PATERSON – Some people want to play baseball. Others want to work in a firehouse. The New Jersey son of immigrant parents, Assad Akhter had a dream as a boy to work in the United States Capitol. He had a patriotic feeling when he saw images of the iconic American government building on television, and one day ended up fulfilling his childhood dream when he went to work as a staffer for the office of U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-9).

That lifelong passion for the seat of the U.S. Congress coupled with his own experience made Akhter, who lost his Passaic County Commissioner seat last month – the sole Democratic Party countywide casualty – react with particular sadness on Jan. 6th 2021 when he witnessed a mob’s desecration of his beloved former place of work.

“I grew up as a young person in New Jersey not having a single political connection, the son of immigrants and my dream was to go work on Capitol Hill,” Akhter told InsiderNJ over Turkish coffee. “That’s what I saw on TV. I just wanted to be one of those people. After graduating from Seton Hall, I got there. It was an amazing experience to be in those halls and in those conversations. Some of it was disappointing – but it was mostly amazing, and the current state of things is really depressing.”

Akhter was happy his former boss and other staffers were safe on that infamous day. The full effect didn’t hit him until he took a trip to D.C. a month later and tried to go to Pascrell’s office.

“The streets were desolate around the Capitol and there were barricades up,” he said. “Except for Inauguration Day, when you see those kinds of barricades, I never saw that in my life, with Congress in session like that: an empty building barricaded. Ben Rich from the congressman’s office had to sign me in. I just remember thinking, ‘This is the Capitol?’ It changed. Even doing the period of the Affordable Care Act on that weekend there were droves of people walking the hallways looking for members of Congress to talk to or harangue. It’s the only government building of its kind where anybody can walk in for any reason and go to their congressman’s office. I remember on a weekend back then, during that contentious time around the ACA debate, I had a pizza in an elevator and in walked all these anti-ACA people. They clearly know which side I was on, and I just remember that sensation of thinking they could easily kill me and take my pizza. That was part of the atmosphere.”

A pragmatic operative who successfully participated in Team Pascrell’s historic 2012 Democratic Primary victory, Akhter doesn’t have any bitterness over his loss this year. He sees the good in the event. The married father of two daughters, he will have the opportunity to become a better father, and a better provider, he told InsiderNJ.

Overall, he also does not see the 2021 results as anything especially new. Democrat incumbent Passaic County commissioners lost in 2009, too, during a gubernatorial election year. The pendulum swings.

“There are certain factors, I suppose, that are unique,” he said. “The Trump election last year, when he lost, enabled people to breathe a sigh of relief. I think there was a sense among voters – urban voters – that as long as this guy’s in there we can’t breathe easy. Getting him out gave us all a sense of accomplishment. But it doesn’t last. I remember in 2008, when Obama won the presidency. I was in New York that night, and there were parades in the street from his election. These was a sense that things had really changed. But then two years later, Republicans were back in charge of Congress because he tried to fix healthcare. The point is, there is no permanent victory in America. It’s a constant seesaw. I don’t know if it will ever change as long as we have this two-party seesaw situation.”

But one thing has changed, or one condition has accelerated, and it deeply concerns him.

“There’s a person out there – and other staffers will know this – a person from whom you’d get these calls or letters, who is all the time engaging in conspiracy theories about government doing this or that,” Akhter said. “It amount to ‘government is bad and you’re doing something bad.’ There’s always been a level of that. But forget about whether the office is Democrat or Republican. When you’re a staffer, you almost see some of this stuff as comical. You roll your eyes and put it on the side. But the scary thing now is a lot more of these people – maybe it’s the Internet, or maybe it just has a lot to do with politics – but people who are supposed to be the responsible ones are not trying to contain it. They’re full on encouraging it. Everybody’s fallen in love with the YouTube moment. Those Republicans at the Statehouse want a photo. I get it. Or a video. But it was one thing in times past for something like that to run in The Star-Ledger, for example, and another for it to go out there virally on the Internet. That’s the really scary thing. On top of it, this pandemic has put us all in a situation where the pot has boiled over. People are stressed. They’ve been stressed. It’s been a stressful two years. I don’t know anybody who thinks the last two years have been great for them. But all this is a kind of perfect storm. Looking forward, it’s scary. You assume it will go away, but I don’t know. It isn’t only that individual out there sending a lunatic letter. It is lunatic members of Congress who don’t make you feel safe. You wonder now if you’re safe from members of Congress. Not long ago even, there was a collegiality. Pascrell is a good example. You may disagree with him. He’ll tell you you’re an SOB. Then he’ll buy you a cup of coffee. What we have now though is a battleground, and that’s really sad and it’s really scary.”

Akhter sized up his own election, which he lost by 739 votes, as his running mates narrowly won.

“The Democratic voter is always going to be a less reliable voter,” said the commissioner. “A lot of those folks have a lot of things on their mind and harder time than the average Republican voter. For many, their lives are tougher generally day to day, especially in New Jersey where we haven’t quite seen the renaissance, the move back to the urban areas, where people can feel forgotten. You can’t count on their vote every year without heavy, heavy work. The other part of it is people just take things for granted. I walked in on Election Night to one of our staging sites and the perception was [Governor Phil] Murphy was way ahead. The sentiment was ‘he’s doing great.’ But again, the last time we lost here in Passaic – commissioners’ seats – was in a gubernatorial election year. People were saying, ‘no, everybody’s good.’ No. We’re not good until after Election Day. People take it for granted.”

The man with government experience under his belt now, who was once the starry-eyed kid thinking about a career in government acknowledged deep-seeded cynicism, and not just in the hinterlands.

“After the election, I received a call from Paterson First Ward Councilman Mike Jackson, this was after all the results were in,” Akhter said. “I thought he called maybe to tell me sorry, like the governor did, or the congressman, or Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill. He didn’t. He actually started attacking me. He told me, this was after he saw my video in which I talked bout being proud of my service, ‘I don’t know what you’re proud of. I don’t know what the Board of Commissioners has done. Paterson is worse of because of county government.’ He told me he had been working with Republicans to defeat me and that he happy about it. I’m the only commissioner from Paterson, and we’ll see, I suppose, how the Republicans will do here in terms of delivering services. I don’t worry to much. I know the other six [Democratic commissioners] have Paterson’s best interests at heart. But to Councilman Jackson’s point, it’s quite easy to get comfortable in the urban feel of this county, and forget that much of it is not like Paterson. It does send a terrible signal for Paterson not to have representation. Mike is an example of somebody who thinks everything in the system is rigged, and rigged against him. But he’s never reached out. If he had, I would have let him know I’m more than willing to work with him. I’ve lived in his ward and helped people in his ward.”

The commissioner also acknowledged the Democrats’ reluctance to define a strong message and to remind voters of the advantages of his party’s leadership in these times. That said, it’s easier said than done.

“I don’t know that anybody has a great idea of how to improve messaging about the vaccine,” Akhter said. “I work in a hospital professionally where I see vaccine hesitancy. You can’t do government from 10,000 feet above. Not today. We once came up with the vaccine for polio and it was a machine-like thing. The country mobilized for the vaccine, just as the country mobilized for war. I think we’ve lost that because one people feel more independent-minded. They think they have more information; not necessarily the right information, and they have lost faith in government. If they can’t get behind public health, then you know it’s never going to happen. On our side – the pro-vaccination side, I think we do have a tendency to talk down to people. If it wasn’t for the pandemic, I suspect I would have won and the governor would have won by a bigger margin. That said, the governor did the right thing with the pandemic. I don’t regret that at all. It was the right thing to do, but just because it was the right thing to do, you cant talk to people like they’re wrong.”

Needless to say, 2021 presented significant campaign challenges.

“Everybody has a different level of caution,” said Akhter. “I don’t even know what people are doing, none of us do, half the time. Are we wearing a mask? Are we shaking hands now, or are we not shaking hands? I think you have to address people as individuals. The majority of people got vaccinated without needing a lot of handholding but the last third is a real tough nut to crack.”

Out of elected office in the new year and looking forward to focusing on his family and professional life, Akhter said he’s definitely not done in politics and government.

“I will find a way to help people,” the commissioner said. “I will find a way to public service. It was disappointing because it was my most successful campaign up until Election Day. I raised more money in a difficult environment than before, and we ran as a team. There was no dissension and very good collegiality. I have nothing but good things to say about them, my running mates. Until Election Day, I felt great. But I also have two little girls at home and it has been a sacrifice to be doing that kind of campaign and taking time away from them. It was frustrating in a sense. I am happy that I am in a position to be a better father and provider, and to help my wife more.”

But the Capitol, for all the hardships and toughness of these times, still radiates uniquely American energy, hope and inspiration for the commissioner, as do county and state government. “I’m not the only one who went down, after all,” he cracked, noting Senate President Steve Sweeney’s loss on the same night, and though he won’t run for a Paterson Council seat next year, Akhter said with a laugh; he did note with a pointed and proud sense of not giving up, “I will be in the arena again.”