NORTH BERGEN – Paterson Mayor Jose “Joey” Torres, who made his own political comeback earlier this year when he was reelected mayor after a four-year absence, made it plain on Monday that he wanted his local state Assembly members to return to office in 2015.
“Of course I’m supporting the reelection of Shavonda Sumter and Benjie Wimberly,” said Torres, endorsing the incumbent Democratic Assembly members from Legislative District 35, which includes Paterson, for reelection in 2015. “They are both Patersonians.”
Sumter and Wimberly both backed Paterson’s Sixth Ward councilman, Andre Sayegh, during the hard-fought mayoral race in New Jersey’s third-largest city earlier this year. Yet Torres, moments after making comments at a press conference in North Bergen in support of a proposed bill backed by state Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto (D-32) that would restore a portion of sales tax revenue to municipalities with Urban Enterprise Zones (UEZ) in an effort to spur economic development, apparently has moved on when looking towards next year, when the entire state Assembly is up for grabs.
“The common denominator here is that they represent our legislative district and they are Patersonians,” Torres said.
