the opponent tried to hire me away with money a few times, and I declined. The last time he did, I tried to lose him by saying I was running late- he walked home with me. When I said my goodbye, he said "So this is where you live? It would be a shame if anything happened to this building." There had been many buildings going up in flames, and lives lost in the past ten years before that, because landlords wanted all tenants out to go condo. He was menacing about it- and it did frighten me. He won, ended up having a fist and bat fight with his son on main street of town (he was cheating with his son's girlfriend) eventually landed in jail for corruption, and had brain cancer, and survived it all. Don't even ask me what happened with the machines on election day- some machines were delivered unsealed with votes on them already, and pollworkers insisted it was okay. I never saw so many laws broken in one day. Crazy.
At a debate, his campaign manager called my candidate a "Kike" and when someone called him on it, his response was to pretend someone else, called him "A Wop". That was at a public meeting, with three reporters- and no one told the story straight- they acted as if they could not tell who said what when only "Kike" had been yelled out.
The FBI has video of voter fraud that was crazy obvious, we have no idea what info they got in order to not prosecute that. People who work in the school system and live in public housing are regularly pressured to work on campaigns or loose their jobs. Campaign workers are paid 50$ to vote three times under phony names. People go into local hospitals and come out with dozens of absentee ballots from people who are unable to speak or write, because they are currying favor. Hundreds of votes are phony, people who moved out of town, and the Dem poll workers create distractions so the votes do not get challenged. Everyone knows this stuff goes on. We have a great mayor now, because another one was sent to jail, and she seceded him as head of the city council.
But basically, we were so solidly Dem, and had so much money pouring in for development, that things in the Dem party got very corrupt, and no one could get elected without "the machine's" approval. Anyone who follows politics knows this crap happens, and I really think that, coupled with increased wealth and Wall St influence, has been turning bits of NJ redder and redder. Buono was too honest to thrive in this environment. The machine wanted someone who would wring all the money and power out of the situation, and hopefully kick back some to them. It is a shame. 
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