PATERSON – The source looked up at the jagged crags of the city and broke it down.

He’s an insider.

Has a horse in the race.

He dismissed Bill McKoy and Mike Jackson as citywide candidates.

“Awful campaigns,” he said.

But furrowed his brow when considering their Wednesday morning presence.

“They’re both bitter now – imagine when they lose,” the source said. “And they’re still on the council.

“That will be trouble for any mayor,” he added.

If he can’t win himself today, McKoy probably would prefer Alex Mendez to Andre Sayegh.

Because he intensely dislikes Sayegh?

Maybe.

But more as a matter of political expediency.

If Mendez wins, that means he won’t run against McKoy for the sitting councilman’s 3rd Ward seat in two years.

McKoy can jab all day at Mayor Mendez, instead of having to worry about ex-Councilman Mendez, who abandoned his at-large seat to run for mayor today, going after him again ward-wide. Mendez almost beat McKoy last time. The McKoys don’t want to relive that headache.

The worst outcome today for McKoy is not just losing, but Sayegh winning, because that puts Mendez in rebuild mode.

The source said Pedro Rodriguez’s campaign has impressed him, and speculated that it’s been just robust enough to maul Mendez and put Sayegh over the top.

Others disagree.

Former Bergen County Democratic Chairman Joe Ferriero has told other insiders he thinks Rodriguez will sneak in; that he’s done enough to win.

Whatever happens, both in fundraising, organizing – and messaging – Rodriguez caught everyone’s attention this time in his first run for mayor. His organization, by any conventional campaign assessment, arguably cuts into fellow Dominican American Mendez deeper than McKoy cuts into Sayegh – who needs strong African American performance numbers to win.

At least that’s the source’s opinion.

Patrolling the polling area in front of the South Paterson Library on Tuesday morning, Al Abdel-Aziz was more cautious.

He’s a Sayegh guy.

If Sayegh wins, he’ll get the Ward 6 seat the councilman now occupies, so he’s motivated.

But he wouldn’t entertain the inevitability – not by a long stretch – of a Rodriguez-aided victory for his candidate.

It’s close, he said.

Close election.

If Mendez goes nuts with vote by mail ballots – the specialty of his adviser Henry Sosa – all bets are off.

It’s a war, Abdel-aziz said, waving in another guy on the opposite side of the street, who looked lost.

“Vote over here,” said the co-chair of the Paterson Democratic Party.