Ramos Aims to Become Newark's First Hispanic Mayor

Acting Newark Municipal Council President Anibal Ramos officially launched his bid for mayor of the state’s largest city Thursday night, a potentially historic campaign that would make the 37-year-old North Ward resident the first Hispanic to ever hold the post.

“I will be a mayor for all of Newark, but I need your help. Together we can make Newark a city of prosperity,” Ramos said to a crowd of several hundred at the Robert Treat Hotel.

“As mayor I will strive to ensure people have the opportunity to fulfill their God-given potential.”

Born, raised and educated in Newark, Ramos, whose parents moved to the city from Puerto Rico in the early 1960s, became a deputy director at Focus, a city-based nonprofit group, after earning a degree from Rutgers-Newark in 1997. For the last 10 years, he has worked as director of  the Essex County Department of Citizens Services and the Department of Economic Development, Training and Employment.

Ramos was twice elected to the Newark Schools Advisory Board before joining the municipal council in 2006 as the representative of the North Ward. Last year, he became acting council president, replacing Donald Payne Jr., who was elected to Congress.

During his brief remarks, Ramos said he helped bring the city’s finances back into balance, including by supporting a reduction in the staff budgets for himself and other council members, advocated for programs that would enable city youth to get jobs and internships with Newark-based corporations, helped oversee the completion of housing in the city, and touted his support for city law enforcement. Ramos sponsored legislation requiring bars and liquor stores to have security cameras, footage from which police often use in criminal investigations.  

“I support the police department with actions, not words,” he said.

Ramos aims to succeed Mayor Cory Booker, who plans to run for US Senate when his second term as mayor ends next year.

Two other candidates, Shavar Jeffries and Ramos’s council colleague Ras Baraka, who represents the South Ward, have also announced their plans to run in 2014.

Ramos has the backing of a potent Essex County Democratic Party machine that includes Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo and Steve Adubato Sr., the North Ward-based political powerbroker. Both men shared the dais with Ramos Thursday.

Should Ramos succeed in his bid for city hall, it would mark a significant turning point in the city’s history. Newark has had a black mayor since 1970, when Kenneth Gibson became the first African-American to lead a major Northeastern city. Both Jeffries and Baraka are also black.  

Gibson assumed the mayoralty as Newark was in the midst of profound demographic change, with the white share of the population dropping drastically. The city is now undergoing another transformation, however, as Latin Americans -- the second-largest ethnic group in the state -- make up an ever increasing share of all Newarkers. In 2010, residents of Hispanic descent were nearly 34 percent of the city’s population.