Trying to guess where North Jersey racists live

A new cafe is opening in the space on Sussex Street in Hackensack once occupied by John's Coffee Shop, above, and a sign on a storefront at 159 Main St. promises a new Indian restaurant, below.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

Extremism and racism were central to the doomed U.S. Senate campaign of former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan, who called Newark "a black hole" and released a map with a city neighborhood labeled "West Africa." 

Now, readers of The Record can finally look at the vote totals for the Tea Party crackpot and winner Cory Booker, and amuse themselves with trying to find North Jersey's closeted racists.

Many of them are voters who complain Democrats are trying to take away their guns or who fall for the classic Republican big lie: lower taxes.

Racial backlash?

The belated town-by-town vote totals in Wednesday's special election show that Booker carried Bergen and Hudson counties, but lost Morris County to the GOP right winger (A-6).

Among the towns giving Lonegan more votes were Allendale, Alpine, Carlstadt, Emerson, Hasbrouck Heights, Mahwah, Montvale and Paramus.

But Lonegan lost his hometown, Bogota, as well as Englewood, Teaneck, Hackensack and Tenafly, where Publisher Stephen A. Borg lives in a $3.65 million McMansion.

Booker trounced Lonegan in Teaneck, where the vote total was higher than in Hackesnack, the most populous community in Bergen County, but one that is known for voter apathy and low turnouts.

Booker is New Jersey's first African-American senator, and one of only two blacks in that august body, but will he encounter the same racial backlash as President Obama has?

The Record's chart is confusing, with county vote totals listed before individual towns instead of after.

Local-news drought

What is the point of Road Warrior John Cichowski's column about Westwood's former traffic safety officer and his 250 DWI arrests (L-1)?

Today's thin Local section is missing Hackensack, Teaneck and Englewood news, and an expanded local obituary, but Deputy Assignment Flunky Dan Sforza found room for another Dean's List (L-6).

Page fizzles

In Better Living, free-lancer Jeffrey Page's entertaining story about a "real seltzer" maker from Fort Lee doesn't tell readers how much the stuff costs -- likely because Page is hiding sticker shock (BL-1).

Instead of trying to scoop the competition or writing about a subject no one else has the courage to tackle, Columnist Mike Kelly rehashes "the lessons" of Booker's victory (O-1).

Kelly also is sticking with his dated, unflattering column photo and silly shit-eating grin. 

Forced busing

In a letter to the editor, Denise Black of Egg Harbor relates the atrocious service she received when she took an NJ Transit bus to Manhattan from Atlantic City, and then an extremely long line at the Port Authority Bus Terminal that resembled a "herd of animals" for the return trip (O-3).

That's funny. Why is a reader reporting on the quality of bus service and not The Record's transportation reporters, including Cichowski and Karen Rouse?