Wilfredo Caraballo

Sen. Bob Menendez, earlier this year with Hillary Clinton: Getty Images Photo
No longer as involved in the day-to-day mechanics of local politics, Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) in back to back statewide elections has proved to be his party’s New Jersey go-to guy.

The former mayor of Union City got out the machine-backed Feb. 5 vote for Clinton with a war cry - "We have an opportunity in Hudson, Hudson, Hispanics, Hillary and history." And leading up to June 3, he helped U.S. Rep. Steve Rothman (D-9) stare down a party uprising in Bergen County that might have weakened crucial organizational support for U.S. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.)

Clinton won by ten points here with significant Latino support, and Lautenberg buried U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews (D-1) yesterday, 61-34%.

Anne Milgram is going to be busy in the first district.

Just before state Senator Nicholas Asselta and his Assembly running mates were scheduled to hold a press conference asking the Attorney General to investigate Democratic wheeling of campaign funds in the first district in 2005, Assembly Speaker Pro-Tempore Wilfredo Caraballo called on Milgram to investigate whether first district Republicans transferred money between their own campaign accounts to circumvent contribution limits.

The Republicans seized on a Tuesday investigative report from the Press of Atlantic City that showed the Camden County Democratic Committee circumventing campaign contribution caps two years ago by donating $400,000 to the Cape May Democratic Organization, which then went directly to an ad blitz in the Philadelphia television market on behalf of the Assembly campaigns of Jeff Van Drew and Nelson Albano.

First-term Orange Councilman Ed Marable, Jr., on the ballot as an Independent Assembly candidate against Mims Hackett in the 27th district, says he is the best candidate in the race -- "regardless of what happens to Mims."

The Orange native, a self-described Independent Democrat, said he filed for the Assembly in June out of a sense of frustration over Hackett's concentration of power.  He said he was frustrated by the Essex Democratic Organization's decision to withdraw support for Assemblyman Wilfredo Caraballo's re-election.

Newark City Councilman Luis Quintana
There’s a school in the schoolhouse and a school in the street, and though the lessons of one may contradict those of the other, these institutions possess a common cause and effect: in order to graduate, a student must prove to his teacher that he has mastered the material.

The eighth grade class of the Robert Treat Academy confirmed their book knowledge when last Friday evening they received their diplomas, a large number of which contained the words "with honors."

But on the streets, in the general election academy of door pounding and vote grabbing, graduation day arrives later, in a colder season, and some never get there - though Nov. 6th comes and goes.

These lessons go back many years in Newark, and for years there have been many students and one master.

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. 

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.