Christopher Campos

When voters go to the polls on Tuesday, May 8, they will select representatives for six Hoboken City Council seats.

The terms in Hoboken are four years apiece.

All wards are contested. Two seats are open. Four council incumbents are supporting one another for re-election. Twelve challengers are also running. Although they’ve formed a political action committee, the incumbents insist it’s a "loose" alliance at best.

Hoboken Mayor David Roberts’ decision not to seek re-election to a third term in 2009 has created a war among candidates in six council races to be decided Tuesday, with all of the contestants either beating up the mayor -- or the mayor before him -- in a bid to ultimately be the next mayor or power player.

The vacuum at the top of the city is complicated by the impending retirement of District State Sen. Bernard Kenny, the Hudson County Democratic Chairman, who has been a long-time ally and go-to guy for Roberts.

Feeling the pressure from gadfly citizens who say the city has not completed important projects, a City Council presenting itself as equally outraged is pinning the blame on the mayor, who in turn is kicking himself for making the announcement last year that he wouldn’t be pursuing re-election.

Hudson County political insiders say that charges of driving under the influence of alcohol could impact Hoboken Councilman Christopher Campos' chances of going to the State Assembly next year. The 30-year-old Campos was charged with exeeding the legal limit around 3:00 AM Saturday morning in Manhattan, according to published reports.

Campos, who is also the municipal prosecutor in West New York, has been at the top of short lists for an open Assembly seat in the 33rd district, if incumbent Brian Stack continues his bid for State Senator against Majority Leader Bernard Kenny. Kenny is a Hoboken resident, and the conventional wisdom in Hudson is that Hoboken would maintain one of the three seats in the legislative delegation.