Bill Pascrell was at an event a while back when he said some people are surprised he lives in Paterson.

The underlying point was obvious – why is a congressman living in a depressed city?

How did Pascrell respond?

“Yeah, I live in Paterson, You want to make something of it?”

He said that’s what he tells them,

With his passing this week at 87, many have described the long-time congressman as “fiesty.” That sounds so much like a cliche, and it is. But it’s also true.

In looking solely at Pascrell’s political career, it is instructive to consider 2012, which was the year of his primary battle with Steve Rothman.

With the exception of his initial win in 1996,  Pascrell didn’t have any close general elections in a very Democratic district. That made 2012 really stand out.

Just to review, New Jersey lost a congressional seat after the 2010 Census and Republicans won the battle before the redistricting commission. The new map combined two Democratic districts – ones represented by Pascrell and Rothman. The shuffling also put Rothman’s hometown in another district – one represented by Republican Scott Garrett.

Garrett’s views were far to the right. He may have seemed “too right” for suburban New Jersey, but because the district included very “red” Sussex County, Garrett stayed in office.

Still, many observers at the time thought Rothman would challenge Garrett. After all, he (Rothman) was an incumbent as well.

That didn’t happen.

Instead, Rothman opted to run against Pascrell in that year’s primary. His apparent reasoning was that even if he beat Garrett, it would have been hard for him to beat a more moderate Republican in the future.

As the future unfolded, Josh Gottheimer did beat Garrett in 2016 and has won reelection three times.

But back to 2012. This was a major intra-party battle.

Pascrell said that Rothman should have challenged Garrett and not a fellow Democrat.

Rothman attempted to portray himself as the more liberal of the two – always an important hat to wear in a Democratic primary. He also said that the new map included more than 50 percent of his old district.

When the votes came in, Rothman did well in the Bergen County part of the district.

But then there was Passaic, Pascrell’s home county.

In Passaic, Pascrell got 25,099 votes to 2,652 for Rothman. His percentage was even greater than that in Paterson. Talk about a blowout. And that led to Pascrell keeping his seat.

It is not unusual for candidates to do exceedingly well in their home region. Even by that standard, however, Pascrell’s margin was, to say the least, impressive.

It is said all politics is local, so there’s nothing better for an elected official than being loved by his hometown voters.

That’s the best way to remember Bill Pascrell.