Hector Lora wins Passaic mayoral race

PASSAIC – Hector Lora won his first full term as mayor on Tuesday, overcoming a public weary of any candidate tied to Passaic’s past figures of corruption, and beating his main rival, Richard Diaz, 5,716 to 1,753 votes.

Lora’s entire incumbent slate won re-election, including at-large council members Daniel Schwartz, Joe Garcia and Terrence Love, beating Diaz's ticket-mates, Jeanny Ramirez and Nelson Gonzalez, as well as Jorge Martinez, who was supported by veteran mayoral candidate Jose Sandoval, and Luis Santiago, an unaffiliated challenger.

"We made a commitment that if we started out right and did the right thing everything would end up all right,"Lora said following his win. His message to other candidates: "put everything behind us and work together for the community."

Lora said he began with the idea that he would place "people over individuals and it would be about the team."

The campaign season began with a city once again reeling from the shock of a mayor tainted by corruption. Former Mayor Alex Blanco pleaded guilty in federal court last November to bribing two developers out of $110,000 of Federal HUD funds, leaving a garbage-strewn lot on Paulison Avenue, the intended site of eight affordable townhouses, in his wake.

The ramifications of Blanco’s actions also left behind a voting contingency questioning promises for a corruption-free administration, and looking hard at alliances on and off the ballot.

"Right now, people are suspicious, maybe even cynical," Lora said less than a week into his administration.

"What are the chances the next mayor is not going to do something too, I'll say 60/40," city resident Jackie Ortiz told The Record on the day of Blanco's guilty plea.

Many more residents, including several of this year’s challengers, questioned his appointment at the hands of the same council members who worked with Blanco, and one who worked for the nonprofit corporation that disbursed the HUD funds he pleaded guilty to stealing. Any mayor favored by the same council that once endorsed Blanco had to be suspect, they said.

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Yet, through all the political white noise that surrounded him, Lora struck an amenable chord, shoveling snow with DPW employees during storms, handing out water to fire victims and always taking a moment to reach his constituents through a never-ending series of off-the-cuff Facebook Live videos. The unedited quality of those cellphone videos aided his key brand: accessible and open. Detractors saw the constant videos as mere public relations opportunities by an official more in love with his own name and title than the welfare of his people.

Add to that, a massive gamble from Lora last month, when he proposed an increased $88.3 million budget, supported by a 1.7 percent raise in the tax levy, during a campaign season wherein his challengers’ favored topic, aside from corruption, was the cost of property taxes.

Yet, in the end, Lora pulled ahead of his challengers, commanding winning tallies in all four wards, and marked an end to public service for rival Richard "Richie" Diaz, who was forced to step down from his position of school board president and was stripped of his title as public safety director last year.

"I'm not upset. I gave it a run, and the people made their choice," Diaz said Tuesday night. "I love this city, and I will continue to do what I can from the outside," he added. "You don't have to be in government to build a better Passaic."

Results

The following vote tallies are based on unofficial results from the Passaic City Clerk's Office:

*Hector Lora: 5,716

*Jose Garcia: 4,993

*Terrence Love: 4,906

*Daniel Schwartz: 4,310

Jeanny Ramirez: 1,848

Richard Diaz: 1,753

Nelson Gonzalez: 1,508

Luis Santiago: 929

Jorge Martinez: 764

Jose Sandoval: 591

Diomedes Minaya: 355

Giovanni Regalado: 71

The City Clerk's Office reported a 26.6 percent voter turnout.

*=winners