Former Newark Mayor, Frank Stare, must be nervous.  He uses his Advocate editorial to offer a "warning or heads up," to the voters of Newark about the evil deeds that might be carried out by "negative people" between now and the election.  It seems, according to Stare, that some people might say negative things about candidate Stare and, they will have to answer to "the Almighty above for their cowardly attacks against others."

I could focus on the smears that I witnessed coming from Frank Stare while he was Mayor of Newark, but I'll let the Almighty above take care of those.

The truth, as I have commented before, is that while Mayor of Newark, Frank Stare nearly loved this city to death.

He is right about personal smears.  They are petty and nasty, however professional competence is entirely in bounds for discussion.  Under Frank Stare's leadership, the quality of life in Newark declined.  Our infrastructure fell out of repair, our police department declined and he failed to make tough decisions on zoning, property maintenance, finances or economic development.  Frank Stare looked the other way or participated in cronyism, which led to mismanagement and even crimes,  BUT he made sure to tell people "happy birthday" and to have notes sent out for deaths, births, etc. (possibly necessary, but certainly not sufficient for guiding a city).

Sorry Frank, you can call the truth a smear and you may very well be elected but Newark is at a crossroads.  When I talk to people, they tell me about serious problems facing this city.  They love the city but are concerned about the decay.  We need to improve our police department to stop the crime problem.  We need to reverse the decay process that you caused to our infrastructure.  We need to enforce a property maintenance code.  We need quality economic development.  In short, we need competent service in city government.