Linden Mayor Derek Armstead’s Facebook page implores folks to stay home to help save lives amid the coronavirus pandemic.

But on Saturday, photos obtained by NJ Advance Media show Armstead out in a neighborhood — clad in a surgical mask and blue suit — talking to residents with his chief of staff, Alex Lospinoso, and 6th Ward council candidate Joao Goncalves. Both Lospinoso and Goncalves were carrying clipboards.

Armstead was “harassing” people in the neighborhood, one resident said, at a time when the message is to stay home and practice social distancing. Councilman John Francis Roman accused the mayor of door-to-door campaigning for Goncalves.

“He is out ringing doorbells with his 6th Ward candidate... Are you kidding me?” Roman said.

But Armstead has another explanation: He was simply talking to friends of Goncalves, who lives on the street where the mayor was spotted.

“Everyone wants to make a big deal out of this,” Armstead, a Democrat, told NJ Advance Media in a phone interview Sunday. “Our candidate lives on Kennedy Drive. That’s where we were at. He lives on the street. We had a meeting at his home yesterday. He’s talking to his neighbor he knows for God knows how long.”

Armstead said he, Lospinoso and Goncalves were headed back to his home when they ran into Goncalves’ neighbors and stopped to chat. As for the clipboards, Armstead said it would make sense that they would have campaign paraphernalia with them if they were going back to his house to continue the meeting.

“What were we going to do? Leave it there so we can’t make phone calls?” he said. “It makes perfect sense.”

Armstead continued, “We were only on Kennedy Drive yesterday. That’s it.”

In an interview, Goncalves said Armstead parked down the street from his home, and on the way to the mayor’s car, his neighbors called out to them because they were star-struck by Armstead. Goncalves and Armstead were wearing suits, he explained, for campaign photos that they took at Armstead’s house.

“This is obviously coming from the opposing side,” Goncalves said. “We were in the wrong place at the wrong time, and they’re using this against me.”

Gov. Phil Murphy’s stay-at-home order does not address campaigning. But at his April 7 coronavirus news conference, Murphy strongly suggested against neighborhood canvassing during the pandemic.

“People should not be going door-to-door campaigning. Period,” he told reporters. “That’s not what we need right now. Stay at home. Pick up the telephone. Send an email. Send a text.”

Two pictures of Armstead talking to residents were posted on Twitter by David Wildstein, editor of The New Jersey Globe. NJ Advance Media independently obtained those photos and two additional photos that show Armstead and his crew at homes on Kennedy Boulevard.

NJ Advance Media spoke to five residents who live on the street, including one who is seen in one of the images.

“He was harassing everybody,” one resident said of the mayor, before declining to comment further.

Three other residents said they were home Saturday, but the mayor did not come to their door. Two of those residents said they saw the mayor walking around the neighborhood.

Jane Fitz’s ex-husband lives on Kennedy Drive. She said he told her he was ecstatic he got the chance to talk to the mayor on Saturday.

“He said, ‘I saw him walking through the neighborhood … and he was asking me how I was doing,’” Fitz said. “People see the mayor all the time. (My ex-husband) didn’t say (Armstead) was campaigning.”

Goncalves is running against Roman in the 6th Ward. Roman, a Democrat, said he heard from “a dozen neighbors calling me freaking out” about Armstead and Goncalves going door-to-door.

“My neighbor died from this virus," Roman said. "Multiple residents passed away from this virus one block over from where he was going door-to-door. He should be concentrating on those families instead of walking Kennedy Drive for the first time in his 25-year career.”

Linden — which has more than 900 positive cases of the coronavirus and at least 42 deaths — is a city of roughly 43,000 in Union County. It’s a politically charged city where feuds between rival political factions have gotten physical. It’s also a city where the municipal prosecutor is facing accusations that he was often a no-show in the highly paid part-time job.

“I call it Linsanity,” Armstead quipped, referring to the nickname of former New York Knicks player Jeremy Lin. “They (the opposition) complain about anything. They complained about me honoring nurses a couple of days ago.”

Earlier this month, a group of candidates running against establishment Democrats called on those politicians to cease door-to-door campaigning.

“This is not the time for politics as usual,” said Jason Krychiw, the interim chairman of New Jersey Progressive Democrats of Union County. “This is the time to stand together and serve the people. We must choose to put public health above personal ambition and the prospect of being elected.”

Alex Napoliello may be reached at anapoliello@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @alexnapoNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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