North Bergen mayoral hopeful Larry Wainstein has invested $551,336.89 in the non-partisan May 9th municipal elections, while incumbent Nick Sacco has raised $215,701.92, according to their respective 29-day pre-election reports.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
Wainstein, challenging Sacco for the third time, reports loaning his “Good Government Team” $479,000, with an additional $72,336.89 being spent on in-kind contributions that all came from him, an April 5th report filed with the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission (NJ ELEC) says.
He also lists a total of $388,843.27 in expenditures, with political consultant Barry Brendel, who owns Cutting Edge Communications, received $214,293. Brendel has also served as the chair of Our Revolution New Jersey.
Additionally, $86,949.91 was paid to Union City-based Batres Creative Services on billboards, lawn signs, direct mail, and palm cards.
As for Sacco, first elected township commissioner in 1985 and the mayor since 1991, his April 9th ELEC report indicates that he has spent $146,060.92 and has $79,341.60 cash on hand.
The majority of his funds raised, $200,000, came from the North Bergen Democratic Committee. They also chipped contributed $4,601.52 as in-kind contributions.
The New York Hotel Trades Council chipped in an additional $8,200, while Craig Guy, Hudson County Executive Tom DeGise’s chief of staff looking to succeed him, donated $2,800 out of his campaign account.
Neighborhood Research, the firm owned by sometimes controversial Republican consultant Rick Shaftan, was paid $13,722.05 and contributed an additional $54,888.19 for expenditures benefitting candidates, the ELEC report shows.
Sacco is seeking his 11th term in municipal office and is running alongside Commissioners Allen Pascual and Hugo Cabrera, as well as Hudson County Democratic Organization Chair Anthony Vainieri and Board of Education Trustee Claudia Rodriguez.
Vainieri, who resigned from the Hudson County Board of Commissioners earlier this month, is looking to fill in for retiring Commissioner Frank Gargiulo, while Rodriguez hopes to serve in place of Commissioner Julio Marenco.
Marenco is running for state Assembly in the 33rd Legislative District with the HCDO’s support.
As for Wainstein, his slate mates are Lucy Rodriguez, Tony Parrales, Alcides Siri, and Franklin Fabre. Siri has been on his slate all three times, while Fabre was one of his running mates in 2019.
Sacco bested Wainstein by a margin of about 67-33 in 2015 and then roughly 69-31 in 2019.
Wainstein hires an Our Revolution organizer? Our Revolution is a Communist front group, arose out of Bernie Sanders’ last run for President. It’s a Marxist front group. Wainstein is a businessman, we suppose, but what type of businessman does that? A sucker? A fool? The village idiot?