The energy level was high inside a packed Schuetzen Hall as Mayor Nicholas Sacco held an event on March 9 to officially launch his campaign ticket for May.
The event came just hours after representatives from the attorney general’s office showed up unannounced to confiscate boxes of records from the North Bergen Recreation Department, for reasons yet to be determined. But that didn’t dampen the festive mood inside the hall as North Bergen Democratic Municipal Committee Chairman John Bellouardo kicked off the night by announcing that the campaign had rounded up more than 8,000 signatures in support of the Sacco ticket in just three weeks.
Belluardo was followed by a cross section of local and regional politicians offering their support and endorsement to the campaign. Receiving a particularly spirited round of applause was Union City Mayor Brian Stack, a longtime political rival of Sacco. The two neighboring mayors and state senators recently set aside their differences and pledged to work together.
“Nick and I have a great respect for each other,” Stack told the enthusiastic crowd. “We’re going to work hard for Hudson County.”
Praising North Bergen’s DPW and expert snow removal, Stack said he holds it up as an example to his own city departments.
“Union City will stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Mayor Nick Sacco and his team.” –Brian Stack
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Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop commented on Stack’s historic endorsement. “When you see Union City and North Bergen standing together, you know you have something special here coming for this May,” he said.
Fulop also noted Sacco’s long tenure in government. “For 25 years Mayor Sacco has been serving North Bergen,” he said. “And I can tell you as a new mayor, he has been somebody to Jersey City that has been a huge resource. A huge voice on how to do things properly, whether it’s snow removal or potholes or things that are coming out through Trenton that affect working families.”
Assemblywoman Angelica Jimenez remarked similarly on Sacco’s leadership. “Mayor Sacco has not only been a great mentor to me but a great teacher and somebody that I turn to,” she said. “All these mayors… would love to emulate what he does in North Bergen.”
The Sacco ticket
County Executive Tom DeGise was among the dignitaries taking a moment from their endorsements of Sacco to offer thanks to retiring Commissioner Theresa Ferraro for her long term of service, before concluding his comments with “Let’s open up an industrial size can of whoop-ass between now and May.”
Fighting words were the order of the day, with the speakers calling on the audience to get out and drum up votes. Indeed, the commissioners entered the hall from the rear, striding through the crowd to the strains of “Eye of the Tiger.”
Also speaking at the event were Sacco’s running mates, current Commissioners Hugo Cabrera, Frank Gargiulo, and Allen Pascual, as well as Board of Education President Julio Marenco, who is running for the fifth seat, to be vacated when Ferraro retires at the end of her term.
Barbs at the opposition
“We clearly have a war going on,” Pascual told the audience. “There are 1,200 plus people here [in Schuetzen Park],” he said, predicting an even bigger victory for the ticket than the landslide four years ago. “Let us send this guy back, packing, to Franklin Lakes where he lives.”
The final comment was directed at Larry Wainstein, Sacco’s chief opponent in the upcoming election. Wainstein is the founder and leader of the North Bergen Concerned Citizens Group, a community organization vigorously opposed to the Sacco administration. Last Friday Wainstein and his four running mates filed 4,500 signed petitions for nomination in the upcoming election.
Sacco supporters have alleged that Wainstein, a prominent local businessman, owns a home outside of North Bergen and his children attend school in the other district.
Although never mentioned by name during Sacco’s campaign kickoff event, Wainstein’s shadow loomed over the proceedings. Outside Schuetzen Hall, a group of protesters carrying anti-Sacco signs blocked the entrance and shouted at attendees who were forced to cross through the picket line.
Democratic Chairperson Lou Stellato was one of numerous speakers who referred to the protesters disparagingly, saying, “Let them yell tonight because they’re going to moan on election day.”
Diversity in action
Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto noted the Sacco ticket was “a very diverse commission,” with three of the candidates being Hispanic. Several of the speakers addressed the crowd by alternating between Spanish and English, including Congressman Albio Sires.
This, too, may have been partially in response to the Wainstein faction and the protesters outside the hall, some of whom carried signs accusing the current commission of racism.
Candidate Julio Marenco countered that criticism by noting that the police department is “12 percent female and over 60 percent Latino, and every other group [is] in there.” Freeholder Anthony Vainieri elaborated with a list of Hispanic employees in town hall, calling the protesters “the lowest of people.”
“We’re gonna crush them to smithereens,” he told the crowd.
The event culminated with Sacco taking the stage to thank the audience for their support. “You’re the people that are going to make this a resounding, crushing victory,” he said, pledging that the commissioners would walk through all 39 districts to meet as many residents as possible in the 40 weekdays before the election on May 12.
Among the others onstage and in the audience to support the Sacco team were New Jersey Democratic State Committee and Passaic County Democratic Chairman John Currie, West New York Mayor Felix Roque, Weehawken Mayor Richard Turner, Secaucus Mayor Michael Gonnelli, Bayonne Mayor James Davis, Freeholder Anthony Romano, Freeholder Ken Kopacz, former Senator Bernard Kenny, and many more.
Art Schwartz may be reached at arts@hudsonreporter.com.