after taking a tour of the Oliver Street Elementary School.

Coutinho, an Ironbound native who cosponsored the legislation with Spencer, described dilapidated and overcrowded conditions in the facility.

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.

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."

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.

State Sen. Nia Gill has endorsed Teresa Ruiz for State Senate and Grace Spencer and Albert Coutinho for Assembly in the 29th district, along with Essex County Clerk Christopher Durkin and Newark South Ward Councilman Oscar James.