North Bergen Mayor Nicholas Sacco and his commissioners won re-election this Tuesday, with around 83 percent of the total vote in their favor.
“I am ecstatic about the results. They are beyond my expectation,” said Sacco that night at a celebration held at Schuetzen Park in North Bergen for him and hundreds of supporters.
Public officials who attended included Assemblywoman Joan Quigley (D-Hudson), Assemblyman Vincent Prieto (D-Hudson), Hudson County Executive Thomas DeGise, Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy, and Hudson County Sheriff Frank Schillari.
“The electorate spoke for itself.” – Nicholas Sacco
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“It’s gotten national attention, Sacco said. “It was a great video [that was] clean. It praised the high school, the town. It became the talk of the election, another history-making moment.”
Looking at the numbers
Sacco received 9,488 votes in the May 10 election, while his commissioners – Frank Gargiulo, Hugo Cabrera, Theresa Ferraro, and Allen Pascual – received 9,057, 9,015, 8,940, and 8,890 votes respectively.
Citizens for Change, the opposition slate, received far fewer votes. Candidates Michael Kreutzer, Ravinesh Varma, Adrian Cepero, April Tricoli-Busset, and Maria Benitez-Mir received 2,064, 2005, 1,975, 1,963, and 1,950 votes respectively.
The mood at their campaign headquarters election night, a store front on Kennedy Boulevard, was tense, with candidates huddled in a back room going over poll results while campaign workers crowded around.
“It was a two-month effort against someone who has been in office for 25 years,” said Kreutzer, including Sacco’s commissioner and mayoral terms. “We’re not surprised that we didn’t win the campaign.”
Election Day allegations
As with the campaigning season, Election Day brought numerous allegations from both sides.
After polls closed Tuesday night, candidate Adrian Cepero said that he felt many illegal acts had occurred at North Bergen’s 39 voting districts.
A van covered in Sacco posters was parked in front of their headquarters for the entire day, which is not illegal, but they found it irritating (see photo).
He said at the library, their challengers, who are present to observe the election and contest anything they find to be illegal, were given tables behind a book case where they could not hear or see what was happening. They had not brought their own tables.
He said that this wasn’t changed until the Hudson County Board of Elections got involved. Benitez-Mir complained that their challengers had no tables or chairs given to them and that they were kept far away from voting booths.
Sacco responded, “Every challenger has to bring their own tables and chairs and we did that. They have to do that. If they don’t know what the law is it’s their fault.”
Allegations of voter coercion
Sacco said an automated phone call was sent to residents, urging them to vote and then stating that it was paid by Citizens for Change. He complained that it was suspiciously in former President Bill Clinton’s voice. He said the Citizens’ campaign was full of “dirty tricks” that his team never struck back at.
Kreutzer acknowledged that there was a Robocall, but that it wasn’t instructing residents who to vote for or supporting either campaign. He said it was a public service announcement asking them to get to the polls.
“It’s actually Bill Clinton; someone didn’t impersonate his voice to make it sound like him,” Kreutzer said.
Challenger Ivette Baez, who said she got involved with the campaign through knowing Kreutzer’s sister, said that while at Town Hall, Sacco hovered over a woman who was filling out a voter ballot for the first time. Baez said Sacco asked, “What are you doing?” to which the woman’s daughter answered that the woman did not speak English and was voting.
Sacco explained, “[I was] walking past her to get the results, and I said to the little girl, ‘What are you doing, sweetheart, your homework? I would have no idea that she was voting,” said Sacco. “It was done in front of everyone there. I was not doing anything, I was not trying to influence any vote.”
North Bergen Police Capt. Gerald Sanzari said that he was involved in two incidents. In the first, a Citizens for Change campaign worker who was blocking the entrance to a polling center and was asked to leave due to someone calling and stating he was staring people down as they entered. The other was a report of Citizens for Change campaign workers who were walking into traffic to hand out literature, which is illegal, he said.
Another claim by Citizens for Change was that poll workers and officials had stepped into voter booths with voters.
Isabella Nieto, Cepero’s fiancée, worked as a challenger and said that she witnessed poll workers guiding residents into selecting Sacco’s column, until they noticed her behind them, and would then instruct that either column could be picked.
“If a voter comes into a poll and they’re old and they can’t see, they’re allowed to have anybody they want go in with them,” said Gargulio while campaigning outside of the high school before polls closed.
Another four years
The commissioners will be sworn in for another four years on Tuesday, May 17. In North Bergen’s form of government, five commissioners are chosen, and they pick a mayor from among themselves.
“The electorate spoke for itself,” said Sacco.
The Citizens for Change said they do not plan on stopping their political aspirations. Varma congratulated Sacco. Both he and Cepero said they hope to form community programs and stay involved.
“This was always meant to be a stepping stone for us,” Cepero said.
Tricia Tirella may be reached at TriciaT@hudsonreporter.com.