Joel Torres

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Joel Torres

Democratic Party

Prior offices

Jersey City Public Schools Board of Education At-large

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Hudson County Board of Chosen Freeholders District 4

Successor: Yraida Aponte-Lipski

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Report an officeholder change

Education

High school

St. Mary's Grammar and High School

Bachelor's

Montclair State University

Graduate

Montclair State University

Personal

Profession

Advocacy

Contact

Personal website

Joel Torres (Democratic Party) was a member of the Hudson County Board of Chosen Freeholders in New Jersey, representing District 4. Torres assumed office on January 1, 2018. Torres left office on December 31, 2020.

Torres (Democratic Party) ran for re-election to the Hudson County Board of Chosen Freeholders to represent District 4 in New Jersey. Torres won in the general election on November 7, 2017.

Biography

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Torres was born in Jersey City. His parents immigrated from Puerto Rico in the 1970s. He graduated from St. Mary's Grammar and High School. He went on to earn a B.S. in public health with a minor in Latin American and Latino studies from Montclair State University (MSU), where he graduated summa cum laude. In 2014, he earned an M.A. in public and organizational relations from MSU.

Torress is the senior coordinator and policy advocacy advisor for the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention Team (ADAPT), which focuses on decreasing underage substance abuse. He is also the president of the Alfred E. Zampella PTA.

Elections

2017

See also: Municipal elections in Hudson County, New Jersey (2017)

General election

Hudson County, New Jersey, held a partisan general election for county clerk and all nine of its board of chosen freeholders on November 7, 2017.

Joel Torres (D) ran unopposed in the general election for District 4 of the board of chosen freeholders.

Hudson County Board of Chosen Freeholders, District 4 General Election, 2017
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	Joel Torres  (unopposed)	99.70%	8,322
		Write-in votes	0.3%	25
Total Votes				8,347
Source: Hudson County Clerk, "General Election 2017 Election Results," November 14, 2017

Primary election

Hudson County, New Jersey, held partisan primary elections for county clerk and all nine of its board of chosen freeholders on June 6, 2017. The top vote recipient in each party's primary advanced to the general election. Joel Torres defeated Imtiaz Syed in the Democratic primary election for District 4 of the board of chosen freeholders.

Hudson County Board of Chosen Freeholders, District 4 Democratic Primary Election, 2017
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Joel Torres	83.92%	3,365
Imtiaz Syed	15.99%	641
Write-in votes	0.1%	4
Total Votes		4,010
Source: Hudson County Clerk, "2017 June Primary Election Results," June 19, 2017

2014

See also: Jersey City Public Schools elections (2014)

Three seats on the Jersey City Board of Education were up for election on November 4, 2014. Incumbents Carol Harrison-Arnold and Bertram C. Okpokwasili sought re-election. Harrison-Arnold and Okpokwasili were joined on the ballot by former school board member Gerald Lyons and 2013 candidates Lorenzo Richardson and Gina Verdibello. Newcomer candidates included Dominique D. Lee, Monica Kress, Michael Reilly, and Joel Torres. Harrison-Arnold, Okpokwasili, and Kress ran as a slate under the committee called Parents for Excellence, while Richardson, Verdibello, and Lyons ran as a slate under the committee The Children First Team.

Results

Jersey City Public Schools,
At-large General Election, 3-year term, 2014

Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Nonpartisan	Lorenzo Richardson	22.1%	12,472
	Nonpartisan	Joel Torres	19.2%	10,854
	Nonpartisan	Gerald Lyons	16.9%	9,568
	Nonpartisan	Monica Kress	11.3%	6,383
	Nonpartisan	Carol Harrison-Arnold Incumbent	10.9%	6,133
	Nonpartisan	Bertram C. Okpokwasili Incumbent	10.7%	6,034
	Nonpartisan	Gina Verdibello	5.3%	2,999
	Nonpartisan	Michael Reilly	3.5%	1,988
	Nonpartisan	Write-in votes	0.2%	88
Total Votes				56,519
Source: Hudson County Clerk, "General Election November 4, 2014, Official Results," November 17, 2014

Funding

Torres reported no contributions or expenditures to the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission as of October 15, 2014.

Endorsements

Torres was endorsed by the Jersey City Education Association and its president, Ron Greco.

Campaign themes

2014

Torres provided the following platform on his campaign website:

“	RELATIONSHIPS Restoring Relationships with Parents, Students, and Teachers My goal is to bring a leadership style to the Board of Education that will increase respect and collaboration towards parents, students, and teachers. During the past year, our current school district officials and board members took steps to ignore AND silence very important people in our school district, parents and teachers. As a Board member, I will work to restore these important relationships to make sure that we have strong school communities throughout Jersey City for the betterment of our children. RECREATION AND NUTRITION Bringing RECREATION programs and HEALTHY Food to OUR Children In my time as PTA President, I collaborated with the Jersey City Recreation Department and a nonprofit organization to bring recreation programs to PS #27 from Monday through Saturday. In addition, I constantly heard from parents and students about the poor quality of food served for breakfast and lunch during the school year. To confirm their concerns, I sat down with the students to eat meatloaf and listened to their thoughts. After eating the food and listening to their concerns, I realized that our children do not have the healthiest food options available. As a Board member, I will work to increase recreation in our schools and healthy meals for OUR children throughout the city. LOCAL AND STATE GOVERNMENT SUPPORT Working with State Officials to Resolve Facilities Issues In March 2014, I organized a meeting with New Jersey School Development Authority (SDA) Executive Director Charles McKenna, State Senator Brian Stack, representatives from the Jersey City Board of Education, and administrators from Public School #27. During the meeting, we discussed the facility concerns affecting our students, primarily worn down trailers for 200+ students and safety concerns. As a Board member, I will continue to work with the SDA and other state officials to resolve facilities issues that are affecting our children throughout the city. INCREASED FUNDING FOR EDUCATIONAL SERVICES Decreasing Wasteful Spending to BRING FUNDS BACK to OUR Children In March 2014, I spoke up against the cutting of funds to bilingual education, special education, and supplemental services for children from the 2014-2015 Jersey City Public School $665 million budget. The budget displayed significant cuts to all of these programs during the next school year. Unfortunately, the current board approved the budget and the cuts to programs for our children. While the district cut services and programs, in my role as PTA President, I brought new programs to our school. This includes a rigorous, college and career readiness program for a cohort of sixth grade students in the 2014-2015 school year. As a Board member, I will work to bring funding back to the services needed by our children throughout the city. SAFETY Increasing the SAFETY of OUR Children Inside and Outside of the School In my time as PTA President, I collaborated with Ward D Councilman Michael Yun to increase pedestrian safety around PS #27. In addition, I worked on various efforts to increase the safety of OUR children within the school building. For example, I advocated for a School Resource Officer to prevent delinquency issues and increase positive relations with our students. Through these types of initiatives, we created a safer school community and neighborhood for our children. As a Board member, I will work to make sure that these safety initiatives occur in all schools throughout Jersey City.	”
—Joel Torres' campaign website (2014)

See also

Hudson County, New Jersey	New Jersey	Municipal government	Other local coverage
Government of Hudson County, New Jersey Hudson County, New Jersey Counties in New Jersey Cities in New Jersey	New Jersey New Jersey elections, 2017 Public policy in New Jersey Endorsers in New Jersey	Top counties 100 largest cities Current mayors Current council officials	2017 municipal elections School board elections, 2017 Local ballot measure elections in 2017 2017 local judicial elections

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