Dave Roberts

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.

Mayor Donald Cresitello, left, and Zoning Board Chairman Tim Dougherty at their debate the week before Election Day.

Certainly, someone running for re-election this year might be comforted by special case asterisks in those contests where challengers upset sitting mayors or council people.

But consider the name politicians who lost over the course of May and June municipal cycles, or found the terrain too tough to run again, or barely won re-election, and it looks like treacherous territory for incumbents in a gubernatorial election year.

Two of last week's losers - Morristown Mayor Donald Cresitello (buried by Tim Dougherty, 62.46 to 37.48%) and Edison Mayor Jun Choi (who lost, 50.70 to 47.79% contest to Councilwoman Toni Ricigliano) - arrived at their re-election bids with their own particular challenges.

In or around elected office for over 30 years, Cresitello possesses institutional knowledge and insider connections that helped as he kept Morristown's tax rate stable over the course of his most recent four-year term. But he also asked for pay raises for himself, which the council refused, targeted undocumented workers in his crackdown of apartment house stacking, and considered placing a public works' garage in Ward 2, which empowered his opponent to build on a base of residents who felt disrespected.

2nd Ward Councilwoman Beth Mason

HOBOKEN – Councilwoman Beth Mason’s just left her campaign headquarters, and if anyone ever needed evidence that big money moves in and out of this narrow front door, in her absence, the candidate’s mobile face on a flat screen TV speaks to passersby on Washington Avenue. 

She’s on cable TV, too, and a Brian P. Stack-sized banner hangs on the side of campaign headquarters. Overlooking Washington Avenue in fullblown Diego Rivera glory stand Mason and her three crusading running mates. 

Circulating on these same streets, meanwhile, a Mason mailer shows Councilman Peter Cammarano’s head with rabbit ears popping in less than auspicious fashion out of a hat held by exuberant magic man Mayor David Roberts.

The implication is that Cammarano represents an elongation of the now gasping Roberts era. But the larger campaign implication is just as telling from this and a constant barrage of counterpunching mailers targeting Cammarano and not Mason’s other chief competitor in a six-person field:  if there must be a runoff, the Mason campaign wants to eliminate Cammarano now and deal one-on-one with Councilwoman Dawn Zimmer later.

Councilwoman Dawn Zimmer and her running mate, Ravi Bhalla

HOBOKEN – Purists don’t like the Hoboken mayor’s race because they don’t readily identify in any of the three main candidates the kind of old school character who might just as well have been a barkeep, tavern owner, longshoreman, tug boat operator, barge hand or fireman as mayor.

But while At-Large Councilman Peter Cammarano, 2nd Ward Councilwoman Beth Mason, and 4th Ward Councilwoman Dawn Zimmer probably can’t trace their respective family histories back to a distant uncle who pitched in the world’s first baseball game played in Hoboken, the Tremitiedis, Russos and Raias of the world opted out of this year’s contest, leaving these like ‘em or not new mold Hobokenites on the field.

Whoever gets elected must confront a financial wreck as residents here still reel from the effects of a 47% tax hike in one year, and hours before the first mayoral debate tonight at Our Lady of Grace Church, the slow-moving contest threatens to intensify.

To date, few have been willing to venture a guess as to who’s in the lead, but 4th Ward Councilwoman Dawn Zimmer has relished blowing up the old model of what Hobokenites are supposed to be and framed herself as the do or die reformer. 

Councilwoman Beth Mason with her slate, from left: Anthony Pasquale, Raul Morales II, and Vincent Addeo

HOBOKEN - Second Ward Councilwoman Beth Mason today questioned Mayor David Roberts’s “outrage” over a billboard ad plastered by a Jersey City real estate company offering PATH commuters help to leave a city saddled with a 47% tax incease.  

“I do not want the hard working people of Hoboken to leave our city,” Mason said in response to Roberts’s ultimately successful efforts to get Metropolitan and Waterfront to ditch its ad yesterday. “But Mayor Roberts' temper tantrum over this billboard is a complete and total lack of personal responsibility.  The state monitor reported that the tax increase was brought on by under-funded budgets and uncollected revenues. Mayor Roberts’ reckless mismanagement is the very cause of the billboard."

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.