Fil-Am reelected as councilman in New Jersey

JERSEY CITY — Incumbent Councilman-at-large Rolando Ramos Lavarro, Jr., a Filipino-American, being a son of both Filipino parents who are immigrants, was re-elected to a full four-year term in the June 11 run off elections in this city. Lavarro holds the distinction of being the first Fil-Am to win a full term elective position in the city government here. He is also the first Fil-Am ever to get elected to a public office in Jersey City, the second largest city in New Jersey, when he won the elections in 2011 to assume a vacancy in the City Council brought about by resignation of one of its members. It has been observed that after many years, Lavarro is the only local Fil-Am political leader who unified the large number of Filipinos (estimated between 15,000 to 20,000) under one Fil-Am candidate. It may be recalled that in previous elections, a number of Filipinos ran under different and opposing political groups, thus, dividing the so-called “Filipino vote” and resulted in the repeated failures of Fil-Ams in more than 25 years to gain even a seat in the City Council. When the 42-year-old Lavarro surfaced into the city’s political arena a few years ago, many observers readily conceded he would have a bright future in local politics because of his passion, deep sense of community service and fluency in English. A graduate of New York University with a degree in business, Lavarro works as assistant director for grants at the New Jersey City University. He is married with a child. In a mass text sent even before the ballots were tallied Tuesday, Lavarro thanked his supporters.   He said in part, “Without you, I wouldn’t be where I am. Thanks for all your help.” At the same time, Team Fulop (political group of Mayor-elect Steven Fulop), other At-large candidates Joyce Watterman and Daniel Rivera, as well as its candidates in Wards A, B and F won the run off elections. The results give Fulop a 7-2 majority in the council. Fulop’s candidates in Ward C and D lost the electoral contest. With that majority, the new mayor now has “a full council” that he desired during the campaign so he could “do the changes he plans to introduce.” In an unofficial but almost complete tally by the Hudson County Election Office, the following results were obtained for the Filipino Reporter for council-at-large: Joyce Watterman-11,587; Daniel Rivera-11,324; Rolando R. Lavarro, Jr.-11,069; Viola Richardson-5,542; and Sean Connelly-3,384. - Filipino Reporter