Polls have closed and now it’s wait-and-see time throughout the five boroughs. There are several competitive races right here in the Bronx that are up for grabs tonight. Here are a few final notes from the campaign trail.

— In several interviews, debates and forums leading up to today’s primary, 15th Council District candidate Joel Ray Rivera said he had and would use his middle initial in all of hia campaign literature (flyers, posters, etc.) to clear up any confusion among voters who might be led to believe that the current Councilman — Joel Rivera, who is term limited — was running for office again. He had taken a lot of heat from his opponents for it and said would go out of his way to be his own man and distinguish himself from the current councilman. He lied. Posters and flyers saying “Joel Rivera” was running for election were found littered throughout the district.

— In the Fordham Heights area, however, I didn’t see much of Rivera’s literature at all. Cynthia Thompkins posters dominated that neighborhood.

— On Webster Avenue, outside of PS 163, Rev. Ruben Diaz Sr., the socially conservative was dressed in full game day garb: boots, jeans, cowboy hat, yellow button-up with “Senator Diaz” embroidered on the back, and cowboy necktie held together with a big silver bull. It was impressive. Also impressive was his fleet of campaign trucks, tricked with booming speakers and the names of his favored candidates — Rev. Joel Bauza for 15th Council District and Erick Salgado for mayor — emblazoned everywhere.

He called the two candidates the “true underdogs” in there respective races. I asked him if he really thought they had any chance to win. He sheepishly smiled and looked away. “Yes,” he said, and then started laughing hysterically and grabbing my arm to hold himself up.

“I don’t know why everybody takes this so seriously all the time,” he said.

Then, Diaz turned serious. “Let me tell you this,” he said. “One of the two Bills, de Blasio or Thompson, one of them, will lose tonight because of what we did.” Diaz said his efforts on behalf of Salgado in the mayor’s race would siphon enough “black, Latino and Jew” votes that it would lead to one of the Bills demise on election night.

— At his campaign headquarters on Webster Avenue, just a block south of Fordham Road, Albert Alvarez was in good spirits, saying he felt good about how he’d run his campaign and that he had done everything he could do to make his case to voters.

Alvarez and his biggest backer, current Councilman Joel Rivera, his boss for the past 11 years and nine months, lamented the fact that Alvarez was at a clear disadvantage. Because of the Jobs for New York PAC, which spent nearly $400,000 on trying to promote Ritchie Torres and denigrate Joel R. Rivera, Alvarez was at least financial disadvantage. Thanks to a late infusion of public matching funds, Alvarez was able to mount a solid get out the vote operation, not to mention t-shirts and posters. He estimated they had more than 150 campaign soldiers on the ground today. It may have been too little late.

The big question, Rivera wanted to know, is why is Jobs for NY spending so much on this race. Only one other race is getting more attention from the powerful real estate lobby PAC.

Then there was the name recognition confusion that will undoubtedly lead to some voters voting for Joel Rivera because they thought their councilman was running again.

An extremely fired up 75-year-old Jose Rivera, Joel’s dad and the 78th District assemblyman, showed up and started going off on Alvarez’s opponents. At one point, we got into an iPhone camera battle that we’ll show you tomorrow. Joel said, “He lives for this.”

— Jose said he was also working on behalf of another Rivera today: Haile Rivera, the University Heights activist who famously dined with Obama and then infamously worked for Pedro Espada before the latter was ousted by Gustavo Rivera in the 33rd Senate District. Jose was convinced Haile had put together a successful grassroots campaign and would emerge victorious in a crowded 86th Assembly District race. Haile’s posters were plastered throughout the Fordham Heights area. (Hector Ramirez, another 86th AD candidate, also had posters everywhere.)

— Talked to Victor Pichardo, the 28-year-old former aide for U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer and State Senator Gustavo Rivera. Despite his opponents trying to paint him as an outsider, Pichardo says he grew up in University Heights, aside from a four-year stay in the Dominican Republic, and now lives right next St. Nicholas of Tolentine Church on University Avenue.

Pichardo, a Clinton High School grad and football players (“Go Governors,” he offered.), said he’d run a relentless campaign and was exhausted, but feeling confident after knocking on over 4,000 doors.

— Outside of PS 163, I bumped into three people from Yudelka Tapia’s campaign, including her son, Jorge Javier, the treasurer during her ill-fated City Council campaign in 2009. Tapia, you might remember, was planning to run in the 15th Council District until the city campaign finance board held her responsible for more than $100,000 in fines and repaying matching funds.

Tapia’s staffers complained of voting “irregularities” that may have compromised the integrity of the vote count. They said some machines weren’t working. They also thought it was inappropriate or unethical that Pichardo’s mom was a poll worker at PS 33, which is in the district.

— Apologies to the 11th Council District, where Andrew Cohen and Cliff Stanton are fighting it out on nearly every street corner. We’ll have more on that race tomorrow and the next print edition.

And with that, ladies and gentlemen, we are now waiting on the results to come. Should be finding out who our new representatives by 11 p.m. Check back here for more updates.

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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.