Mayor Mack is Stupid and a Crook: Fmr. Campaign Manager

Hours after Trenton, N.J., Mayor Tony Mack was arrested and charged in a federal case of political corruption, his former campaign manager indicated he'd seen it coming, for some time.

"It doesn't surprise me at all," Jerrell Blakely says. "It was a matter of when and not if."

Blakely says before Mack even took office in 2010, there were rumors and reports of corruption, cronyism and incompetence.

Prosecutors now say the FBI started investigating several months after Mack became mayor.

By then, Blakely says he'd walked away from the man he helped become mayor.

"It was like, there were two things — he was either really stupid, in that he would hire these people, or, he was a crook. And, quite frankly, I wish he was stupid instead of a crook. But it turns out he was both."

David Ponton led a recall campaign against Mack that failed.

"We saw the writing on the wall, the corruption," Ponton said. "With all of this going on now, you will hear a lot more from the residents in this city of Trenton."

Mack does not have to resign. He remains the mayor of Trenton, N.J.

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