September 16, 2009 - 9:22pm
News

Prieto defends party decision not to run a mayoral candidate in Secaucus

Assemblyman Vincent Prieto (D-Secaucus)

Assemblyman Vincent Prieto (D-Secaucus) explained the local Democratic Party's absence of a mayoral candidate in his hometown as conscious response to a political crisis.

"We're trying to take a strategic look here and we have decided the best thing to do is to focus on electing our council candidates," said Prieto of a team that was assembled to run with incumbent Mayor Dennis Elwell.

After getting hit with federal corruption charges in late July, Elwell resigned, leaving the independent candidate, Mike Gonnelli, to now run unopposed, as Republicans also did not submit petitions for a mayoral candidate in front of this afternoon's deadline.

 "I'm running for re-election as the assemblyman and as the leader of the party in Secaucus I want to bring the council candidates together and move forward," Prieto told PolitickerNJ.com today in North Bergen. "I'm leading the party and we're running an aggressive, positive campaign, starting with a rally tomorrow." 

Max Pizarro is a PolitickerNJ.com Reporter and can be reached via email at max@politicsnj.com.

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