Quintana Named Newark Mayor Monday

In a widely expected move, the Newark City Council Monday voted to elect Council President Luis Quintana interim mayor of the city, a role he will fill until a few months after mayoral elections next May.

“I am proud to be the gatekeeper to the next administration and to help the residents of the City that I love,” Quintana said. “For many years, I have served our residents, and I hear the hue and cry in the streets of our City to reduce crime and unify our people, and I will work to do that.”

Quintana, 53, a political veteran who was born in Puerto Rico and graduated from Barringer High School, is the first mayor of Hispanic descent in the city’s history.

Quintana was chosen by a unanimous vote of the council during a special meeting called for early Monday. He will serve the remainder of former Mayor Cory Booker’s term, which expires July 1, 2014. Booker stepped down from the mayoralty after winning election to the US Senate last month. Quintana, who was elected council president in September, had served as acting mayor

Quintana has said he will not be entering the race for mayor next year. Four candidates --- former Newark Schools Advisory Board president Shavar Jeffries and council members Anibal Ramos, Darrin Sharif and Ras Baraka -- have so far entered the race. The election will be held May 2014.

Quintana became a Democratic Essex County Committee Member in 1981, and was appointed deputy mayor by Mayor Sharpe James five years later. First elected as an at-large member of the council in 1994, he has served nearly five terms on the governing body. He was the first Hispanic councilman-at-large ever elected in the city.