Dawn Zimmer

Councilwoman Dawn Zimmer

UPDATED 

Representatives of the Hudson County Board of Elections will count the roughly 150 provisional ballots in the Hoboken mayoral election at 10 a.m. on Friday morning.

"Friday is the big day, I will take it from there," said 4th Ward Councilwoman Dawn Zimmer, who at present trails At-Large Councilman Peter Cammarano by 67 votes.

Hoboken City Hall

UPDATED 

The legal brains and attendant suppporters are in a conference right now at the Hudson County Board of Elections Office trying to figure out what to do next in this prolonged mayoral contest between At-Large Councilman Peter Cammarano and 4th Ward Councilwoman Dawn Zimmer.

As of this moment, Cammarano's up by 67 votes, 6,043 to Zimmer's 5,976, according to Jerry Lore at the Hoboken Clerk's Office.

But that number is not final.

"There are 150 provisional ballots that have not yet been counted and they will not be tallied until tomororw - latest Friday," Lore told PolitickerNJ.com.

The ongoing conference between the mayoral combatants is the chief reason for the delay in the provisional tally, Lore added.

The two runoff elections for Mayor yesterday are exceedingly close and it will probably take a Judge to decide who the winners are.  In Hoboken, Peter Cammarano leads Dawn Zimmer by 67 votes, 6,043 to 5,976, with about 80 provisional ballots to be counted.  Zimmer led the machine voting by 244 votes, but Cammarano took the lead after absentee ballots have been counted.  

In Hillside, unofficial results show outsider Joseph Menza with a six vote lead, 1,705 to 1,699, over Councilman Jerome Jewell, with a reported ten provisional ballots that will be counted today.  

Cammarano has one clear advantage in a recount and a legal discussion over provisional ballots: his law partner is Angelo Genova, one of the state's top election law experts.  Jewell has the backing of Hillside Democratic Municipal Chair Charlotte DeFilippo, who is also the Union County Democratic Chair.

If Menza holds his lead in the non-partisan race, it would be a stunning defeat for the Democratic Governor's Association (DGA), which contributed more than $10,000 to ensure Jewell's election.  Menza received some help from Republican gubernatorial candidate Christopher Christie, so sent some volunteers his way last week in a bid to get Hillside Republicans to oppose Jewell.  

Menza's council candidates lost to Jewell's slate, so even if Menza's lead holds and he becomes mayor, the council will remain in the hands of the local Democratic Party machine.  

In Jersey City, two City Council incumbents backed by Mayor Jerramiah Healy easily won their runoff elections.  Healy allies now occupy every City Council seat but the one held by Steven Fulop.

Peter Cammarano, a Councilman and attorney with a politically influential New Jersey firm, claimed victory tonight in a close race for Mayor of Hoboken.  Standing outside a local bar where a victory party was taking place, Cammarano said he had beaten Councilwoman Dawn Zimmer. 

At-Large Councilman Peter Cammarano, right.

HOBOKEN - The celebration at Bar None was suposed to mark At Large Councilman Peter Cammarano's definitive mayoral victory over 4th Ward Councilwoman Dawn Zimmer.

He hasn't won, but he's leading his rival by 88 votes after the county clerk counted absentee ballots, according to Cammarano Campaign Manager Gary Iaccabacci.

"I will never forget the commitment of the people on this campaign when I take the oath of office, but for now let's go downstairs and have a party," Cammarano told his crowd of blue-shirted supporters that spilled over the sidewalk and into Washington Street.

Cammarano stood on the steps below Tiger Shulman's karate studio, flanked by his wife and his running mate, Angel Alicea.

"I had a lot of running mates in this race," said the councilman, acknowledging his original May 12th team, which morphed into him and Alicea joining forces with Vincent Addeo and Raul Morales for the runoff election.

If Dawn Zimmer's narrow 244 vote lead in the Hoboken mayoral race holds, she will become the first woman to win election as mayor in the 168-year history of Hudson County.  The only other woman mayor in Hudson was Marilyn Roman, who served three months as Mayor of Jersey City after Gerald McCann was ousted following his 1992 criminal conviction.

HOBOKEN - Everything just ground to a halt here.

The door to the City Clerk's office is closed as the county pours over fewer than 800 absentee ballots that apparently will decide this runoff election between At-Large Councilman Peter Cammarano and 4th Ward Councilwoman Dawn Zimmer.

Zimmer leads at the moment by 244 votes.

Her council slate of Ravi Bhallla (5,623 votes), Carol Marsh (5,621 votes), and Dave Mello (5,419 votes) has unofficially defeated Cammarano's slate of Vincent Addeo (4,953 votes), Angel Alicea (4,832) and Raul Morales (5,826 votes). 

"Watch your backs," cries a cop on Washington Street to the crowd of Cammarano diehards, including West New York Mayor Sal Vega, that spills off the sidewalk in front of his headquarters on Hoboken's main drag.

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.

A-Large Councilman Peter Cammarano, right, and council candidate Angel Alicea, left.

HOBOKEN - When Dawn Zimmer won her council seat two years ago she did so in the face of a vigorous losing effort by Chris Campos, a "B and R" as they say here (born and raised) who fought out of his solidified 4th Ward base of Hoboken's public housing community.

Running on a ticket with Union City detective Angel Alicea, At-Large Councilman Peter Cammarano has pursued those old Campos voters with a vengeance, promising no layoffs of public workers, for one; and shortly before the polls close here for good it's obvious that Zimmer's amped up effort is on the east side of the ward and on Hudson Street where the young urban professionals tramp back from the financial furnaces of Manhattan.

The competing Cammarano palm card carriers aren't at full strength there.

But back on Jackson Street where the old Latinos crowd around the table under umbrellas and the only sound is the clicking of their dominoes knocking against one another in early evening before the campaign cars scream through the area urging "Cammarano," it's the at-large councilman at full strength and Zimmer playing defense. 

Hoboken this evening.

HOBOKEN - A long day of drama has come down to last minute hand-clutching as the late crowd comes home.

"They've got every union in town mobilized against us, we'd appreciate your vote," says Dave Mello, a teacher in the Bronx going to law school nights, who runs on the Zimmer team.

He has the jacket off and the tie loosened as he practically dives into another off-load from the trains making the trudge up Hudson Street.

As they head toward Mello they pass under a storefront bearing the enormous smiling face of Zimmer's archrival Peter Cammarano.

The story that has everyone involved in either campaign gabbing overtime is the earlier day appearance by nearly 200 would-be campaign volunteers, who showed up at Cammarano headquarters claiming a gmail invitation from the at-large councilman's campaign.