If there’s one thing the presumed Democratic gubernatorial candidates lining up to run in 2017 all agree on it’s this: Latino support will be key to winning the nomination.
Three of the prime candidates presumed to be running in 2017 – Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop, former U.S. Ambassador to Germany Phil Murphy, and state Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-3) – came to a birthday bash held at Nanina’s in the Park on the Belleville-Newark border on Wednesday night to show their support for one of New Jersey’s highest-profile Latino elected officials – the popular Newark North Ward Councilman Anibal Ramos Jr., who turned 40 years old.
Ramos, whose parents came from Puerto Rico, ran for mayor of Newark last year, then dropped out and threw his support behind Shavar Jeffries, who lost to Ras Baraka.
Ramos, however, was reelected to his third term on the Newark City Council in the predominantly Latino North Ward by a wide margin.
