Wainstein says voters should pick North Bergen's mayor, but hasn't said if he'll run against Cabrera

Assemblyman Larry Wainstein, Mayor Nicholas Sacco’s longtime rival, says the voters, not the township’s political organization, should choose North Bergen’s next mayor.

“He is not giving the job to the voters. The political machine will rubber-stamp Hugo Cabrera, the man Sacco has already hand-picked,” Wainstein wrote on X on Thursday afternoon, hours before Sacco announced his retirement at his annual Mayor’s Ball. “That is not an election.That is a coronation.”

In a Spanish-language post on his Facebook page, Wainstein wrote that “North Bergen deserves a democratic process” and that “after 40 years, it’s time for a change,” according to a Hudson TV translation. He asked residents who are “tired of the political machine deciding who will be your mayor” to contact him.

What Wainstein did not say is whether he will be on the ballot himself. Wainstein has not publicly said whether he will run. HudPost reported Thursday that he did not respond to its request for comment on whether he will run. He could announce a decision any day, or wait for months. For now, nobody outside his camp knows.

The New Jersey Globe has described Wainstein, a Democrat who represents the 33rd Legislative District and is an ally of Union City Mayor and state Sen. Brian Stack, as “a potential candidate for mayor next year.”

‘We’re considering it very closely’

Wainstein came closest to answering the question in an interview with Hudson TV in August, weeks before Sacco announced his retirement.

Asked whether he had any interest in seeking the mayoralty, Wainstein said: “Well, right now we’re thinking it over. We have a committee that’s looking into it, that’s analyzing the scenario.” He added that “there’s a need for a better local government here in North Bergen and we’re considering it very closely.”

Asked whether he would take the next several months to make a final decision, he said, “Absolutely.”

Asked about rumors that Sacco might not seek re-election, Wainstein said he was “not surprised,” adding that Sacco “had a long run and he went through a lot of failures.” He also said, “I really, really think that somehow we need a change.”

Since August, Wainstein has been knocking on doors in North Bergen under the banner “Assemblyman at Your Door,” outreach that La Pagina de NJ described as a possible signal toward 2027, while noting there was no formal announcement.

The clock

Sacco’s resignation takes effect Oct. 28, according to the township. The four remaining commissioners are then expected to fill his seat and name Cabrera mayor at a public meeting. Cabrera and the other commissioners have said they back Sacco’s son, Lincoln Elementary School Principal Nick Sacco Jr., for the open seat. (Read our story on Sacco’s retirement.)

There will be no special election. Under state law, when a vacancy opens after Sept. 1 in the last year of a term, the governing body may fill it by appointment for the rest of the term. That means Cabrera would go into the next election as the sitting mayor, with several months in the job.

That election is Tuesday, May 11, 2027, when North Bergen voters pick all five members of the Board of Commissioners in a nonpartisan race. The winning commissioners then choose the mayor from among themselves. The new terms begin July 1, 2027.

Anyone who wants to run has to file nominating petitions with the township clerk by 4 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 25, 2027, according to state law’s 75-day rule. The state has not yet posted its 2027 election calendar. Each candidate needs signatures from at least 1% of the township’s registered voters, and no fewer than 25. Candidates file individually, but in North Bergen both Sacco’s organization and Wainstein have traditionally run full five-person tickets.

One seat or the other

If Wainstein runs and wins, he could not keep both jobs. A 2007 state law bars members of the Legislature from holding another elected office at the same time. Only officials who already held two elected offices when the law took effect on Feb. 1, 2008, such as Stack, may continue to do so. Wainstein was sworn in to the Assembly in January 2026 for a term that runs to January 2028, so he would have to give up one of the two seats.

Three runs against Sacco

Wainstein has led a ticket against Sacco in three straight township elections and lost each time:

• 2015: He announced his run in February 2015, about three months before the May election. Sacco won, 8,465 votes to 4,904, according to the New Jersey Globe.
• 2019: He made his rematch official in October 2018, about seven months out, telling supporters, “Only seven months to freedom!” according to Hudson County View. His slate filed about 3,500 nominating petitions. Sacco won, 7,768 to 4,026, according to the Globe.
• 2023: He announced another bid in December 2022, about five months before the election, according to the Globe, and lost again.

His fortunes changed in 2025, when he ran for the Assembly on Stack’s ticket. He beat a Sacco-backed slate in the June Democratic primary and carried North Bergen by 4,656 votes in the November general election, according to the Globe.

Based on those past timelines, a decision from Wainstein in the next few months would fit his own pattern.

Hudson TV interviewed Wainstein in August. This story will be updated.