Assemblyman Gabriel Rodriguez and his running mate Larry Wainstein cruised to victory in the 33rd Legislative District Assembly race after a nasty campaign against Tony Hector and Frank Alonso.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
The sole incumbent in the race, Rodriguez, ran with Wainstein, a longtime political adversary to North Bergen Mayor Nick Sacco who was tapped to run after tensions with Sacco and state Senator (D-33)/Union City Brian Stack again boiled over as part of the HCDO civil war.
While the HCDO’s slate was announced early, Hector was a late replacement for outgoing Assemblyman Julio Marenco, who decided in February he wanted to focus on his role as the executive director of the North Bergen Housing Authority.
The announcement that Hector was running with Frank Alonso with Sacco’s backing came about two weeks later and they ultimately ran on Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop’s “Democrats for Change” gubernatorial slate.
They sought to make the election a referendum on Stack’s governance tactics that they deemed corrupt, the message was largely not heard by the electorate based on early tallies from the Hudson County Clerk’s Office, which had the winners up by an over 2-1 margin.
