The story of Brian P. Stack – New Jersey Globe

Brian P. Stack is now the longest-serving mayor in Union City history; with 23 years and 91 days, Stack today broke the record set by Harry J. Thourot, who served for 23 years and 90 days from 1939 to 1962.

He became mayor, a job he dreamed of holding as a kid, on October 24, 2000.

Stack was a young political prodigy in Union City – he attended Mayor Billy Musto’s sentencing as a teenager and had business cards made up that included his lifelong tagline, “Call me anytime,” with his home phone number – spent his own money to give chickens to needy families to eat, and worked as an aide for lawmakers in the legislative district he now represents.

He also saw the bad side of politics at a young age when his support of a local candidate caused someone to throw feces at the apartment building where the 19-year-old Stack, a county committeeman, lived with his parents; the electrical wiring of his car was cut, the locks of his car door were glued shut, local politicians sent police officers to harass him, and he was threatened with the loss of his job.  Political opponents physically attacked him.

After Bob Menendez won the mayoral race in 1986, Stack was part of the out-of-power faction but still held jobs as an administrative assistant to Parks and Public Property Commissioner Charles Velli.  After scoring first in a civil service exam for a county job, he found the post eliminated.  He had a penchant for getting under Menendez’s skin, especially when he advocated for senior citizen tenants against landlords allied with the administration.

He made his first bid for public office in 1987, at age 20, as a candidate for the Board of Education on a slate of Menendez opponents.  He lost by either 150 votes or just 42; a computer tabulation error will make the final margin a forever secret.

In 1990, he helped another renegade Hudson politician, Albio Sires, in a race to oust West New York Mayor Anthony DeFino’s political machine.

He built a political base as the standard bearer of the Brian P. Stack Civic Association.  By 1994, he had patched things up with Menendez, who went to the Assembly, moved up to the State Senate, and resigned as mayor after his 1992 election to Congress.  Stack became an aide to Mayor Bruce Walter, but he lost his job as deputy director of public affairs in late 1996 after splitting up with Walter.

In a 1997 special election after the death of Commissioner Joseph Marini, Stack scored his first electoral victory by defeating interim incumbent Abe Antun by over 2,200 votes, 58%-40%, in a three-way race.  He carried 37 of 40 election districts.  Menendez was displeased by the defeat of Antun, his close friend.

“We hope he enjoys the next six months because we don’t think he’ll be there after that,” Menendez told a reporter on election night.

In January 1998, Bruce Walter died of cancer two days before his 50th birthday. Menendez, Walter, and mega attorney Donald Scarinci had all grown up together in Union Cit.  Menendez backed a young Cuban American rising star, three-term Assemblyman Rudy Garcia, 34, to become the new mayor.

In the May non-partisan municipal election, a personally engaged Menendez launched an expensive and bitter race to retain control of Union City against a rival slate headed by Stack.  The ticket headed by Garcia captured all five seats, with Stack ousted by about 400 votes.

Garcia had a falling out with Menendez the following year and backed Stack for a seat on the Hudson County Board of Freeholders against a Menendez ally, incumbent Neftali Cruz.  Stack won by over 6,000 votes, a 7-1 margin.

By 2000, Garcia had problems at home.  Union City was experiencing severe financial problems, and residents rebelled against his proposed tax increase.

Stack forged an alliance with Menendez, and in what was clearly the political coup of the decade, Garcia was knocked from power in a matter of days.  With Menendez’s support, Stack was quickly elected Union City Democratic Municipal Chairman.  The two agreed there would be no deals with Garcia, whom they would oust as mayor within the next few months, and from the state Assembly the following year.

Much of the credit for implementing the coup goes to Scarinci, the hands-on tactician.  Garcia had dropped him as the city attorney, but Scarinci emerged from the new alliance with extraordinary power.

Menendez already had two of the five Union City Commissioners: Rafael Fraguela and Michael Leggiero; Garcia had tried to recall Leggiero but failed when he couldn’t convince Stack to join him.  The new alliance flipped another commissioner, Tina Yandolino, from Garcia to Stack.  The new majority stripped Garcia of some of his responsibilities and removed the lone Garcia ally, Commissioner Ray Lopez, as the public safety director.

On Day 2 of the coup, the new alliance took control of the Union City Board of Education.  Garcia’s ally, Felina De Nodal, was removed as board president and replaced by Carlos Perez, a longtime Menendez loyalist.  They flipped firefighter Lenny Calvo, who was once a close Garcia ally, and a third member, Addie Leon.

The board quickly severed its ties with Garcia and threw out the board attorney, Bob Murray, who had been a partner at Garcia’s law firm.  Instead, the new school board attorney became Herb Klitzner, a close ally of North Bergen Mayor/State Senator Nicholas Sacco – a public demonstration that Sacco was no longer aligned with Garcia.  Weehawken Mayor Richard Turner and Sires, who had become the mayor of West New York and an assemblyman, were also aboard.

Hudson County Executive Bob Janiszewski had backed Garcia in his effort to replace Cruz with Stack on the freeholder board, but after the coup, he quickly signed on to the coalition.  In exchange, Menendez and Stack agreed to back Janiszewski for another term as County Chairman.  That left Hoboken Mayor Anthony Russo as Garcia’s sole ally in Hudson; in 2001, Menendez ally Dave Roberts beat Russo in the mayoral race.

Garcia had been planning to challenge State Sen. Bernard Kenny (D-Hoboken) in the 2001 Democratic primary, but instead was knocked off the line for Assembly; Fraguela was his replacement.  Some insiders believed that if Garcia remained part of the Menendez political team, he might have become Assembly Speaker after the 2001 election instead of Sires.

Hudson Democrats dropped Fraguela from the organization line in 2003 and backed Stack for the Assembly seat.  Fraguela switched parties and challenged Kenny for the State Senate; he received just 19% of the vote.  During the lame-duck session, Republicans kicked Fraguela out of their caucus after he voted with Democrats on stem cell research legislation.

When Kenny retired in 2007, Stack and Sal Vega, who had become mayor and assemblyman after Sires was elected to Congress in 2006, both wanted the seat.

The organization line went to Vega, but that didn’t matter; Stack ran off-the-line and beat him by 13,477 votes, 77%-23%.

Never taking his foot off the gas, Stack has amassed a string of landslide victories: he’s won seven races for Union City Commissioner, beginning with a 2001 special election; one term as a freeholder; two terms in the Assembly, and six terms in the State Senate.

His most recent victory came in November 2023 when he sent out over 30 pieces of direct mail to score 96.5% of the vote against Socialist Workers candidate Joanne Kuniansky.