John Sowell

IRVINGTON - It's been a tough year for Mayor Wayne Smith, whose name was spun into a federal scandal that knocked down 11 other public officials in late 2007.

As part of a U.S. Attorney's Office bribery investigation called Operation Broken Boards, FBI agents posing as dummy insurance salespeople last year identified two public officials in Irvington, one of whom directed them to give $5,000 to Keith Reid, former chief of staff to Newark Council President Mildred Crump.

The U.S. Attroney's Office indicted Reid on corruption charges, but as yet he remains the only public official as part of Operation Broken Boards who has not gone to trial.

To date, Smith has not spoken publicly about the incident or addressed rampant speculation that he is one of those Irvington officials who directed the FBI to give money to Red, but today in the face of a rumor in his city that he intends to imminently step down, the mayor said no way.

Council President John SowellIRVINGTON - Council President John Sowell said he is not ruling out a mayoral run in 2010, however, he said he would not run against Mayor Wayne Smith if Smith decides to pursue a third term.

"I don’t rule out anything, two years out," Sowell told PolitickerNJ.com, "But I wouldn’t run against Wayne, that’s not my style."

South Ward Councilman Oscar James II, left, and his choice for U.S. Senate, U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews (D-1).

NEWARK - The car pulls into New Jersey’s northern urban stronghold on Saturday and slices through traffic on a mission.

Failing organizational power in the north, U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews (D-1) continues to try to nail together enough of a credible presence to drain his opponent in this part of the state where U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg has a snap-of-the-fingers ability to put people in the street.

The South Jersey congressman travels up Clinton Avenue in Newark’s South Ward, eager to connect with his own Democratic primary allies here.

But where he anticipates finding Andrews for Senate support in front of his destination, he instead encounters an army brandishing shiny blue Lautenberg signs.

Council President John SowellIRVINGTON - A political pragmatist who insists his insider knowledge of how government works does not diminish his closeness to the community, Council President John Sowell says an aggressive opponent in the West Ward doesn’t know enough about the process to serve.

An executive with the sheet metal workers union, Sowell originally thought he was only going to be running against 21-year old Keith White, political acolyte of North Ward Councilman David Lyons.

Now he’s also trying to stare down an old contemporary.

It’s a three-way race in Irvington’s West Ward with Sowell intending to fend off not just National Guardsman White but one-time ally turned vocal detractor, security guard Cedric Hunter.

Challenger Cedric HunterHunter and Sowell fell out after Hunter, a leader of the Irvington Alliance, failed to spirit the council president away from Team Irvington, a group founded and run by At-Large Councilman (and Freeholder) Bilal Beasley, who was wounded in an unsuccessful challenge last year of Sen. Ronald Rice (D-Essex).

"Bilal Beasley’s run of victories at the county level are over and soon the people who so openly supported him will besiege him to rid themselves of his disgrace," Hunter wrote to Sowell soon after Beasley’s loss. "As one of his most obedient cohorts, your name is closely aligned with his. Hopefully, you will see that the handwriting is on the wall and Bilal Beasley’s career in politics will (not) last for too much longer."

IRVINGTON - West Ward challenger Cedric Hunter discusses his vision for Irvington.

Councilman David LyonsIRVINGTON - North Ward Councilman David Lyons and Gene Etchison started out as friends and political allies, with Etchison drawn to the older man’s fireball activism.

As president of the local tenants association, Lyons didn’t care who he offended in his drive for better housing, and he took that attitude into a run for City Council in 1996.

"We used to go door to door together," recalled Etchison of Lyons’ first campaign. "I was like his little brother."

That didn’t last.

Lyons won. But though he successfully backed Etchison for district leader, Etchison then ran against Lyons with the muscle of South Ward boss D. Bilal Beasley and Team Irvington behind him.Challenger Gene Etchison

The councilman took the challenge as a betrayal.

"When I see him around, we don’t talk, said Lyons. "I lost respect for him after that."

A police officer and Marine Corps veteran who is the godson of Assemblywoman Cleopatra Tucker, Etchison said it was only political inevitability that propelled him into the arena against a man he once admired, but whom he came to see as a chronic naysayer.

IRVINGTON - Council President John Sowell and Councilman David Lyons stepped up their attacks on each other this week, as each aggressively backs a candidate in the other’s ward in the upcoming Irvington Council race.

Sowell, an eight-year veteran of the council and friend of Mayor Wayne Smith, hopes Gene Etchison bumps Lyons off the council in north Irvington.

“Some people are tired of Lyons being condescending,” Sowell said of the 12-year council veteran. “His service is a combination of demagoguery, bad attendance and an inconsistent, contradictory voting record. I can’t tell you the number of people I meet who ask me, ‘When is this guy going to stop complaining?’”

Irvington Council President John SowellIRVINGTON - Shot in the leg as he walked out of a pizza parlor two years ago, Keith White instinctively ran for cover from the blast of the 9 mm going off next to him.

"I didn’t even know I’d been hit," says White. "I was hit an inch above my knee. No police came to the scene, no police came to the hospital to file a report. I drove myself to the hospital."

Standing on Durand Place outside the neighborhood firehouse this week, he’s wearing combat boots, a cap with the National Guard insignia on it and fatigues.

"I’ve lived in Irvington all my life and I haven’t seen the positives increase." says the 21-year old career counselor and retention specialist with the Guard who’s been stationed stateside his three years in the service.