HOBOKEN — In an outcome that may spell trouble ahead for Mayor Dawn Zimmer, challenger Tim Occhipinti has defeated Councilman Michael Lenz in the 4th Ward special election on machine votes. The final tallys from the machines were 841 votes for Occhipinti and 791 votes for Lenz.
Lenz is the crucial seat in a 5-4 majority on the City Council which has largely supported the mayor’s initiatives. During the campaign, Occhipinti’s attacks on Lenz just as often criticized the Zimmer administration as they did her defeated ally.
City Clerk James Farina has yet to certify the outcome, however. Over 500 vote-by-mail ballots must be tallied by the county Board of Elections before the outcome for the 4th Ward seat can be considered official.
District 4-1 voted in favor of Lenz, 223-193. District 4-2, where Zimmer lives, also voted in favor of Lenz, 445-184, although the campaigns were quibbling over a 10 vote difference. District 4-3, where both candidates live, voted in favor of Occhipinti by a 172-102 margin. However, District 4-4, the district in the 4th Ward dominated by residents in the Hoboken Housing Authority, voted in favor of Occhipinti by a 292-21 margin.
There are still challenges from the Lenz campaign to the vote-by-mail ballots which will be addressed at the Board of Elections, but Lenz officials seemed to accept defeat on Tuesday evening with only a small glimpse of optimism that there will be enough vote-by-mail ballots for Lenz to turn the apparent defeat around.
Lenz said during his speech to supporters that they “lost the election, and that hurts” but he “isn’t going anywhere.” –Ray Smith