Rodriguez, Wainstein win in LD33

Assemblyman Gabriel Rodriguez (D-West New York) and his running mate, North Bergen businessman Larry Wainstein, have won two seats in the 33rd legislative district, the New Jersey Globe projects, a victory for State Sen./Union City Mayor Brian Stack over his rival, North Bergen Mayor Nicholas Sacco.

As of 11:48 p.m. and with nearly all votes counted, Wainstein and Rodriguez lead Republican high school teacher Cynthia DePice and building inspector Anthony Valdes by a 75%-25% margin.

Ahead of the 2023 elections, Stack and Sacco – never on the friendliest of terms – were combined into one majority-Hispanic North Hudson district, setting up a potential clash of giants. Sacco ended up stepping aside, but as part of the deal, he got one of his allies, Julio Marenco (D-North Bergen), elected to the Assembly alongside Rodriguez, then the mayor of West New York.

The Stack-Sacco relationship deteriorated in the years that followed, however, and ahead of this year’s elections, Stack dumped Marenco from the ticket and replaced him with Wainstein, a North Bergen politician who had run against Sacco for local office thrice.

Sacco recruited his own slate of former North Bergen school board member Tony Hector and former Union City Republican municipal chairman Frank Alonso, who joined Steve Fulop’s “Democrats for Change” team against the Stack ticket, which was aligned with Mikie Sherrill. But Stack’s legendary get-out-the-vote operation made it a lopsided fight from the beginning, and Rodriguez and Wainstein won the proxy war by a combined 70%-30% margin.

Sacco, not content to let it end there, endorsed Republican Jack Ciattarelli for governor, an endorsement that extended to DePice and Valdes for Assembly. But in a Democratic-leaning district like the 33rd district, and with Stack’s operation in full force, Rodriguez and Wainstein were always guaranteed spots in the Assembly.