HACKENSACK — Arlene Romoff was another face in the crowd at the Stony Hill Inn on Monday night when the Democratic Party’s newest leading light, Michael Bloomberg, delivered a pep talk to Bergen County’s rank-and-file politicos.
Bloomberg, the former Republican mayor of New York who recently switched parties, may or may not be laying the groundwork for a presidential run in 2020. For now, helping the Democrats take back the House of Representatives, and maybe even the Senate, is what he’s after — and that suits Romoff just fine.
“It’s scary what is happening to this country,” said Romoff, an advocate for the hearing-impaired from Hackensack who is a member the New Jersey Democratic Disability Caucus. “What scares me most is the lack of integrity from this administration. There’s no checks and balances.”
Romoff was referring to President Donald Trump, whose “lack of integrity is beyond astonishing,” she said. Her feelings for Bloomberg were the exact opposite.
“What comes through to me is his integrity,” Romoff said.
Oddly, an election that many Democrats in North Jersey are framing as a referendum on Trump had two centrists delivering speeches on Monday night: Bloomberg, the billionaire media magnate who has pledged $80 million to help Democrats nationally, and Rep. Josh Gottheimer, the freshman congressman from Wyckoff who is running hard to keep the 5th District seat that he took from Republican Scott Garrett in 2016.
