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The second and only Indian-American in the New Jersey Assembly, 31-year old Raj Mukherji, is eyeing a run for Mayor of Jersey City, a metropolis with a significant Indian-American and South Asian population. As former Deputy Mayor of that city, Mukherji sees critical necessities that he says the state has failed to address adequately, which may explain his interest in moving down from state to city rather than up toward national office. “I’m a Jersey guy. I plan to stay in New Jersey and raise my family here,” Mukherji told News India Times in an extensive interview.
In the New Jersey state Assembly, Mukherji is recognized as the most prolific lawmaker. Fifty two bills he prime-sponsored, were signed into law by Governor Chris Christie, the most of any freshman lawmaker. He wants you to see the quality and not the quantity of the laws, he told News India Times. Mukherji has received numerous awards for his work inside and out of the legislative chambers.
To know what makes Mukherji tick, one has to look at his extraordinary breadth of experience from a very young age. A self-made young man, Mukherji had to support himself through high school, college, and grad school as an “emancipated minor” when his father’s severe health condition and economic circumstances forced his parents to return to India. He first withdrew from high school after completing ninth grade to focus on his business, setting up an Internet consulting and software development company while in middle school, to support himself. He went back to education, enrolling at 15 in an early college program at Bard College at Simon’s Rock, N.J., eventually earning a bachelor’s degree from Thomas Edison State University.
Meanwhile, he grew his software consulting company and sold it to a larger technology company, in order to enlist in the Marines two weeks after 9/11 at age 17. He served in military intelligence as a reservist. He then earned an individualized Master of Liberal Arts degree focused on national security from the University of Pennsylvania, and a law degree (Juris Doctor), cum laude, from Seton Hall Law School, which he attended on a Chancellor’s Scholarship.
His fascination with the policymaking process grew when he dealt with matters of state as founder and managing partner of a public affairs firm that he grew into the state’s third largest lawyer-lobbying firm. His clients included social justice causes, higher education institutions, Fortune 500 corporations, financial institutions, healthcare institutions, government agencies, and others.
At 24, Mukherji was appointed commissioner and chairman of the Jersey City Housing Authority, the youngest in city history. He got kudos for reforms he instituted at the $75 million agency serving more than 16,000 residents and approximately 6,700 households. At 27, he was appointed deputy mayor of Jersey City, where he served from 2012-13. At 28, he won a six-way Democratic primary election for the Assembly by a 36-point margin in 2013, and went on to win the November general election by a 20-point margin. He was re-elected in 2015.
It’s not the bills he’s sponsored that drives him. “My favorite part doesn’t have to do with lawmaking at all,” Mukherji says. “It’s when on any given day, constituents walk into my office with any number of daily problems,” from transit, to condos boards, immigration, affordable housing, heating bills, phone service, to name just a few. “The best part is being able to call back a constituent and tell them a, b, or c has been solved, and knowing we can close that file.”
The biggest lesson he has learned from this nitty-gritty legislative work is, “Never let the perfect be the enemy of the good.” Lawmakers need to compromise and, “You can’t be afraid to pick a side. You’re still moving the needle and still achieving something, even if it is not 100 percent,” he says. “And I’ve learnt I shouldn’t be mad at myself for not getting it all.”
Two of his main priorities among the many he works on, are veterans’ homelessness, and infrastructure improvement, including public education in urban areas. “It’s about meeting our constitutional mandate, he says. “Poor and minority students don’t have the same access to quality education as suburban and wealthy kids. Clearly we are failing our kids.” As the representative from the 33rd District, which includes densely populated urban areas, Mukherji sees the challenges facing Jersey City. “Some of my colleagues don’t understand the challenges of urban areas,” Mukherji says passionately.
Which may explain his interest in running for Mayor of the city that he loves and the state where he wants to live and start his own family. Asked about rumors he plans to run for mayor of Jersey City, Mukherji does not prevaricate. Even though his focus is on being a state legislator “and I have a long agenda of legislation I want to get passed yet,” he concedes that if the current Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop runs for governor next year, “Then I would seriously consider running for Mayor of Jersey City.” That basically translates into a “Yes” as Fulop is out selling his achievements to top Democrats, to run for Governor when Christie steps down after two terms in 2017.
“Though Jersey City has gone through a renaissance, its best years are yet to come,” Mukherji says. A 2007 study by South Asian American Leaders of Tomorrow, SAALT, points to significant problems the community faces in the state and in cities. “New Jersey’s South Asian community is clearly one of contrasts,” SAALT concluded. While the size of the community grows, and it plays an important role in the stare, “increasing numbers of South Asians face daunting challenges and obstacles in everyday life that prevent access to basic services and benefits and lead to marginalization and isolation.” An estimated 185,000 South Asians resided in New Jersey, SAALT estimated in 2007, three-quarters of them foreign-born. “While many South Asians have obtained high levels of education, a fifth of Pakistanis and a third of Bangladeshis do not possess high school diplomas, and more than half of all South Asian seniors possess limited English ability, the SAALT report said.
Nevertheless, Mukherji says he loves the diversity, the progressive bent, and the “down-to-earth spirit” of citizens of his state. “We might not flash as many fake smiles at strangers, but when we warm up to you, you’re like family.”
He likes that he can wear his heritage on his sleeve. Ellis Island where immigrants historically landed, is virtually a stone’s throw from his backyard. “It is inherently American to be a hyphenated American,” Mukherji asserts. “Everybody has an immigrant story unless you are a Native American.”
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