Internal tracking has race for Mayor a Dead Heat, Shades of 2002 for NA Democrats!
NORTH ARLINGTON – Internal polling shows the race for mayor a virtual dead heat as Mayor DanPronti’s property tax increase, coupled with Republican rolling reassessment’s have Democrats optimistic that a political earthquake is in the making.
24 years ago, North Arlington Democrats shocked the state when challenger and business executive Russ Pitman upset twenty-year Republican incumbent Leonard R Kaiser, the borough’s longest serving mayor that sent shock waves throughout the community. 
Like 2002, property taxes were on the rise and that a sense of change was needed as Republicans had enjoyed complete domination of local government like they do today.
Balwierczak, a life-long resident and graduate of North Arlington High School, played varsity basketball for the Vikings and is a local homeowner running with Dennis Papile, a local school crossing guard, and Cengiz “Jim” Sever, a marble & tile installer. Both are homeowners, fathers and husbands, and all three have been endorsed by the Bergen County Central Labor Council. Sever was also endorsed by the New Jersey AFL-CIO. The trio are the only endorsed candidates by organized labor in this race for mayor and two council seats.
According to data compiled by the Democrats, Pronti and Balwierczak are in a statistical dead heat excluding undecided voters, while Dennis Papile and GOP Incumbent Mario Karcic were at 49% and Republican Councilmember Donna Bocchino was at 48% along with Sever.
Democrats are motivated by the results as they have posted over 100 lawn signs around the community as of this writing.
“We’re the underdogs. We will be outspent 10-1 with developers, builders and politically connected lawyers, vendors and municipal appointees fueling the Pronti campaign. I won’t take a nickel from developers. Pronti has decimated our business district with unwanted apartments. We are no longer small, safe, or suburban. We are following the steps of Harrison and Belleville. We are no longer the gateway to Bergen County, but a product of urbanization, density and the crime that comes with it,” offered the challenger.
“The time for responsible two-party government is now. Democrats are not running candidates for the school board like Pronti. We respect the independence of that educational unit of government. Pronti wants to control every aspect of things, but he can’t even get our tax bills out on time. I can work with the remaining Republicans; the problem is Dan Pronti.”
“How do you have a retired cop who remains silent when a federal raid is conducted regarding drugs ascends upon a Belleville Pike business now closed and empty? He’s the mayor and his position was basically, no comment. That’s a mayor who has lost his way and is detached from the realities of a community changing for the worse,” noted the candidate. 
“People have had a decade of uninterrupted Republican incompetence and indifference at the local level. We need to restore our grass roots democracy and that means adding Democrats this governing body so that we have a healthy discussion of the issues. Not the consolidated monopoly of Dan Pronti demanding the council just blindly vote yes for his failed economic policies like these random reassessments,” charged Balwierczak.
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Contact John directly at (201) 655-8497 or via e-mail at [email protected]