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Mayor Wilda Diaz, Former Mayoral Opponents Call on Perth Amboy Democratic Organization Chairperson Leslie Dominguez-Rodriguez to Resign

Frank Salado, Mayor Diaz, Miguel Morales, Bob McCoy

PERTH AMBOY – Mayor Wilda Diaz joined three of her opponents from last year’s mayoral race to demand that Perth Amboy Democratic Chairperson Leslie Dominguez-Rodriguez resign her post. Previously, members of the Perth Amboy City Council had asked Dominguez-Rodriguez for her resignation as Democratic Chair.

“All of us here today had different visions for the future of Perth Amboy last year but what unites us – a love for this city and a love for the Democratic Party – is stronger than what divides us,” said Mayor Diaz. “We are absolutely unified in our commitment to strengthening the party we all love and ensuring that our local Democratic organization survives and thrives. Sadly, that organization cannot move forward while it is being run by a chairperson who supported a mayoral candidate who ran on the same Republican ticket as extremist gubernatorial candidate Brett Schundler and espoused right-wing views that have no place in the Democratic Party.”

Last year, Dominguez-Rodriguez supported mayoral candidate Billy Delgado, who was a Republican until shortly before launching his most recent campaign for mayor. Delgado ran for Assembly with former gubernatorial candidate Brett Schundler, voted in Republican primaries and never once voted in a Democratic primary over the past 11 years. At the most recent Perth Amboy Democratic Organization meeting on February 25, Dominguez-Rodriguez introduced Delgado as the new legal advisor to the Party.

“When the chairperson of our Democratic organization endorses a candidate who was lambasted for running a sexist campaign and then appoints the same man as legal advisor to our Democratic Organization, that does not represent the values of the Democratic Party,” said Robert McCoy, who ran for mayor in 2012. “Misogyny has no place in public life today and yet our Party is being run by someone who sees no problem with endorsing a Republican for mayor, even after he was criticized by the state’s highest-ranking Democratic women for derogatory and sexist remarks his campaign made against Mayor Diaz. Ms. Dominguez-Rodriguez should resign, since she no longer represents what we in the Democratic Party stand for.”

Delgado’s top campaign strategist sent Mayor Wilda Diaz inappropriate emails calling her “stupid” and alleging that she was not as smart as her male counterparts in surrounding towns. Dominguez-Rodriguez endorsed Delgado even after the state’s top Democratic women, including Democratic gubernatorial nominee Barbara Buono, Speaker Sheila Oliver and Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg lambasted Delgado for employing Devine.

“Perth Amboy deserves a unified Democratic Party. However, we will never have that while all of us here who ran for Mayor and garnered a collective 69% of the vote last November – have to stand by while Ms. Dominguez-Rodriguez runs our municipal organization. How can she claim to represent the city’s Democrats while endorsing Billy Delgado who had only 29% of the vote and then continue to serve as the leader of the Democratic Party?” said Miguel Morales, also a 2012 mayoral candidate.

“At some point, Ms. Dominguez-Rodriguez needs to ask herself why she continues to cling to power while every single Democratic elected official in town wants her gone,” said 2012 mayoral candidate Frank Salado. “The mayor has asked for her to step down. Members of the city council – Democrats all – asked her to step down. Now every single Democrat who ran for mayor last year is asking her to step down. When people who previously ran against each other are united in moving our Democratic Party forward the impediments against success quickly fall down. The only hurdle left standing in the way of success is the municipal chair who supported and continues to support an opportunist who only resigned from the Republican Party to run for Mayor of Perth Amboy. It’s time for her to explain why she is holding Perth Amboy Democrats back singlehandedly.”

Press Release Monday, March 4, 2013—

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