With peace averted in Bloomfield, the old Essex County factory and warehouse town turned Newark suburban bedroom community just metamorphosed into the most obvious front line of the ongoing presidential contest between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.
It all starts with a local scrap.
Incumbent Mayor Mike Venezia will be on the party line under the presidential candidate backed by the Essex County Democratic Committee: former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Councilman Joseph Lopez will be off the line under Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.
A source with knowledge of the ground game in Bloomfield said Lopez backers are already mischievously high-fiving one another in the knowledge that young voters are overwhelmingly supportive of Sanders over Clinton. If Sanders – who had a good night this past weekend when he went three for three – can hang around and continue grabbing states away from Clinton and keep inflated his revolutionary circus tent in time for the June 7th Democratic Primary here – Lopez could be the beneficiary of a late Sanders surge.
The source said part of the strategy for Lopez will include making the play to young voters with the ardor of Sanders on their side.
“It’s war,” one operative told PolitickerNJ.
