Paul Alirangues

Paul Alirangues

Democratic Party

Education

Other

Lincoln Technical Institute, 1993

Contact

Personal website

Paul M. Alirangues was a 2017 Democratic candidate for District 22 of the New Jersey General Assembly.

Biography

Alirangues earned a certificate in HVAC from the Lincoln Technical Institute in 1993. His professional experience includes working in the climate control business and as a small business owner. He also serves on the North Plainfield Economic Development Committee.

Campaign themes

2017

Alirangues' campaign website highlighted the following issues:

“	The Economy This is truly a case of whether you see the glass as half full or half empty. Since I do not pretend to know how good it can be, I can not say how full our glass is. All I can say is that it is significantly better than it has been and only marginally worse than the best it has ever been. In that regard I propose there is room for improvement and we have examples from all over the world and throughout history, to use as a guide on how to improve it. The trouble with most economic philosophies is that the people that espouse them tend to stick to them religiously, as if they will magically lead us to the promised land. I suggest that they are like the man Socrates refers to in Plato's "Apology" that claims to know what he does not know. So I will not engage in economic theory, but instead speak about what I have seen with my own eyes and how I think we can move forward. On Capitalism I believe that when we invest in our people, in their diversity, when we decentralize, economic, social and political control, we will actually yield a better result. I'm not saying we need to scrap capitalism, even the communists in China have embraced capitalism. The profit motive is like fertilizer in a field, it is a strong incentive for people to try and reach a very high level of achievement. So to me we should not try to limit capitalism so much as try to harvest it's results for the good of our collective diversity. I am in no way saying all people should be equal, quite the contrary, people are anything but equal, but I am saying that people should all receive equal opportunity to be their best possible selves. Because we do not know where the next great achiever will come from, where the next great idea will be born. So we need to cultivate all our people and use the fertilizer of capitalism to achieve this. Wage Economics and the Fight for $15/hr The middle class is the nursery for the next great innovators, a wellspring of diversity where the majority of the wealth that is created goes to fuel a diverse economy while it helps create the motivated workforce that will continue to drive the economy. So how do we grow the middle class? First of all you do so by making sure than anyone who works can make a living wage. Detailed studies need to be made, but in New Jersey, a single person, living alone in a studio apartment, providing for utilities, food, transportation and basic necessities, can not survive on our current minimum wage. A way to quantify these costs in a more detailed and substantive way needs to be done, but even a cursory look will show that the cost is closer to $15/hour for a 40 hour week. Anything less than this is akin to slavery and is morally wrong. If a business says they can't afford to pay it they are basically saying they do not have a sustainable business model and are in need of a form of business welfare in order to stay afloat. I am not opposed to helping businesses, having been a business owner myself, I am well aware of the challenges. Also, a person making $15/hour needs to be able to at least generate that much through their labor. A person who can not is also in need of a sort of welfare, to make up for their inability to generate enough wealth to sustain themselves. In this regard, rather than allowing businesses to pay slave wages or keeping underperforming workers at home on government assistance, I recommend the State helps subsidize new businesses and unproductive workers, long enough to allow those businesses to survive and prosper, while giving the workers skills and training that will make them more productive. Education Good schools lead to safer and happier communities, maintain the economic base and provides the best possible path to the middle class. And we need to change the way education is funded from a property tax system to a progressive income tax based system. New Jersey has the most progressive Education funding formula in the nation and it has yet to be fully implemented. We need to pay teachers in line with other professionals and fully fund the public worker pension fund so they can have a secure retirement along with every public employee, including Police, Firefighters and all government employees. A fully funded education system will lower the cost of living, and help create wealth and innovation while building the middle class. Immigration Clearly the federal government has failed with it's immigration policy. It has created an untenable situation that undermines the building of wealth, subjugates Hundreds of Thousands to slave wages, exploitation, intimidation, poor living standards and poor health that becomes a burden on our health care system. If the federal government can not or will not do anything about it, than it is incumbent on the State to act. The illegal status of certain immigrants puts families at risk, creates an underground economy that does not contribute to the general welfare, taxes our education and health care systems and creates poverty. In that regard I believe in taking the humanitarian approach once a person is here, and they have ties to the community and do not commit any violent or serious crimes. We need to find a way to bring them in to the mainstream economy, account for them in our labor force, provide for their education and health care and help make them productive members of our society.	”
—Paul Alirangues

Elections

2017

See also: New Jersey General Assembly elections, 2017

General election

Elections for the New Jersey General Assembly took place in 2017. All 80 seats were up for election. State assembly members are elected to two-year terms. The general election took place on November 7, 2017. A primary election took place on June 6, 2017. The filing deadline for the primary election was April 3, 2017. Legislative districts in the New Jersey General Assembly are multi-member districts, with two representatives in each district. In Democratic and Republican primary elections, the top two candidates move forward to the general election, and the top two candidates in the general election are declared the winners. The following candidates ran in the New Jersey General Assembly District 22 general election.

New Jersey General Assembly, District 22 General Election, 2017
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	James J. Kennedy Incumbent	32.62%	27,763
	Democratic	Gerald Green Incumbent	32.05%	27,284
	Republican	Richard Fortunato	17.19%	14,631
	Republican	John Quattrocchi	16.07%	13,682
	Remember Those Forgotten	Onel Martinez	1.11%	942
	Pushing Us Forward	Sumantha Prasad	0.96%	818
Total Votes				85,120
Source: New Jersey Department of State

Democratic primary election

Incumbent James J. Kennedy and incumbent Gerald Green defeated Paul Alirangues in the New Jersey General Assembly District 22 Democratic primary election.

New Jersey General Assembly, District 22 Democratic Primary, 2017
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
James J. Kennedy Incumbent	46.54%	10,922
Gerald Green Incumbent	44.72%	10,495
Paul Alirangues	8.74%	2,053
Total Votes		23,470
Source: New Jersey Department of State

Republican primary election

Richard Fortunato and John Quattrocchi were unopposed in the New Jersey General Assembly District 22 Republican primary election.

New Jersey General Assembly, District 22 Republican Primary, 2017
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Richard Fortunato	50.77%	2,333
John Quattrocchi	49.23%	2,262
Total Votes		4,595
Source: New Jersey Department of State

See also

• State legislative elections, 2017
• New Jersey General Assembly elections, 2017
• State legislative special elections, 2017
• New Jersey General Assembly
• New Jersey State Legislature

External links

Suggest a link

• Official campaign website
• Paul Alirangues on Facebook
• New Jersey Legislature website

Footnotes

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Current members of the New Jersey General Assembly

Leadership

Representatives

District 1

Antwan McClellan (R)

Erik Simonsen (R)

District 2

Don Guardian (R)

Claire Swift (R)

District 3

Dave Bailey (D)

Heather Simmons (D)

District 4

Dan Hutchison (D)

Cody Miller (D)

District 5

William Moen (D)

William Spearman (D)

District 6

Louis Greenwald (D)

Melinda Kane (D)

District 7

Carol Murphy (D)

Balvir Singh (D)

District 8

Andrea Katz (D)

Michael Torrissi (R)

District 9

Gregory Myhre (R)

Brian Rumpf (R)

District 10

Paul Kanitra (R)

Gregory McGuckin (R)

District 11

Margie Donlon (D)

Luanne Peterpaul (D)

District 12

Robert Clifton (R)

Alex Sauickie (R)

District 13

Victoria Flynn (R)

Gerard Scharfenberger (R)

District 14

Wayne DeAngelo (D)

Tennille McCoy (D)

District 15

Verlina Reynolds-Jackson (D)

Anthony Verrelli (D)

District 16

Mitchelle Drulis (D)

Roy Freiman (D)

District 17

Joseph Danielsen (D)

Kevin Egan (D)

District 18

Robert Karabinchak (D)

Sterley Stanley (D)

District 19

Craig Coughlin (D)

Yvonne Lopez (D)

District 20

Reginald Atkins (D)

Annette Quijano (D)

District 21

Michele Matsikoudis (R)

Nancy Muñoz (R)

District 22

Linda Carter (D)

James Kennedy (D)

District 23

John DiMaio (R)

Erik Peterson (R)

District 24

Dawn Fantasia (R)

Michael Inganamort (R)

District 25

Christian Barranco (R)

Aura Dunn (R)

District 26

Brian Bergen (R)

Jay Webber (R)

District 27

Rosy Bagolie (D)

Alixon Collazos-Gill (D)

District 28

Garnet Hall (D)

Cleopatra Tucker (D)

District 29

Eliana Marin (D)

Shanique Speight (D)

District 30

Sean Kean (R)

Avi Schnall (D)

District 31

William Sampson (D)

Barbara Stamato (D)

District 32

John Allen (D)

Jessica Ramirez (D)

District 33

Julio Marenco (D)

Gabriel Rodriguez (D)

District 34

Carmen Morales (D)

Michael Venezia (D)

District 35

Alaa Abdelaziz (D)

Shavonda Sumter (D)

District 36

Clinton Calabrese (D)

Gary Schaer (D)

District 37

Shama Haider (D)

Ellen Park (D)

District 38

Lisa Swain (D)

Chris Tully (D)

District 39

Robert Auth (R)

John Azzariti (R)

District 40

Al Barlas (R)

Christopher DePhillips (R)

Democratic Party (52)

Republican Party (28)