TRENTON – “Obviously, I’m not happy with the map,” Assemblyman Ralph Caputo (D-28), of Belleville, said today, after he was redistricted out of his current constituent base and lopped onto the top of state Sen. M. Teresa Ruiz’ Newark-based 29th District.
Caputo has nothing bad to say about the two Assembly colleagues he’s been pitted against, L. Grace Spencer (D-29) and Albert Coutinho (D-29), both of Newark, but he’s worried his town’s only representation – county or state – will be gone if he can’t make the cut for the party line. Does that mean he’s willing to run with the party stamp?
“We want to first see what the party decides,” he said. “Then we’ll make a decision on that.”
The “we” Caputo refers to is Belleville, a plucky place just short of 36,000 in a microregion dominated by the city of Newark. He’s battling for Belleville, yes, but he’s also really battling for his political life.
Caputo’s a dual office holder who sits on the Essex Freeholder board, but he committed not to run for the county office this year before seeing the final legislative map.
Dual office holding is difficult not only because of a negative public perception, he said, but because it’s hard to do in a practical sense.
“We have no freeholder seat because I gave it up,” he said, again speaking for his town.
This is bigger than the individual, he said; no one has a “divine right” to serve.
“I don’t want to (sound) like a victim, because I’m not,” he said.
But he’s not ready to walk away yet, either, even with a three-candidates-for-two-seats district, Caputo said, because his town deserves to be represented.
Belleville, like Nutley and Bloomfield, has distinct cultural, societal, and political needs – different from Newark’s needs. Same thing goes for Montclair, where U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) state director Brendan Gill has emerged as a candidate for county office.
“I support Brendan. I think Montclair deserves a seat. It was time to give up the position and give somebody else a chance,” he said.
Any regrets?
“No, not at all,” Caputo said, maintaining that no one from the county Democratic party attempted to persuade him one way or the other to drop the Essex spot.
According to sources, Belleville was moved after a failed attempt by Essex County Executive Joe DiVincenzo to have his hometown of Nutley taken in by the 29th instead – essentially paving a future road for his son, Joe DiVincenzo Jr., to progress into the legislature via a lockdown Newark-based district at some time in the near future.
Caputo didn’t confirm, but hinted: “I think I was collateral damage.”
