Stealing a page from Hillary Clinton’s playbook, Michele Russo, the wife of outspoken Mayor Anthony Russo, filed for the April 18 school board election Monday. In doing so, she is seeking her first publicly-elected office in town. Even though Russo, who is a real estate agent, has never held and elected office in the city, she has played an active role in local politics, serving as the chairperson of the city’s Democratic Party, a Commissioner on the Parking Authority board, and as the former President of the Calabro Primary School’s Parent-Teacher Association. While Russo says that she is engaged in the election bid “to make a difference,” critics say that her bid to win a seat on the school board is nothing more than an attempt by the mayor to expand his influence on city politics. “If the mayor had his way, he’d appoint the school board, but he can’t do that,” said Peter “Perry” Belfiore, a school board member up for re-election who has put together his own ticket to oppose Michele Russo and her running mates. “The mayor has now dropped any pretense of looking for independent people to serve on the board. That’s a problem, because we live in a complicated age and the more minds working on solving problems the better. If everyone thinks the same way that the mayor does, then there is no reason to have a meeting at all.” Michele Russo chaffed at the suggestion that she thinks just like her husband does. “Every single person out there knows that I have my own mind,” she said in an interview this week. “My husband and I think very differently on some things. This has nothing to do with politics anyway. It has to do with doing what is best for the schools. Besides, Anthony stays pretty much out of it when it comes to the school board.” (However, there was a public vote two years ago on a question of whether the mayor should get to appoint the school board. The public voted the measure down.) Russo points to her achievements as a volunteer with after-school programs and as an active member of the PTAs at the Calabro Primary School and Hoboken High School as evidence of her longstanding commitment to improving educational opportunities for the city’s children. “I dare anyone who is running to say that I do not have a commitment to kids,” Russo said. “I’m going to be a grandmother soon and I want to make sure that our schools keep getting better and better for the next generation of Hoboken kids.”