Despite the continued scandals rocking Hudson County, she has faith in the system of government and believes she can reach out to other honest politicians to make government accountable again to the people.
The 33rd Assembly District includes West New York, Union City, Weehawken, Hoboken, and Guttenberg. The election will be held in November. DiNardo faces Democrats Albio Sires (the incumbent who also serves as West New York mayor) and Brian Stack (the current mayor of Union City).
Born and raised in Jersey City, DiNardo attended St. Dominic Academy High School and St. Peter's college, receiving her Bachelor of Science in Economics. After this, she continued her education by attending Michigan State University and the Thomas M. Cooley Law School in Lansing, Mich.
"I'm proud of where I come from," she said, adding that she celebrates a family tradition of working to make personal dreams come true.
Her grandfather, she said, like many people from this part of the state, came here from Italy seeking to make a better life.
Running on a team with Rafael Fraguela and Jose Munoz, DiNardo believes the Republican Party has a chance of taking some seats in the 33 rd District in November, despite the party's facing off against incumbent state Sen. Bernard Kenny, incumbent Assemblyman Albio Sires, and Union City Freeholder and Mayor Brian Stack.
Although she has not run for office previously, she said she had worked on other people's campaigns, including the campaign for then-Vice President George Bush while she was at law school in 1988. She said she is very pleased by the opportunity the Republicans have given her and other women in allowing her to run for office.
"Women are underrepresented in Hudson County," she said, and added that she brings to this election the practical sense of a businesswoman.
DiNardo is an attorney with an office in Jersey City and has headed her own firm for more than 11 years, making numerous TV appearances as a legal analyst for MSNBC, CNN, CN8 and News 12 New Jersey.
"I'm really pumped up about running," she said. "I like meeting people and hearing about their concerns."
Many issues in this election
From such feedback, she has found that people are most concerned with taxes, education and auto insurance.
"Hoboken," she said, "has the second highest municipal taxes in the state. This is mysterious considering the vast success of the Gold Coast's development."
She said with everything being developed here, taxes should be going down.
"I believe the bottom line here is who is in power," she said. "Democrats have dominated the local economy for so long that they need to explain to the public why taxes are so high."
While she said corruption may play a part in this, the costs here also stem from whose interest the administration is working in: contractors doing business here or the people who foot the bill.
She sees educating kids as one of the principal responsibilities of government, but she does not believe public schools are the only venue. For this reason, she supports a voucher system that can give parents options as to where they can send their kids, and she also believes that overall test scores would rise if parents could make such a choice.
Traffic and development are also some of the concerns she hears about while on the campaign trail. Too little parking and too many traffic tickets in places like Hoboken are some of the most frequent refrains. She says she would like to see open space tied to development to prevent overcrowding.
But above all, she says anyone seeking office should keep an ear open to the public.
"If our ears are not open, if we don't pay attention, why should we serve?" she asked.
DiNardo says she had been knocking on doors throughout the district, talking to any many people as she can.
"People are good hearted and glad to have someone who will listen to them," she said.
When in people's homes, she hears one consistent message: People want to maintain a high quality of life. She also comes across people who have not fully recovered from the effects of Sept. 11, 2001, financially or spiritually.
"People in Hudson County lived through it," she says. "We saw it happen outside our windows. This has many people concerns about security and now well our police, fire and EMS services are prepared for disaster. We have to make certain these groups get the training they need to do their jobs."
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