The New Jersey Globe is continuing a weekly interview series with state legislators. After Luanne Peterpaul, Dave Bailey Jr., and Doug Steinhardt, Al Abdelaziz took the call.
Assemblyman Al Abdelaziz (D-Paterson) joined the Paterson Council in 2018 and served until his election to the Assembly in 2025. Today, in his first full term in the Assembly, he serves on the Budget and Health committees, as well as vice chair of the Regulated Professions Committee.
The death of Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson) in 2024 started the chain of events that sent Abdelaziz to the Assembly: then-state Sen. Nellie Pou was elected to Congress, then-Assemblyman Benjie Wimberly replaced Pou in the state Senate, and Abdelaziz replaced Wimberly in the Assembly in a special convention.
Former Gov. Phil Murphy signed several bills he sponsored into law, including one requiring the attorney general to maintain and review the guidelines for bias investigations. Upon his swearing-in, Abdelaziz became the first Palestinian American to serve in the New Jersey Legislature.
A list of Abdelaziz’s floor and committee votes this session can be found by clicking here.
Click here to view a list of bills that Abdelaziz has sponsored.
The following phone interview has been edited for clarity and length.
New Jersey Globe: Starting simply, what types of issues are you hoping to focus on in the Assembly this year?
Al Abdelaziz: So right off the bat, affordability, try to make things more affordable for LD-35 residents and New Jerseyans; protecting senior citizens with any programs that they may need, primarily property tax relief for them and rental assistance; affordable housing. With affordable housing, also looking at bringing up programs that push home ownership. It can’t just be rentals, right? And education, making sure that the towns in my district and the students in my district have the best public education that they can have.
You’ve brought up senior citizens a fair amount, even going back to the day you were elected to the Assembly. What informs your push to help them?
It goes back to my time on the council. I feel a very good rapport; I’m very responsive to the needs of my constituents. But our seniors are most vulnerable, right? These are times where life should be a lot easier for them, and I’ve encountered issues with them where life is not that easy, especially with the government.
They’re not so tech-savvy, and life has become more difficult between the fraud and scams that target our seniors. So, being fairly young, I feel it’s my duty. My parents always taught me, ‘Make sure you’re always helping out people that need it most.’ And when it comes to seniors, I feel it’s our obligation as a society to make sure that they are good.
You also mentioned your time on the council. You were on the council when the state took over the Paterson Police Department. Do you think the takeover has been beneficial for the city and its residents?
I don’t even like to call it a takeover, right? Whatever it is — a partnership, oversight, collaboration — I think it has tremendously benefited the city of Paterson. I think when you talk to the rank-and-file police officers, they appreciate it, and I’ve definitely seen a tremendous difference in our police department.
The men and women of the Paterson Police are probably the hardest-working, most professional, most respectful law enforcement members in our state, and I know that they appreciate the support wherever it comes from. They don’t care if it’s from the AG, from the local, from whatever. And that’s the mindset I have. Whenever we can come together and make things better for our residents, it’s something that I always support, and that’s how I was on the council, and that’s how I am in the Assembly.
So you don’t see it as interference, you see it more as a cooperation, a helpful one.
Yes, I look at it as a collaboration and partnering. I truly believe it. That’s the way we should look at it: more of a partnership than a territorial takeover.
I saw that you helped pass a bill through the Assembly recently that would help Paterson and Newark police officers maintain their promotions after a civil service controversy. Could you talk about specifically what that bill does?
I have a good relationship with our local law enforcement. Everyone in New Jersey took the same test — from Cape May to Sussex County — if you’re a civil service town or city. The men and women in Paterson took the test. The civil service decided to take away 10 questions and grade everyone based on that formula. They got their score. Everyone was scored based on the same test. These men and women get promoted. They do their job, and they do a great job in their new ranks. Some of them take the lieutenant test and become a lieutenant. No issues.
Some people sued the civil service based on them taking away the questions, and the judge sided with the people who sued and said it only impacts the test in Paterson and Newark. So the people promoted in Passaic and Clifton — who took the same test as the members of Paterson — could keep their rank, which I thought was discriminatory. So we want to make sure that we fix that and that the promotions will be permanent.
It’s your first year on the Budget Committee; what does that work like? And what do you find yourself focusing on as these hearings start up?
So it’s busy; I was warned. It’s a lot of work, a lot of meetings, but it is good. I’ve seen so much and heard so much testimony, and then spoke with so many different organizations about the tremendous work that they do in New Jersey, protecting some of the most vulnerable people in our state.
I look forward to making sure that we’re there to craft a budget that makes New Jersey more affordable. I’m a big fan of Governor Sherrill, and I do believe that she means what she says and that she wants to deliver results for our residents to make life easier, more affordable, and make New Jersey a great place to live.
Do you think that the relationship between the Legislature and Governor Sherrill right now is well enough to build a budget that will help fulfill her desire to bring down the deficit, but also maintain services that you think are important?
Yes, she’s like the getting-things-done governor. She’s trying to tackle the issues that most of us want to tackle. I think she wants to get the best bang for her buck and make sure the programs that we’re running are touching as many New Jerseyans as possible. What I’m learning in this budget session, all of us [have to] come together to make sure we deliver a budget that we feel is best for New Jersey.
Your district has shuffled around a bit since the death of Congressman Bill Pascrell, and all three of you in the 35th are relatively new to your roles. What’s your working relationship with Senator Benjie Wimberly and Assemblyman Kenyatta Stewart like?
It’s a brotherhood right now, to be honest. Prior to us serving in the legislature, all three of us were close with each other. We were friends, we knew each other’s families, so it was a natural fit. Now that we’re serving down in Trenton, it’s been a great work relationship. I couldn’t ask for two better partners to deliver for our district, from the city of Garfield all the way to North Haledon, and with Paterson being right in the middle.
You’re the state’s first legislator of Palestinian heritage; how does that inform how you approach the work of legislating?
As always, I take great pride in being the first Palestinian American [in the Legislature]. I’m very prideful of my heritage, where my family’s ancestors are coming from. But at the end of the day, when it comes to serving, I don’t look at my nationality or where I’m from. I’m American, I’m a Patersonian. And when I look at legislation, I look at serving the entire population. That’s my first priority. But my upbringing, my family, my mother, my father, it’s something that we’ll never forget. My Palestinian roots make me a fighter, and I’m going to keep fighting for our residents.
You mentioned affordability; I know there are a ton of different realms inside of that, but if you could pass one bill by yourself, what would you do to help the residents of New Jersey with affordability?
Affordability is not going to be tackled by one bill. Affordability is going to be tackled from all different angles that it touches. Energy, health insurance, the State Health Benefit Plan, property tax relief, they go hand in hand. You’ve really got to tackle each one of them.
But one bill that I really want to work on is tackling health insurance — I like to say it’s a crisis right now. With the increases that we’re seeing in health insurance, our public employees get a raise, but when they get their check, they’re making less. It’s unaffordable at that point, right? That’s something I really want to tackle this legislative session with the governor’s office and with leadership.
You were honored a couple of months ago in Haledon because you and a few other people helped pull a man out of a car that was burning after a crash. What was going through your mind when that happened?
It was in the middle of campaign season. I just had a great Hispanic Heritage Month breakfast at the Brownstone, and I’m driving to my next event, and I hear a crash behind me. I look through my rear-view mirror, and I’ve never seen flames go that quick. I hear a crash, I look behind me, I see flames, I hit a U-turn, and I’m like, ‘Do I call 911?’ He didn’t come out. I saw another gentleman was trying to talk to him, and I was like, You know what, I’ve got to go in there.
It makes you think of what our men and women in law enforcement go through, because your adrenaline’s rushing and you’re not thinking, but at any moment you could get hurt. But thank God we pulled him out.
