JERSEY CITY - Petitions don't vote, but they can make a statement. Bill O'Dea, at least, hopes so.

The mayoral candidate showed up outside City Hall Monday with a load of cardboard boxes filled with nominating petitions.

Did he have enough to get on the ballot? It was a facetious question, but O'Dea deadpanned and said:

"I think so."

By his count, he and his team had gathered 7,763 signatures. Yeah, that's enough to get on the ballot for the November election. Still, he said he would collect even more.

This was a typical photo shoot - a candidate standing amid boxes of petitions. But for O'Dea, it was more than that.

He said his robust petition gathering was a sign of grassroots and volunteer support.

"Other (candidates) say they are a team, but we are a team," he said at a small rally of supporters that included his team of city council candidates.

O'Dea said his petitions are being circulated by people who live in and who love Jersey City. He said that work is not being done by "armies" of workers brought in from out of town.

Who is doing that?

O'Dea alleged that this is being done by the "former governor."

That, of course, is James McGreevey.

Other prominent candidates in the race are Joyce Watterman, the council president, and Councilman James Solomon.

O'Dea is now a Hudson County commissioner. He was a city councilman before that.

Nonetheless, he seems to take pride in not being part of the "in crowd."

"We've never been afraid to fight the machine," he said. "We're here to fight them again."

How?

O'Dea said that will be done the same way his campaign gathered thousands of petition signatures. By going door-to-door and telling people what he has done - and will do - to solve problems.

Soon thereafter, volunteers lugged the many boxes of petitions up the stairs and into City Hall to be formally submitted.