NJ Voters Guide: 35th Legislative District
New Jersey’s 35th Legislative District is in North Jersey. It encompasses Elmwood Park and Garfield in Bergen County and Haledon, North Haledon, Paterson, and Prospect Park in Passaic County.
The district has largely been represented by Democrats for the past 50 years. About 47% of the district’s registered voters are Democrats, 15% are Republicans and most of the rest are unaffiliated.
This is the only district with a state Senate seat on the ballot. The election is for a full-term replacement for Democrat Nellie Pou, who was elected last year to the U.S. House of Representatives. Former assemblyman Benjie Wimberly was chosen by Democratic committee members to fill the seat until the election. He is facing Republican Frank Filippelli of Paterson.
Following a contested primary for Assembly nominations, the Democratic candidates are incumbent Al Abdelaziz, a former Paterson councilman, and Kenyatta Stewart, a member of the state Amistad Commission from North Haledon. Assemblywoman Shavonda Sumter, decided not to seek reelection.
Nelvin Mercado-Duran of Prospect Park and Rawell Perez-Munoz of Paterson won the two Republican nominations for Assembly.
Editor’s note: All candidates were contacted multiple times for the NJ Decides 2025 voting guide Q&As. Click on a candidate to see any answers provided.
Senate candidates
The candidate did not respond to the questionnaire.
Age: 53 Hometown: Paterson Occupation: Carpenter Personal or professional background: I am Born, Raised and live In Paterson NJ. I am blue collar carpenter /small business owner. I have dedicated my entire adult life to volunteering for the youth of Paterson and our community. I ran for local council seat 3 times since 2012. I will be a full time senator that will work hard for all 6 towns. I will be working with the local elected leaders and community activists to improve the safety, cleanliness in our towns. Doing the best to make our district affordable in the future. What is your top issue this year? There are so many top issues due to the BS (Broken systems) it is hard to pin point just a few! We need to make our communities Safe! We need to support all local law enforcements and encourage them to enforce the law. Why did it become unimportant to hold criminals accountable for the crimes they commit against hard working law biding citizens that follow all the rules? As a hands on full time Senator I will make the time to find out what resources, equipment and training our police departments need to assist them in keeping our citizens safe. Keeping people engaged and informed during my term. FULL TIME representation goes a long way in changing communities. What are your specific proposals for making New Jersey more affordable? Again there are so many problems that no elected officials address. There is no magic wand to wave. I believe that ultimately citizens have no problem paying for products and services that are worth it to them. That goes with everything, from a deli sandwich to their property tax bill. As a full time Senator I will not only tell the citizens ” I did my job and voted to lower taxes” I will sit down and work with local leaders to help pinpoint wasted money. When we stop wasting hard earn money it sends a ripple affect. Saving the constituents money helps them to allocate funds toward other import spending . Call me lets meet and talk 973 296 7290 Do you support the state law designed to increase the amount of affordable housing and if not, how would you make housing less costly for residents? I have a problem with made up words like affordable housing and low income housing. Because to me $2000 and up is not affordable housing! I have several Ideas I speak about all the time if we do not identify where Government is wasting money, then how can we expect a landlord to lower rent prices when his taxes are through the roof? How can we give developers of a multi unit dwellings 30 year tax abatements, when in some cases turns into all profit for decades. meanwhile the struggling family that owns a single family house and has lived in the neighborhood for 3 generations is forced to move! How would you manage potential federal funding cuts to social services, health care, education, and other areas, particularly in light of the state’s budget challenges? I am against cuts period! But we can not keep kicking a can down the road and expect it to pick its self up! I believe every situation is a case by case. Unfortunately there are people that take advantage of our systems and no one holds them accountable as well. So we have to have full time elected officials monitoring and changing policy to keep those that abuse a system from receiving help. Our seniors suffer the most .We need to prioritize there benefits. Public education is wasteful and not on our teachers or students It is time to start looking into school choice and give the guardians of children the right options for their children. For more call me 973-296-7290
Call me lets meet and talk 973 296 7290
Assembly candidates
The candidate did not respond to the questionnaire.
The candidate did not respond to the questionnaire.
The candidate did not respond to the questionnaire.
The candidate did not respond to the questionnaire.
