“Our city, our choice. Your city, your choice,” Vainieri said at the Saigon Cafe on Newark Avenue yesterday, echoing O’Dea’s campaign slogan to applause from the two dozen or so supporters on hand.
“You do not stop working from now until Election Day because Election Day night, you’re gonna have a victory that you cannot believe: You’re gonna send a message to the politicians in Hudson County that want to take over your city. Not my mayor, my mayor said let Jersey City pick their mayor.”
While North Bergen Mayor Nick Sacco was among the early backers of former Gov. Jim McGreevey for Jersey City mayor, he has since reconsidered due to ongoing tensions with state Senator (D-33)/Union City Mayor Brian Stack – McGreevey’s earliest and most ardent supporter.
Vainieri said that while he won’t be the HCDO chair for much longer, with Hudson County Executive Craig Guy set to succeed him at Monday’s reorganization meeting, he developed a friendship with O’Dea when they served on the Hudson County Board of Commissioners together.
Therefore, he is committed to helping him in the non-partisan November 4th, 2025 mayoral race in Jersey City.
“I will be there for Bill in the future, campaigning, helping out, I’ll do whatever it takes and that’s only because I feel that Bill is a people person, not the politician person. And that’s why some of these politicians aren’t endorsing him: because they cannot control him,” he continued to more applause.
“The residents of Jersey City will control him because he will answer to the residents of Jersey City, not a mayor from a neighboring city who wants to bring his friends in, give ’em contracts, take over the county, take over the state. They’re bossy people, they’re control freaks, they’re paranoia freaks and we can’t have that.”
O’Dea thanked Vainieri for his support and reiterated that he’s never answered to any party bosses and have only been held responsible to his constituents, noting that he’d rather solve problems than partake in photo ops.
“We’ve got a lot of hard work to do. We’re adding another one to ‘our.’ So it’s ‘our city, our choice, and our future.’ Because this election is about our future,” he said.
“People who live in this city, people who raised their children in this city, people who care about this city whether they’ve been here for 50 years or for five years. The bosses have been gone in Jersey City and we’re not going to be bossed ever again.”
After the short program concluded, Vainieri, also the North Bergen Department of Public Works commissioner who endorsed Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop for governor, said the HCDO should be more focused on that election than the next Jersey City mayor.
“I hope the next chair will continue the support for Mayor Fulop that I started two years ago,” Vainieri told HCV.
The Jersey City mayoral race has two more declared candidates in Council President Joyce Watterman and former Board of Education President Mussab Ali.
Hudson County Commissioner Jerry Walker (D-3), currently running for Congress in the 10th District, and Ward E Councilman James Solomon are also on the short list of contenders.
