NEWARK – The debonair presence of Willie Parker, esquire, on the sidewalk outside the Murphy Campaign headquarters this morning turned some local heads. It wasn’t that he was there so much as who he was there with: Central Ward Councilwoman Gayle Chaneyfield Jenkins.

The councilwoman remains the lone member of the city governing body who hasn’t endorsed the mayor who agreed to run with him as he pursues 2018 reelection, sparking the conclusion that she must herself be undertaking a run against him.

That antagonism spasmed on the sidewalk as Chaneyfield Jenkins huddled with Parker.  A former corporation counsel, Parker’s on the public enemy list in City Hall after his firing and subsequent filing of a suit against the Baraka Administration and the mayor’s chief of staff, Amiri “Middy” Baraka, Jr.

Parker’s a Democratic Party district leader, a spot he wrenched away from the venerable Bill Payne about a decade ago. Although the establishment backed Shavar Jeffries in the 2014 mayoral election, Parker opted to go with Baraka, a choice that armed him with his argument for why he deserved corps. counsel after Team Baraka’s first choice for that position flamed out.

It worked for him at first, but his relationship with the brothers soured after Parker suffered a heart attack and then dumped him. According to published reports, Parker says the administration “retaliated against [him] for not signing off on a multi-million dollar development deal.”

His case is pending.

“That’s interesting,” an Essex source told InsiderNJ, as he observed Parker jawing with Cahneyfield Jenkins. “Gayle is the only one who left the reservation, and now she’s talking to him.”