Perth Amboy mayor will announce 4th term bid today

Perth Amboy Mayor Wilda Diaz will formally announce her bid for re-election to a fourth term today.

Diaz will also unveil her slate of city council candidates.

Councilman Helmin Caba and attorney Joseph B. Vas are already in the race.

Diaz was elected in 2008, unseating Joe Vas, the father of one of her current opponents.

Perth Amboy was once the seat of power for Democrats in Middlesex County. It was the hometown of former New Jersey Attorney General David Wilentz, the longtime Middlesex political boss, and Rep. Edward J. Patten, a former mayor county chairman and the Middlesex-area congressman from 1963 to 1981/

With population expansion of the Middlesex suburbs after World War II – pre-War, Perth Amboy was four times the size of Edison — Perth Amboy has dropped to sixth in population countywide.

Perth Amboy voters passed a referendum last year adding a runoff to local elections.  Unless one of the candidates wins 50% plus one in the November non-partisan race, they will face a second election.