Perth Amboy Mayor Helmin Caba holds off challengers in Democratic primary
PERTH AMBOY – Democratic Mayor Helmin Caba defeated two well-known challengers in Tuesday's mayoral primary race.
Unofficial results show Caba, who is serving in his first term as mayor, received 2,142 votes in the city's first partisan election. Attorney Joseph B. Vas, who also ran for mayor in 2020 and is the son of former longtime Perth Amboy Mayor Joseph Vas, received 1,616 unofficial votes and retired Perth Amboy Municipal Court Judge and former Councilman Kenneth Gonzalez received an unofficial 773 votes.
Much of this year’s primary race had centered around the apparent increase in crime in the city.
Caba will face Republican candidate Sharon Hubberman in the general election. Hubberman received an unofficial 333 votes in Tuesday's primary in which she was unopposed.
Caba's Democratic City Council running mates also emerged victorious in the primary. Councilwoman Rose Morales received an unofficial 1,798 votes and Stacey Peralta, the current Board of Education president, received an unofficial 1,846 votes.
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Vas's running mates Junior Iglesia and Doris Fonseca received 1,236 and 1,193 votes, respectively.
Gonzalez’s running mates Ana Maria Zevallos and Kevin Kowitski received 744 and 635 votes, respectively.
Democratic City Council candidate Maria Peralta, who ran without a mayoral candidate, received an unofficial 362 votes.
Hubberman's Republican City Council running mates Maria E. Rodriguez and Franklin Rodriguez received 350 and 329 votes, respectively.
This was Perth Amboy's first year holding partisan elections in which candidates appeared on the ballot as a representative of a political party, or as an independent.
In previous years Perth Amboy held nonpartisan elections in which candidates for mayor and City Council ran under slogans or banners, rather than as members a political party. Last November city voters opted for the change by supporting a ballot measure calling for an amendment to the city's charter to allow for partisan elections.
Email: srussell@gannettnj.com
Suzanne Russell is a breaking news reporter for MyCentralJersey.com covering crime, courts and other mayhem. To get unlimited access, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: Perth Amboy NJ mayor holds off challengers in Democratic primary
