Come on down to Crazy Johnny's Runoff-o-Rama in beautiful Jersey City

We've got more runoffs than the Raritan River in a storm. All the Wards in Jersey City, sans Ward E where Candice Osborne got power up and got the 50% +1 are gonna have runoffs on June 11th. Johnny was well off of his prediction of three. Some of those Healy candidates are hanging tough but hanging on as well.

The Hudson Reporter has more on the City Council runoff numbers and candidates who will be participating:

According to preliminary numbers from the Office of the City Clerk, in Ward A, former Superintendent of Schools Charles Epps Jr., who ran with Healy, won 43.48 percent of the vote and will face Frank Gajewski in a runoff. Gajewski received 37.76 percent of the vote.

In Ward B, Khemraj “Chico” Ramchal, who ran with Fulop, won 37.76 percent of the vote, will face Gerald Meyers in a runoff. Meyers, a Healy candidate, received 33.94 percent of the vote.

Independent candidate Richard Boggiano edged out Ward C City Councilwoman Nidia Lopez, receiving 36.30 percent of the vote to Lopez’s 31.67 percent.

Another independent candidate, Jersey City Heights businessman Michael Yun, received 42.96 percent of the vote in Ward D over popular Assemblyman Sean Connors, who ran with Fulop. Connors received 34.44 percent of the vote.

City Councilwoman Diane Coleman, received 42.72 percent of the vote in Ward F to Jermaine Robinson’s 41.66 percent. Coleman ran with Fulop, Robinson with Healy.

Johnny is really interested to see if Nidia Lopez, who was on Healy's ticket in 2009 and jumped to Fulop's ticket this year, can pull this out with Fulop furiously campaigning for her over the next month. The way we see it Healy's ticket has three firewalls from keeping Fulop from getting a clean sweep, Charles Epps Jr. in Ward A, Lopez in Ward C and Jermaine Robinson in Ward F.

One wonders just what Mayor Jerramiah Healy was thinking when he decided to rehash his drunken naked front porch incident with the Star-Ledger

And making it worse, maybe he WASN'T thinking. Can you imagine his press crew trying to spin THIS? They thought this was long dead and gone. Then the mayor himself brings it back up a week before the election. And manages to make it WORSE?! Oh boy.

Years ago when the issue came up originally Healy told the New York Times:

Healy told The New York Times that he had been drinking and couldn't remember how he ended up on his stoop naked. A spokeswoman for the mayor told The Jersey Journal at the time that Healy heard a commotion outside, went to investigate, and someone snapped a photo.

Now there's a NEW version of events, one far more salacious and in some eyes with a racist tinge to the new story. The Star-Ledger picks up the story change:

Now he says three young women woke him by banging trash cans outside his house, so he rose from bed, wrapped a towel around himself, and went to investigate.

Take the naked photo incident. At the time, Healy acknowledged he had been drinking and said he could not remember what happened.

“Three Hispanic girls, young kids,” he says. “So I go out on the porch and they pulled the towel off me. Now I start laughing, and then they started doing other stuff. I said, ‘I’m old enough to be your grandfather.’ ”

What other stuff?

“It was filthy,” he says. “I chased them away, and I just sat down.”

And that, he says, is when a political enemy snapped the photograph.

Uh, um, just simply amazing right? #1 as to why you'd revisit this tawdry event and then to bring in three young Hispanic girls to the telling is beyond belief. Does Healy no longer care if he wins? Did he see some kind of political advantage to retelling this story a week before a hotly contested election? If so please email Johnny and let him know what it is. We promise to pass it along.

Ward C Councilwoman Nidia Lopez, who ran on Healy's ticket four years ago and has since changed to the Fulop side expressed disappointment with Healy:

"I think the Hispanic community deserves an apology and I think our mayor needs psychological help ... For this mayor to degrade Hispanic women by creating this wild story eight years later ... three young kids molested him, he's laughing about it. How the hell did he know they were Hispanic?"

"When I ran in 2009, I asked him if that was really him on the stoop, and he said, 'I don't know baby. I was so drunk I don't remember.' Those were his exact words to me .... There is absolutely something wrong with this picture."

What do you think readers, what do you think of the whole mess and the changing story a week before the election? Hit us up in comments.

Remember last week when we said we were pleased with Ward C Councilwoman Nidia Lopez's independence from the mayor?

Well listen to this...

Steve Fulop will have Nidia Lopez as HIS Ward C candidate on his May ticket. This is big big news though many will say they saw it coming. WHY they saw it coming is the big news. Lopez who ran on Mayor Healy's ticket in 2009 and won has changed sides. Said Nidia:

“My decision to join Steve’s ticket was easy,” Lopez said in a statement from Fulop’s campaign. “He’s the only candidate who has forward-thinking plans to fight crime, improve schools, make government more accessible and ensure that Jersey City's growth benefits everyone, not just the wealthy and well-connected.”

How's that for intrigue Jersey City? It certainly gets Fulop's story and reputation out into the neighborhoods away from the waterfront into Journal Square where Healy said Fulop would run into trouble. This sure helps.

Wait, what? It's good but you want more? Well then, Councilwoman at large Viola Richardson said she is running on Mayor Healy's ticket this very day as his third at-large candidate. Said Viola:

“Just like Mayor Healy, I’m driven to always do what’s best for the residents of Jersey City and those who work here,” Richardson said in a statement from the Healy campaign. “And together, we’ll continue to work hard to make Jersey City a better place for all.”

Mom, is it time for the debates yet?