Hudson Democrat won’t run again for State Assembly, report says

Assemblyman Julio Marenco (D-North Bergen) won’t seek re-election to a second term in the 33rd district, backing out of a Democratic primary fight with two candidates backed by Union City Mayor/State Sen. Brian P. Stack, the Hudson County View reported.

The New Jersey Globe has verified the story.

Marenco told the Hudson County View that he wanted to devote his full attention to his job as executive director of the North Bergen Housing Authority.

“I believe that it would be best for the constituents I serve for me to suspend my campaign at this time in order to devote my full attention to my role as executive director of the North Bergen Housing Authority, as well as to continuing to provide excellent constituent services,” Marenco told the Hudson County View.

Stack is backing incumbent Gabriel Rodriguez (D-West New York) and North Bergen businessman Larry Wainstein for the two Assembly seats.  Wainstein, like Stack, is a bitter rival of North Bergen Mayor Nicholas Sacco.  The recruitment of Wainstein to run against Marenco is a bold move by Stack to begin settling his feud with Sacco, the mayor since 1991.  Wainstein has challenged Sacco three times, all unsuccessfully, in his bid to become North Bergen’s first Hispanic mayor in a municipality with a 72% Hispanic population.

In 2023, Marenco gave up his North Bergen Commissioner seat and his full-time job as a member of the State Parole Board to move to the Assembly.

Wainstein’s ability to claim roughly 30% of the vote in North Bergen makes him an attractive candidate for Stack, whose vote-producing prowess in Union City, West New York, and Weehawken – along with Wainstein’s potential to get at least one-third of the vote in North Bergen – could make the combination unbeatable.

A successful local businessman and philanthropist, Wainstein is a potential self-funder: he spent about $600,000 of his own money in 2023 and a similar amount in 2019.

Marenco is the third member of the State Assembly to not run again this year, following John Allen (D-Hoboken) and Reginald Atkins (D-Roselle).