Hoboken reformers never lie.
At least, this is what former Hoboken Councilman Tony Soares says.
Soares and others who are loosely covered by the broad umbrella of the term “reformer” took sharp exception to this column’s observations about how Hoboken reformers seemed to have settled into a comfortable relationship with the powerful Hudson County Democratic Organization (HCDO).
This unity of the former arch-enemies has become the focus of claims of alleged voter irregularities in the June victory of Dawn Zimmer over Chris Campos for the 4th Ward City Council seat.
Former Jersey City Mayor Gerry McCann, serving as Campos’ consultant on a case that hopes to overturn the Zimmer election in the courts, claims the HCDO did more than just fund Hoboken’s “reformers” in the elections in May and June, but sent an army of workers into the city to help with their absentee ballots.
McCann claims to have affidavits proving irregularities in how absentee ballots were handled.
Several reformers, however, have questioned McCann’s tactics in obtaining those affidavits, claiming the affidavits will not stand up to legal scrutiny.
Campos and McCann still hope the court will disavow enough of Zimmer’s votes to name Campos to the council instead. Zimmer beat Campos by a mere eight votes in a sharply-divided ward that contains both housing projects and new luxury housing.
But Campos’ overturning the election is unlikely. Historically, courts have tended to call for a new election instead, which several reformers believe Zimmer will win anyway. Courts – especially after the Supreme Court decision that awarded George W. Bush the presidency over Al Gore in 2000 – have been reluctant to give a seat to any candidate, generally calling for a new election instead. But courts even in Hudson County tended to rule for new elections such as in Secaucus when Mayor Anthony Just and Councilman John Reilly were denied seats as a result of similar problems with absentee ballots.
But the oddity of the reformer-HCDO connection is valid, even if McCann, had to be the one to point it out.
In years past, Hoboken’s reformers were starkly opposed to State Sen. Bernard Kenny – who for several years served as HDCO chairman.
Two weeks ago, seven of the nine City Council members voted in favor of renewing Kenny’s legal contract. The two dissenting votes were not from the reformer camp, but from part of a new alliance with Union City, where Mayor Brian Stack is the new king.
However, Kenny’s legal firm’s contract was renewed at a significantly reduced rate to finish up cases it is currently working on, as new legal cases go to a newly hired firm.
Hoboken reformers do not dispute this new marriage with the HCDO, but some say the altered political landscape has modified the old HCDO, reshaping it into an organization that is more accepting of reform principles.
They do, however, dispute McCann’s claims of voting irregularities.
Time will tell if it is the HCDO that has changed, or the reformers.
Roberts sees a light at the end of the tunnel Mayor Roberts, who has come under a lot of criticism from various council members in the past six months, sees the Hoboken scene as peaceful right now, and claims the City Council is now working with him to accomplish many of the things he sees as major goals of his administration. Saying the last year was a monumental year for Hoboken, Roberts notes that his work with the council helped save St. Mary Hospital, sold the city garage (which still hasn’t happened yet opened the park at the former Maxwell House property, came close to putting up a WWII memorial, and moved ahead with development at 1600 Park Ave. as open space.
“This has been an unprecedented period of calm,” Roberts said.
Roberts pleased reformers with his strong support of the open space tax this past week. He said he came up with the concept, and the council made improvements to his idea. Roberts did not mention, of course, that the changes were primarily due to imput by the two new reformer council members, Zimmer and Cunningham.
Doria is leaving?
Most locals expect Mayor Joseph Doria to announce his resignation as mayor of Bayonne in the week following the Sept. 11 commemorative ceremonies.
By announcing so late, Doria leaves the choice of his replacement in the hands of the City Council, at least for 30 days.
Council President Vincent Lo Re will act as interim mayor while the council hashes out choices to become acting mayor until a special election can be held in November of 2008.
If the council doesn’t choose anyone, Lo Re will retain the seat until the election.
Lo Re, however, has apparently urged Doria to leave office in early September in order to have an election on Nov. 6, 2007.
Lo Re says he wants to leave the choice in the hands of the people. Behind the scenes, however, reports suggest that Lo Re – if serving as mayor – would be replaced on the council with Nicholas Chiaravalloti- who would then run for the mayor’s seat in November 2008 against Lo Re (as well as the host of other candidates that are expected to declare).
Political observers are divided over who would have the advantage (if any) Lo Re as incumbent or Chiaravalloti as Doria’s choice.
Reading the tea leaves of the Puerto Rican Day parade
People walking in this year’s Puerto Rican parade in Jersey City desperately hoped to figure out who was with whom politically by with whom they walked in the parade.
This could become something of a headache, since people often changed locations, marching first with one group, then another.
Some people such as Jersey City Councilman Steve Lipski came into the parade late at Bergen Avenue and Montgomery Street, so it was next to impossible to use the parade as a barometer of his political wealth.
Sandra Cunningham, Democratic candidate for state Senate in the 31st District, and her runningmate L. Harvey Smith (who is running for Assembly) walked for a time with U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez.
A little while later, Menendez was seen with Jersey City Councilmen Bill Gaughan and Peter Brennan.
Smith was also seen marching with Union City Mayor Brian Stack, Weehawken Mayor Richard Turner, and Union City Freeholder Tilo Rivas.
Cunningham was seen at one point marching with Hudson County Registrar Willie Flood.
Freeholder Bill O’Dea went back and forth between the political alliances, marching with this group, then that one.
Juan Perez, Democratic candidate for County Sheriff, served as the parade’s grand marshal, and seemed thrilled with the role.
Proving that he has at least one ardent supporter, Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy got to see a woman with several large Healy signs outside the Astor Bar.
What’s on Corzine’s agenda?
Some people are beginning to question the political moves and alliances Gov. Jon Corzine has been making, and believe that his close association with the U.S. Attorney and the new state attorney general may be part of an effort to sweep his political opponents out of the way in order to push through an agenda that will eventually include privatization of the state’s two toll roads.
“Politics and Wall Street are the two places where you can get ahead by being cut-throat,” one observer said. “Corzine didn’t get to be CEO of Goldman Sachs by giving fruit baskets to little old ladies.”
These observers claim that some of Corzine’s moves over the last two years seem to be part of an effort to build his own organization that might help propel him into the White House.
For now, he’ll have to be content with the State House and Hoboken’s Tea Building.