A native of Santiago de los Caballeros (Dominican Republic), Alex Méndez was elected councilman "at large" in the fourth district of Paterson (New Jersey), and last year he announced his candidacy for mayor of the city, which has an important Dominican majority among Latinos.

Méndez will have to recover the lost ground for former Puerto Rican mayor José (Joey) Torres, who was sentenced to five years for corruption and other charges, according to Diario Libre (in Spanish).

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Despite several obstacles in his career - the support of Torres's brother, his constant problem with deadlines to deliver economic reports and a significant number of checks without funds issued from his campaign - this Latino candidate has received unconditional support from "important representative sectors of the state" and "respected organizations such as the Municipal Leadership Alliance (LLA-PAC) and the National Dominican Council of America (NDAC)" last weekend, as reported by El Nuevo Diario (in Spanish).

"Mr. Mendez impressed us as a true leader, a businessman whose commitment has always been to selflessly serve others," said Albert Anton of the Political Action Committee (PAC) of the Latino Leadership Alliance in New Jersey, according to the local paper Paterson Times. "His campaign emphasis hasn’t been on fundraising, as it is for most candidates, but rather on talking and listening to the concerns of voters."

Through a fundamentally bilingual campaign, Méndez has won the overwhelming support of his community, even over his opponent also of Dominican origin, Pedro Rodríguez, thus giving the key to the success of the Democratic campaigns in the elections of mid-term this year.