On Tuesday, voters will get the opportunity to elect a mayor and three at-large city councilpersons to lead Hoboken into the next four years. The polls will open at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m.
If none of the mayoral candidates amasses more than 50 percent of the votes, a runoff between the top two vote-getters will be held June 5. Residents who register to vote by the end of the day this Monday will be able to vote in that runoff.
Mayor of Hoboken is a full-time job that involves managing a $54.8 million budget and overseeing three city departments: environmental services, human services and administration. Administration includes the police and fire departments.
The first candidate for mayor is the strong-willed two-term incumbent, Anthony Russo, 54. Russo is running based on a history of accomplishments including new parks, stable taxes and the redevelopment of blighted areas.
The second candidate is four-term Councilman Dave Roberts, 44, who is also the owner of East L.A. restaurant. Roberts wants to tighten the reins on what he believes to be “overdevelopment” in town, and he wants to make government more open and accessible. He also believes that the city should have a “capacity study” done to find out what more to do about development and traffic, and he believes taxes are too high. Roberts was an ally of Russo’s until he broke with him two years ago.
The third candidate is community activist and tenants’-rights advocate Daniel Tumpson, 50, a software developer with a doctorate in physics. He may lack the political capital to compete financially with Russo and Roberts, but he is presenting himself as an alternative to two men whom he says are cut from the same cloth. For years, Tumpson has fought against any weakening of the city’s rent control laws, which protect tenants from large rent increases. He believes that most of the city’s major problems are caused by too much development, and he would like to put all significant development projects to a public vote in the future. He believes there should be no more projects without an environmental impact study.
Running with Mayor Russo are two council incumbents and one former councilman – respectively, Nellie Moyeno, Stephen Hudock, and James Fitzsimmons.
Running with Roberts are two council incumbents and a community activist – Tony Soares, Ruben Ramos Jr., and Carol Marsh.
Running with Tumpson are community activists Helen Hirsch, Cheryl Fallick and Alice Misiewicz.
Independents include retired police officer Sal DeMeo, schoolteacher Terry LaBruno and school board member Carrie Gilliard.
The Reporter has published in-depth profiles of the mayor and council candidates over the last three weeks. To read them, call up the paper on the web at www.hobokenreporter.com or stop into our offices at 14th and Washington streets during business hours to request copies of those issues.
The Reporter also co-sponsored a mayoral debate with Cablevision last week. To watch a replay of that debate, tune in to Cablevision channel 70 on Sunday, May 6 at 11 a.m.; Monday, May 7 at 7 in the morning, or at 9 p.m. Monday.
The debate is also summarized in an article inside this week’s Hoboken Reporter.
Voter registration forms are available in the city clerk’s office in City Hall at First and Washington streets. Help – there’s mud in my mailbox!
(and how you can get the other side)
Thursday was a banner day in Hoboken politics. Residents came home from work to find not one but two vicious attack ads in their mailboxes.
The one from the Russo camp asked, “Who is the real Dave Roberts?” and the one from Roberts’ camp showed photos of Russo getting angry and said, “What kind of man would claim he was the ‘one man’ who ‘saved’ Hoboken?”
It might get worse this weekend.
Often, during the last weekend before a Hoboken election, the most negative mailers and anonymous flyers are sent out – timed so that possible distortions cannot be clarified by the local newspaper.
A resident who wants to find out the other side behind a charge can, however, call the campaigns to get their side of the story.
Here are the numbers for the campaigns:
Russo Headquarters:
653-5113, 653-5114
Roberts Headquarters:
963-5353
Tumpson Headquarters:
656-7774