Speaking of Ralph, the reason Tony made a mistake with that, not only was Ralph a power of the family, with his earning power and him taking over the Aprile crew. Later on in The Soprano's, towards the end of his life, he was becoming likable. I think this showed a bit on the show, after his son died, he began to not be such a prick all the time. I think that's what Tony's dream represented and he was in the backseat of the car with his mom, I think, and Johnny Boy was driving and Ralph was in the passenger seat with a catipillar crawling on his bald head.


Considering the way things happened, Jersey would've just been either absorbed, or most likely installed as puppets to the Lupartazzi family. Paulie didn't have the skills needed to run the family. As someone already mentioned, he was a bygone from another era almost, he ran with Tony's dad and uncle, and I think Tony rewarded him for that and for choosing to be loyal to him, being Johnny Boy's son, as opposed to his uncle. I don't think guys like Patsy would really want to be loyal, and I don't think the whatever was left of the family would buy into him as chairman of the company.