Dear Editor:
Politics does strange things to people. It turned my neighbor into a monster. At least that’s what you would think if you followed the blogs and listened to the rhetoric of the recent mayoral campaign. Not that any of us are blameless, I certainly have contributed to the pool of bad political karma. I confess to actually thinking about writing off friends who supported a different candidate. For this, I apologize. And since I have already written off the entire Republican Party in the last election, I really can’t afford to lose any fellow democrats.
So, I could say terrible things about Peter Cammarano and circulate flyers with non-photogenic pictures of him or imply that his supporter’s have ulterior motives, but I won’t, because I don’t really know him.
I do really know Dawn Zimmer, and I know what motivates her because she has been my neighbor for almost seven years. I know for a fact that she cares about solving the flooding issue and that she has spent hours researching the best way to do it. I also know that improving Hoboken schools is important to her, because I watched her working hard to get the “Kids First” slate elected. The personal loss of her father-in-law to a hit and run has made her keenly aware of Hoboken’s traffic problems. And her support for more parks and green space was one of the motivating factors in running for city council in the first place. I know that she has to solve the budget and tax situation, because she intends to live in Hoboken for a long time and raise her two sons here. Will that qualify them to be “born and raised”?
I know all this about Dawn and yet I read all kinds of terrible things about her on the Hoboken 411 site and in the newspaper, which are simply not true.
So instead of turning my neighbor into an ogre, you should just vote for her. She really does mean what she says and she has the energy and stamina to follow through.
Lorraine Herman