With just a little over two months to go before the May 14th municipal elections, the New Beginnings West New York slate sounded confident that change is coming during a brunch fundraiser at The Waterside Restaurant yesterday.
“Sanity in West New York should be the theme because I’m right across the street and I know what it’s been like. And I see all good things happening now with good things coming,” said state Senator (D-32)/North Bergen Mayor Nick Sacco.
It’s no secret that public meetings in West New York have been must see political theatre in recent memory, particularly in the past few months before election season kicked into high gear.
Commissioners Cosmo Cirillo, Margarita Guzman and Gabriel Rodriguez have informally split away from Mayor Felix Roque and Commissioner Sue Colacurcio for about a year now and have formed their own slate known as NBWNY.
“West New York can turn the page for the better. God knows I’ve been wanting to do that for so many years. But four to one doesn’t cut it. So three to one is not cutting it and five to zero is going to finally do it,” added Freeholder Caridad Rodriguez (D-7), who successfully ran with Roque in 2011.
Joining the three incumbents are first time candidates Yoleisy Yanez and Victor Barrera, both who sounded excited to be a part of the team during yesterday’s program in front of about 350 people.
“This has been a dream come through and this is my passion. My passion is to serve seniors in West New York and to serve our residents in West New York,” Barrera stated.
The slate has received repeated praise from U.S. Rep. Albio Sires (D-8), who has publicly exclaimed several times over the past year that he would make it a point to unseat Mayor Felix Roque.
Sires said that he hopes to bring West New York back to simpler times when everyone used to get along, hard to imagine by current standards.
“One of the reasons that I’m standing here and working so hard is because I want to bring back those days where West New York was moving forward. Where people were happy to go to City Hall and work, where people enjoyed going to a fundraiser for the mayor,” Sires explained.
“They had a great time. That was the West New York that I enjoyed. That is the West New York that all of you deserve because you all work for hard for this community.”
Gabriel Rodriguez, whose at the top of the ticket, vowed to try and keep the message positive as the campaign season hits the final 65 days.
“West New York is a small town, but a very big community. And I owe a lot to this town, its education, its recreation and its community for making the man that I am today – and that is why I’m running for mayor, that is why I’m here, and that is why I’m serving with this team of individuals,” Rodriguez said to applause.
“Despite what other people say about having no experience, have been giving to this community for years, so I want to say thank you to New Beginnings.”
Other dignitaries in attendance included Assembly members Pedro Mejia and Angelica Jimenez (D-32), Guttenberg Mayor Wayne Zitt, Weehawken Mayor Richard Turner, Freeholders Anthony Romano (D-5) and Anthony Vainieri (D-8), Guttenberg council members Monica Fundora and John Habermann, former West New York Mayor Sal Vega, Board of Education Trustees Adam Parkinson, David Morel, Joseph Rodriguez and Jonathan Castaneda, former Roque campaign manager Pablo Fonseca, among many others.