Paterson PBA President and mayoral candidate Alex Cruz submitted petitions earlier today at Paterson’s City Hall, dogged by reports that he hasn’t lived in the city for a full year.  

Immediately after Cruz picked up petitions on February 1st, a Paterson Press article by Joe Malinconico detailed the candidate’s voting history in Little Falls, noting Cruz voted in Paterson for the first time in November of last year.  Last week, Paterson Times’ Jay Rahman reported that Passaic County Elections Superintendent Sherine El-Abd said that Cruz doesn’t meet the threshold to to be a mayoral candidate for failing to live in the city for at least a year.   El-Abd also said the the city clerk’s office must make the call on whether or not to disqualify the candidate, according to the report.  

Undeterred, Cruz – a Paterson detective – is forging ahead with his candidacy; a source said he handed in over 1,839 petitions, well above the 815 that are required to get on the ballot and that Cruz is ready to fight any challenges to his residency.  The same source, making the case that Cruz would be a major contender in the mayoral race, speculated that ‘if Cruz is a small fish and not going to make a difference, why bother on spending money and resources [against] him?’