Earwitness: Election Upset in Bayonne?

Uh-oh! Could it be?

Was GA all wrong about this...?

We won't know until 8:30 pm, but sources are telling GA that Jim Davis, challenger to incumbent Mayor Mark Smith is making a very strong showing- in fact, sources report that turnout in his home ward is "overwhelming."

Now, GA doesn't have a dog in that fight.  But it appears some politicos in Hoboken do.  And really, that is what interests me.

Remember GA had written about a Trojan Mole?

Sources tell me I was right- an operation to plant a MOLE on the Davis campaign to wreck it the way the MOLE did to the Occhipinti campaign was well underway when Davis folks caught on.

The MOLE was not hired, which gave birth to a lawsuit against the Davis campaign!

And you think this shit only goes down in Hoboken?  Certainly not!

If you can't beat 'em, sue 'em.

Well, in spite of the failure to slip the paunchy, balding MOLE onto the Davis campaign, GA is told that workers from the Occhipinti campaign have been dispatched to work the polls in Bayonne, and who should step in to help the incumbent Mayor Smith, but Frank Raia (a.k.a. Number 7)!

GA hears the absentee ballots in Bayonne are at record levels- 850 VBMs this cycle compared to 450 the last election.  The Raia effect?

Raia's talent at harvesting votes was probablY appealing to Smith.  So what was appealing to Frank?

GA hears "part of the deal" to get Frank on board was a promise to let Frank turn The Holy Family Academy- recently closed- into a Charter school.  A "sweetheart deal".  GA is told that Bayonne has no charters- not a single one- the teachers union there opposes it; this would be the first.

So... in an election awash in SLIME (like Hoboken's 'Nazi Truck', orchestrated by Beth Mason's political operatives in our 2012 BoE race), wouldn't it be a nice repudiation of gutter politics to have the clean(er) guy win?

Wouldn't it?

 Stay tuned!