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NEWARK, N.J. (AP) -- Did you hear the one about the best way to identify public officials in New Jersey? Check for the handcuff marks on their wrists.

A massive federal corruption sting over the summer again made New Jersey a punch line for late-night comedians, but it has also turned local political campaigns inside out and emboldened underdog candidates -- and forced one city to mount a special election after its mayor was arrested after three weeks on the job.

Even for a state with a rich history of political corruption, it has been an eventful political season, highlighted by the spectacle of one district in which an outgoing legislator faces federal charges and a leading candidate is under indictment on state charges.

Worse, a jaded public appears resigned to being ruled by scoundrels. Although nearly all the elected officials arrested in July were Democrats, nearly three in four people surveyed for a Monmouth University/Gannett New Jersey poll in August said Republicans would be just as corrupt if they held the reins of power.

About two in three felt their state legislators were more concerned about their own financial interests than the public good.

"I don't know if there was ever a time when the public was not jaded," said Joseph Marbach, a political scientist and dean of Seton Hall University's college of arts and sciences. "You can go back to our founding as a state, and our first governor was recalled for bribery and corruption."

Three mayors, two state assemblymen, the head of Jersey City's council and several unsuccessful candidates for office were among those arrested in a July corruption roundup so big it surprised even New Jerseyans, who have watched more than 100 public officials plead guilty or get convicted in the past several years.

The July busts centered on an FBI informant who posed as a corrupt developer offering bribes to public officials for help with zoning approvals.

The arrests caused the biggest disruption in Hoboken, where 32-year-old Peter Cammarano was arrested three weeks after being elected as the city's youngest mayor, accused of taking $25,000 from the informant. His resignation forced the city known as the birthplace of Frank Sinatra and the setting for "On The Waterfront" to dust off the voting machines for a special election next week featuring seven candidates.

Hoboken resident Helen Hirsch said voters are angry about the corruption forcing yet another election, and the lavish fundraisers, excessive spending and divisive politics that appear to be the hallmark of campaigns in the 1-square-mile city of about 40,000 people.

"This offends me more than I can tell you; with people going hungry, the thousands and thousands of dollars that are being spent on these campaigns," Hirsch said. "A single mailing can cost $10,000, and they keep coming, three or four mailers every day."

In stark contrast to the hotly contested Hoboken race, Independent candidate Michael Gonnelli went from perennial challenger to unopposed candidate in Secaucus, where Mayor Dennis Elwell resigned after his arrest in the federal probe.

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