Wilda Diaz (born Wilda Soto; September 14, 1964) was an American politician and former Mayor of Perth Amboy, New Jersey. She was elected in May 2008, defeating incumbent Joseph Vas by a 58% to 42% margin. She was Perth Amboy's first female mayor and New Jersey's first Latina mayor. She served for 12 years from 2008 until 2020.
On November 6, 2012, Diaz was re-elected with 37 percent of the ballots cast in Perth Amboy, receiving 4,404 votes, surpassing top challenger Billy Delgado and second-tier candidates Frank Salado, Miguel Morales, Robert McCoy, and Sharon Hubberman, who had a combined 7,147-vote total. Delgado received 3,339 votes, Salado collected 1,678, Morales scored 1,277, McCoy got 618, and Hubberman earned 235. In 2020, she was defeated by Helmin Caba in the December 15th Mayoral Runoff election after serving for 12 years as mayor.
Personal life
Diaz is one of six daughters of Mercedes and Antonio Soto, laborers who moved to New Jersey from their native San Sebastian, Puerto Rico. A lifelong resident of Perth Amboy, Diaz graduated from Perth Amboy High School in 1983. After graduation, she began a twenty-year career in banking, starting as a teller in a local bank and working her way up to becoming an assistant vice president at Banco Popular in the Elizabeth branch office. She resigned from the bank after she was elected mayor in 2008.
She and her husband, Greg Diaz, have two children.
Politics
On March 14, 2009, the local Republican Club honored Diaz at an event attended by Chris Christie, a former United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey who was actively seeking the Republican Party nomination for governor for the November 2009 general election against incumbent governor Jon Corzine. Diaz cooperated in an investigation being conducted by federal and state law enforcement agencies relating to activities connected to former Mayor Vas's administration. Despite her affiliation with the Democratic Party, Diaz hired several Republicans to serve in her administration. In May 2010, she supported three Republican candidates for city council, including former city committee chairman Kenneth Gonzalez, and appointed another former city GOP leader, Maria Garcia, to the municipal planning board.
On June 13, 2012, accompanied by State Senator Joseph Vitale, a three-time running mate of former assemblyman and mayor Joseph Vas, Diaz announced that she would seek a second term as mayor. Six challengers filed petitions to run against Diaz by the September 4 deadline, but 2004 mayoral candidate Billy Delgado appears to be her top rival.
While running for re-election, Diaz disclosed the contents of a private e-mail from her former campaign consultant in which the political operative indelicately challenged her "lack of gravitas and intelligence". That message was exploited by the campaign, in a press conference that morphed the confidential suggestion that she not seek a second term into an "unacceptable level of misogynistic rhetoric" and daily newspapers purveyed the distortion. Newark Star-Ledger columnist Mark Di Ionno remarked, "She called a press conference, trying to spin the private e-mails to her political advantage, while effectively calling attention to the fact that her former campaign consultant, a one-time trusted ally, thinks she's (stupid)".
Throughout her re-election effort, Diaz repeatedly claimed that she reduced the city's $250 million debt by $54 million but official records show that is not true. Annual debt statements filed by the city show that five months before Wilda Diaz was elected, the city owed a total of $181 million, and the latest filings reflect that Perth Amboy now owes close to $230 million.
As the 2014 elections approached, two slates for city council and two teams competing for school board e lined up with on one side Diaz allies who were close political associates of Joe Vas and on the other side, former allies who helped her win the job in 2008.
"The upcoming election in Perth Amboy could be a referendum on Mayor Wilda Diaz... Council President Joel Pabon Sr., a Customer Service supervisor for the US Postal Service who was on the school board, ran for council with former Mayor Joe Vas in 2008. Today he is being supported for re-election by Diaz. Dianne Roman served as city administrator under former Mayor Joe Vas but she is also being supported for re-election to the school board by Diaz, who kept her on the municipal payroll. Pabon is actually calling his slate ‘the Mayor Diaz Team,’ which includes Councilman William Petrick and newcomer Sergio Diaz. Roman is running under the ‘Restoring Educational Priorities’ banner with Thomas Thor and Republican Junior Iglesia."