Irvington Mayor Wayne Smith is one of the Democrats running in the 10th Congressional District for the seat left vacant after the death of Donald Payne Sr. The third-term mayor said his experience sets him apart from his opponents. He sat down with NJ Today Managing Editor Mike Schneider to discuss the campaign.
Smith said urban policy is lacking on the national landscape and that’s something he has experience with. “I’ve served as president of the New Jersey Urban Mayors for at least a couple years now and know the unique challenges of places like my birthplace, Newark, New Jersey,” he said.
Smith said his day-to-day experience running government sets him apart from Donald Payne Jr., Ron Rice and Nia Gill. “Nobody knows more intimately the needs of the people than a mayor,” he said.
If elected, Smith said his first order of business would be to grow cities and jobs in the state. “We have to start it with some segmented populations,” he said. “What are we going to do with all the veterans coming home? So there’s a bill that Sen. Menendez has supported that makes it easier for veterans to create businesses and grow jobs.”
Although Smith doesn’t have the support of the county Democratic organizations in Essex or Hudson counties, he believes that could be an asset to him. “There’s a scramble for power. So what I say to voters is I’m not in the middle of the wars between the power brokers who want to govern and control jobs,” he said. “My sole interest is to represent the voters of the 10th congressional district so I’m not in that power game.”
Smith said voters don’t like party bosses deciding outcomes of political races. “Union County did it right. They did an open primary. You had three reasonably good candidates, let the voters get in mix and decide,” he said. “So I believe Union County did the right thing and we could’ve had the same dynamic in Hudson and Essex.”
When asked if he’ll be able to raise the money necessary to run a successful primary campaign, Smith said, “Anything’s possible in America and I’ve got two significant fundraisers coming up over the next week. I also hopefully have enough resources to commute my message to the voters and win this election.”
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