Political Career
Rivera ran for Passaic City Council in 1993 and 1995, losing both times. Later in 1995 he won a special election to the Council by 11 votes. He then ran a losing campaign for mayor in 1997, and then again in 2001, winning the race. New Jersey Governor Donald DiFrancesco attempted to prevent Rivera from taking office due to his status as a Puerto Rican felon, but Superior Court judge Robert Passero allowed Rivera to be sworn in, finding that the state had failed to prove that Rivera's crime was a crime of "moral turpitude".
Rivera is a member of Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition and, when he served as mayor, was a member of Hillary Clinton's Mayors Council and National Hispanic Leadership Council. During the course of his tenure as mayor, Rivera had the City Council nearly triple his salary from $40,000 to $117,000.
Read more about this topic: Samuel Rivera
Famous quotes containing the words political and/or career:
“Men conceive themselves as morally superior to those with whom they differ in opinion. A Socialist who thinks that the opinions of Mr. Gladstone on Socialism are unsound and his own sound, is within his rights; but a Socialist who thinks that his opinions are virtuous and Mr. Gladstone’s vicious, violates the first rule of morals and manners in a Democratic country; namely, that you must not treat your political opponent as a moral delinquent.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“It is a great many years since at the outset of my career I had to think seriously what life had to offer that was worth having. I came to the conclusion that the chief good for me was freedom to learn, think, and say what I pleased, when I pleased. I have acted on that conviction... and though strongly, and perhaps wisely, warned that I should probably come to grief, I am entirely satisfied with the results of the line of action I have adopted.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)