NA DEMOCRATS WELL RECEIVED IN DOOR-TO-DOOR CANVASSING EFFORTS.
Resident asks, “Who are you running against? We’re getting hammered with these rolling assessments.”
NORTH ARLINGTON – While embedded GOP incumbents Brian Fitzhenry and Allison Sheedy dismiss Democratic challengers as some kind of nuisance or joke, John Balwierczak and John Yampaglia, the insurgents are receiving a far different reaction from voters as they begin a second wave of walking door-to-door, hitting every house with a registered voter.
After collecting some 300 signatures to qualify as candidates, both NA Democrats secured more names for local office then any other municipality in all of Bergen County, some six times more than legally required.
Both Fitzhenry and Sheedy have been in office about a decade, and have not endured a serious race or examination of their collective records of raising taxes, supporting rolling assessments, more density, traffic and the urbanization of North Arlington with the proliferation of apartment units along Ridge Road with more coming and additional apartments planned for Schuyler Avenue and River Road.
Incredibly, both Fitzhenry and Sheedy have voted exactly the same way during their entire tenure on the North Arlington Council.
Prior to becoming a council member Fitzhenry raised property taxes at the Board of Education every year he served.
An unsuccessful candidate for both freeholder and the state senate losing by wide margins, Fitzhenry continues to rail against a twenty year old water utility sale that yielded millions to taxpayers that saw his first run for council end in a landslide defeat to then council candidate and now Bergen County Commissioner Steve Tanelli, who is seeking reelection on the same ticket with both Balwierczak and Yampaglia.
Tanelli ran for council in 2005, 2008 and 2011 with Yampaglia’ s brother Mark, a local attorney with offices in Rutherford.
Fitzhenry’s running-mate is the double-dipping job holder Sheedy, who is also employed with the North Arlington Board of Education. In 2023 Sheedy was paid $500 by NA Republicans as an election day worker despite the fact they ran unopposed!
Why would local Republicans pay people to work in a campaign that was uncontested?
The Democrats, both life-long residents and graduates of North Arlington High School have been viciously attacked by mystery supporters of the incumbents who in particular have targeted Balwierczak, ironically a former Republican himself.
“I left the party because there was no room for discussion, particularly on the issue of the construction of unbridled apartments along Ridge Road. Unquestioned and blind loyalty is assumed by local Republicans,” offered the first-time candidate who is campaigning full-time and is a disabled American with a hearing deficiency.
Nevertheless, the Democrats are focusing on the positive and are encouraged by the warm welcome of nearly all voters, despite political allegiances and loyalties.
“The general assessment is that we need responsible, two-party government. We need discussion, debate and a bipartisan consensus to move North Arlington forward. We cannot improve as a community when politically speaking we are an island to ourselves as the Republicans make little if any effort to build alliances with our democratically elected partners at the county, state and federal levels,” noted the candidates.
Balwierczak stated that “it was no coincidence” that the closer they campaigned in the proximity of these newly constructed apartment dwellings, the opposition to the incumbents increased in volume and was more vocal.
For this tale of two North Arlington’s seems to be more obvious in a community comfortable with being the “Gateway to Bergen County,” and welcoming to the three garden apartment complexes that completely conform with the mass, scale and character of this South Bergen municipality of some 17,000 residents.
“North Arlington is a well meshed place to live, work, and raise a family. School-age parents are supportive of our public schools and don’t support this urbanization that may increase class sizes and ultimately increase school taxes due to overcrowding,” offered the hopefuls.
“We plan to work closely with our school leadership to ensure a unified front along with collaboration with our parents and pupils. We would like a “win-win” partnership with parents,” noted the two hopefuls who are graduates of our public schools. It’s a small town. Cooperation and consensus is important to successful governing,” noted both Balwierczak and Yampaglia.
Both candidates agreed the community has changed.
“There seems to be a large number of new residents that just don’t know who is running and they thank us for stopping by. We are registering voters and building support just because many feel they have been ignored,” offered Balwierczak, the former Republican.
The candidates can be seen here campaigning on Arlington Boulevard as well as Sunset this week.
“We will walk the community at least three times. Retail canvassing personalizes our efforts as frank, honest, and one-on-one. We’re very happy with the results and the way we have been embraced by the public. Campaigns should be discussions with voters,” offered Yampaglia.
To register to vote, contact the candidates at (201) 655-8497.
The first campaign fundraiser will be an Italian style dinner at La Venere Ristorante located on Schuyler Avenue and tickets are $100 per person. To RSVP, please contact [email protected] or call (201) 937-4277.