Abdelaziz wins State Assembly seat in 81% landslide

Paterson Councilman Alaa “Al” Abdelaziz easily won a special election convention for the State Assembly tonight and will become the first Palestinian American to serve in the New Jersey Legislature.

Abdelaziz defeated  Prospect Park Mayor Mohamed Khairullah, 128-31,  to fill the 35th district seat vacated by State Sen.-elect Benjie Wimberly (D-Paterson) earlier this evening following a special election convention to replace now-Rep. Nellie Pou (D-North Haledon) in the State Senate.

Another candidate, Paterson Board of Education Vice President Kenneth Simmons, dropped out of the race before the vote.

“I will not let you down,” Abdelaziz said after his victory was announced.

Abdelaziz is the Paterson Democratic municipal chairman.  He joined the city council in 2018 to take the 6th Ward seat after Andre Sayegh was elected mayor.

“I want to focus on affordability, education, senior citizen, public safety — a host of all kinds of things — affordable housing,” he said.  “I’ve got to go down there and learn and I look forward to hitting the ground.”

There were 199 county committee seats filled for tonight’s election, with 124 of them in Paterson.  Also in the 35th district: North Haledon (14), Haledon (11), and Prospect Park (8) in Passaic County, and Garfield (23) and Elmwood Park (19) in Bergen.

When Pascrell died in August, Paterson had 83 county committee seats filled and 53 vacancies.  Since then, 41 new county committee members have been appointed.

Pou traded her Senate seat for one in Congress following the death of 87-year-old Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-Paterson) last year.  She was elected to the Assembly in 1997 after Pascrell left Trenton to become a congressman and moved up to the Senate in 2011.

Pou was also the only Hispanic legislator in the majority-Hispanic 35th legislative district. Unless something unexpected happens, a district where 52% of residents are Hispanic will now lack Hispanic representation in Trenton.

Seven-term Assemblywoman Shavonda Sumter (D-Paterson), who lost the Senate race to Wimberly by one vote, told party leaders she would not challenge Wimberly in the Democratic primary and instead would seek re-election to the Assembly.  Sumter and Abdelaziz are already facing one primary challenger: former Garfield Councilman Romi Herrara is running on a slate allied with Jersey City mayor and gubernatorial candidate Steve Fulop.