Carol Marsh

Dawn Zimmer, sworn into office as Acting Mayor on the day Peter Cammarano resigned.

Power and how to wield it is a conversational topic that might have faraway associations in a more quaint setting, but it generally arises with a fiercer kind of immediacy and urgency in a place where two of a town's last three mayors endured the clamp of handcuffs - a place, for example, like Hoboken.

Starting from City Hall, photographer turned Acting Mayor Dawn Zimmer commands the power projection platform in a race in which the self-styled reformer mayor faces a challenge from no fewer than seven opponents - including 2nd Ward Councilwoman Beth Mason, retired Judge Kimberly Glatt and businessman Frank "Pupie" Raia, who all believe Zimmer doesn't have the temperament to wield a mayor's power.
 
Whatever their private agonies about Zimmer and their public ambitions, that many people trying to elbow one another out of the way in a play for voters' attention in a short time-frame election, makes the contest ostensibly Zimmer v. Mason, according to most observers - with the strong edge going to Zimmer early as the incumbent who has her own built-in, green T-shirted base of support.
 
But sources say Glatt and Raia intend to talk this week to ascertain whether it would be better for one of the two born-and-raised candidates - traditionally a plus in this parochial Hudson River burgh - to exit the race and back the other in the name of consolidating an alternative to Zimmer and Zimmer's financially-well connected arch-rival Mason, neither of whom has Hoboken roots.

Don't count on Raia leaving the contest.

"I am running to win," the owner of the Hoboken Shop Rite told PolitickerNJ.com. "I feel I'm the only candidate who can deal with old and new Hoboken."

Councilwoman Carol Marsh stands by her friend, Dawn Zimmer, as Zimmer becomes Hoboken's first woman mayor.

HOBOKEN - It's been a torturous and rewarding path in Hudson County politics for Councilwoman Carol Marsh, who ginned up the city's reform movement base in her unsuccessful 2005 run for mayor against Dave Roberts, and won a seat on the council four years later on the Zimmer Team.

"I never felt this would be easy, and there's a lot of work to do to resolve a lot of competing interests," said Marsh as her friend and ally Dawn Zimmer became Hoboken's first woman mayor.

Sandwiched improbably between her two historic runs - one a heartbreaking loss and the other a victory culminating with Zimmer's swearing-in this afternoon - was Marsh's 2007 bid for the Assembly in the 33rd District as a candidate on the ticket backed by the Hudson County Democratic Organization (HCDO).

A lot of Marsh's allies worried that her place on that doomed ticket - running with West New York Mayor Sal Vega and Nicole Garcia -  against the Union City machine of Mayor Brian P. Stack was the HCDO's way of throwing Marsh under the bus.

Peter Cammarano has a narrow 88 vote lead over Dawn Zimmer in the race for Mayor of Hoboken after about 600 absentee ballots were counted.  Zimmer led Cammarano on the machine vote 5,786-5,542, 51%-49%.  There are about 80 provisional ballots left to be counted.

In the race for City Council, Carol Marsh, Ravi Bhalla and David Mello, running on the Zimmer slate, are ahead.

Carol Marsh 5,621
Ravi Bhalla 5,623
David Mello 5,419
Angel L. Alicea 4,832
Vincent Addeo 4,953
Raul Morales 4,826

In Jersey City, Ward A Councilman Michael Sottolano defeated Roland Lavarro 57%-43%, and Ward F Councilwoman Viola Richardson defeated Ronnie-Calvin Clark 63%-37%.  Both incumbents are allied with Mayor Jerramiah Healy.

Councilwoman Dawn Zimmer

Fourth Ward Councilwoman Dawn Zimmer today happily accepted the endorsement of 2nd Ward Councilwoman Beth Mason as she readies for her June 9th mayoral runoff with At-Large Councilman Peter Cammarano.

“I am very pleased,” Zimmer told PolitickerNJ.com. “We have differed on some issues but we share the same goals. We both believe in the overall goal of trying to bring Hoboken together. Beth brings a momentum to my campaign and helps brings the reform/progressive community together.”

Final results out of last Tuesday's first ballot mayor's race showed Zimmer receiving 3,614 votes, followed by Cammarano with 3,402 to both make the runoff; followed by Mason with 2,330 votes.

Councilwoman Beth Mason

In an unorthodox endorsement announcement, Councilwoman Beth Mason today threw her support behind Dawn Zimmer for Mayor and Vincent Addeo, Raul Morales II and Ravi Bhalla for City Council in the June 9 runoff election.

By so doing, Mason essentially backed a two-each fusion ticket of team members from both her own and the Zimmer slates, and shunned those left standing on the Cammarano Team and two of Zimmer's other running mates.   

“Last Tuesday, Hoboken voters cried out for a much-needed change in the way our government works, and whom it works for,” Mason said. “I remain firmly committed to the idea of a ‘One Hoboken’ ticket to deliver the change the public demands. I wholeheartedly endorse Zimmer, Addeo, Morales and Bhalla, and encourage all my supporters to do whatever they can to help elect this new team for One Hoboken.” 

The criss-crossing down ballot endorsement of Mason's two still-standing running mates (Addeo and Morales) as well as one of Zimmer's three running mates in Ravi Bhalla, left Zimmer allies Carol Marsh and Dave Mello without Mason's backing.

And, of course, left Cammarano and his down ballot competitor still in the contest, Angel Alicea, bereft of Mason love.

Attorney Ravi Bhalla

The day after terrorists bombed the World Trade Center, a bearded man in a turban on the New York subway wore around his neck a laminated card with the following words printed in bold letters: “Proud to be an American and a Sikh.”

Connected to a monotheistic religious tradition of Punjab, India, requiring him to wear the turban and beard, this man knew his appearance alone could be misconstrued in the aftermath of the attack.

He wanted those around him to have no doubt about his origins and his loyalties.

Ravi Bhalla felt the same way. Born in Passaic and raised in West Paterson as a soccer player and son of a typically diehard soccer mom, 9/11 brought forth for him a double tragedy.

“First, there was the unspeakable loss of 2,000 Americans, and then there was the difficulty at times of walking down the street with people yelling racial epithets at me and people mistakenly believing that we had some role,” said Bhalla.

This is one of those state the obvious things, like the person who gets the most votes on Election Day will win the election: they key players in the Hoboken mayoral runoff next month are the people who voted for Beth Mason.  Mason voters will decide if Dawn Zimmer or Peter Cammarano becomes the next Mayor. 

In yesterday's voting, Zimmer led Cammarano by 212 votes, 3,614 (36%) to 3,402 (34%).  Mason received 2,330 votes (23%), with the remaining 7% split between three other candidates.

Former Hoboke Councilwoman Carol Marsh with her 2007 running mate, West New York Mayor Sal Vega

HOBOKEN - As elected officials here in the face of public discontent try to make their various arguments for why the state has assumed control of the municipal budget, at least one former elected official is watching from the perimeter.

Talk to locals about the mayor's race next year and most of them factor former Councilwoman and mayoral candidate Carol Marsh's name into a mix that includes Councilman Peter Cammarano, Councilwoman Beth Mason, Councilwoman Dawn Zimmer, Councilman Michael Russo and Mayor David Roberts.

In a phone conversation today with PolitickerNJ.com, Marsh said she was unlikely to run for mayor in 2009, and in one scenario would absolutely rule out the possibility.

"I'm 100 percent in support of Dawn if she runs," said Marsh, who ran unsuccessfully for the Assembly last year in the 33rd District on a ticket with West New York Mayor Sal Vega and Nicole Garcia of Union City.

At-Large Councilman Peter Cammarano: Politicker photo 

HOBOKEN - Even members of his inner circle swear that they don’t yet know whether Mayor Dave Roberts plans to run for a third term in 2009.

Whatever his intentions, other Hoboken diehards are surfacing. No one’s announced yet, but fierce political battles now will undoubtedly have political consequences next year in this city stung by the embarrassment of a state takeover of its finances.

There are all of the usual speculations surrounding possible candidates. A sighting of former Councilwoman Carol Marsh at a municipal meeting provokes the conclusion in come corners that she’s definitely running. A recent inundation of photos of Mayor Roberts on the Hoboken website prompts someone else to opine that Roberts is running - bet on it.

Businessman and neighborhood kid made good Frank "Pupie" Raia?

Of course, he’s running, say Hoboken insiders. He always runs, and no doubt he will perpetuate his longstanding animus this year with Councilman Michael Russo, who clubbed him last year in their 3rd ward showdown.

Hoboken Councilwoman Beth Mason: Politicker photo 

HOBOKEN - Taking a nod from Jersey City Councilman Steve Fulop, freshman Hoboken Councilwoman Beth Mason intends to introduce an amendment that would ban city elected officials from receiving more than one public salary or pension.

"I am sure that Councilman Fulop recognizes, as do I, how difficult it is to create a more responsive and responsible government when the primary interest of many elected officials lies in perpetuating a cumbersome, costly bureaucracy that rewards the few, at the expense of the many," Mason said.

Elected last year to fill a vacant seat in the city’s second ward, Mason - like Fulop in Jersey City - is a likely 2009 mayoral candidate.