DeGise camp wins big in West New York

A slate aligned with Hudson County Executive Tom DeGise and his daughter, Amy, scored a major victory Tuesday when 46 of the 50 contested West New York county committee candidates defeated a slate that would support Union City mayor Brian Stack for Democratic county chairman.

Though he viewed the situation differently, the victories are something of a blow to  Stack.  His candidates, the slate backed by West New York Mayor Felix Roque, managed to pick up at least 10 of the seats, and it’s possible they’ll take 12.

But, the number falls a bit short of what Stack might need from the city when time comes to vote for a new chairman. Ideally, Stack would have taken roughly 20 seats. Doing so would have provided him a clearer path to victory.

“I look at it that we picked up 10 seats. I look at it as a victory. It’s 10 seats we didn’t have before,” Stack said late Tuesday night. “We knew going in that it was an uphill battle. We were up there for a total of nine days.”

Uphill battle indeed. Since Roque’s slate ran 58 candidates, they won between two and four contested seats. Hardly a resounding victory.

But while the Stack camp did have hundreds – between 300 and 400 – out on the streets of West New York on Tuesday, their opponents came into the contest earlier, with the advantage of running on the line. It didn’t hurt that DeGise’s team had Rep. Albio Sires campaigning on their behalf.

The former West New York mayor has turned his sights on Roque after tonight’s election, saying at a post-election celebration that tonight’s election was step one, while step two would be taking down Roque.

However, he was more cautious when speaking about the Hudson warette, edging away from direct criticisms of Stack and instead focusing his jabs on West New York’s current mayor.

“Look, I have admiration for Stack and what he’s done in Union City, but I don’t think Brian Stack really thought about this, about coming in here and siding with Roque. This can only tarnish Brian Stack,” Sires said. “It’s unfortunate, but I think he learned a lesson tonight. This is going to reverberate throughout the state.”

That turn might be unfortunate for Roque, who in recent days, has taken to talking about coming together after the election. Unfortunately for him, Sires doesn’t feel the same way.

“I doubt it very much,” Sires said. “There’s no way I’m going to put that genie back.”