In 1846, the first recorded game of baseball took place in Hoboken, New Jersey. Since then, everybody’s wanted someone around who would “play ball.”
An up-and-coming rookie, Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano apparently WAS that guy – but it looks like the umps just caught him running outside the baseline.
Corruption in New Jersey politics comes as a surprise to no one; the surprise comes when somebody gets busted for it. From the mommies on the playground the old timers fishing off the end of Pier A, the buzz on the streets of Hoboken this week shifted from “Cake Boss” to Cammarano. Hoboken’s youngest-ever, newly elected mayor was seen in handcuffs Thursday morning as he faced charges in federal court.
Despite all of the blustery campaign rhetoric still reverberating from the steps of City Hall in regards to “cleaning up” this and “no more” that, Hoboken’s trash heap just got a hell of a lot bigger. When you’re sitting at a greasy spoon allegedly doing under-the-table deals with a guy from the sewer authority, you should expect something putrid to come out of it.
Throw some mayors, a few rabbis, and a couple back-alley kidneys into the mix and you’ve got yourself some rather nasty sludge.
Despite being only 32 years old, Cammarano positioned himself to represent “Old Hoboken.” According to the now infamous criminal complaint, he supposedly claimed “the Italians, the Hispanics and the seniors are locked down” regarding his votes. Of course he inherited such bold-faced hubris from the political machine that got him there. And yet one is left to wonder if Peter was nothing more than a slaughtered lamb, a mere burnt offering put up by that very machine, as it becomes apparent that this investigation has been ongoing for a decade. Ask any rabbi and they’ll tell you the story of Abraham and Isaac (Genesis 22: 1-12), but in this case Isaac might be left on the altar.
You wonder why this town is the perennial laughingstock of the Metro Area.
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Add this woe to Hoboken’s recent endemic embarrassments – our SWAT Team passing out automatic weapons as party favors at a Hooters, our previously defunct City Hall, our outrageous tax increases, and a veil of suspicion over the recent election – you wonder why this town is the perennial laughingstock of the Metro Area.
‘Snake boss?’
I’m already imagining Friday’s tabloid headlines – the Post will go with “Snake Boss” and the Daily News will run with “Scammarano-no.”
Not lost on this columnist is the fact that upon returning home this afternoon I found my property tax bill in the mailbox, complete with a letter from the Honorable Mayor himself. I wonder how much of that money will go toward having to change the letterhead… again.
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Christopher M. Halleron, freelance writer/bitter bartender, writes a biweekly humor column for The Midweek Reporter. He spends a lot of his time either in front of or behind the bar in Hoboken, N.J. where his tolerance for liquor grows stronger as his tolerance for society is eroded on a daily basis. Feel free to drop him a line at c_halleron@yahoo.com or follow him at http://twitter.com/HALLERON. To comment on this story, e-mail editorial@hudsonreporter.com or leave your comment below.