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.

Hoboken Council President Dawn Zimmer would become acting mayor in the event that Mayor Peter Cammarano resigns, and it does not appear, at least for the moment, that anyone's big enough to threaten her in the special election. 

Gov. Jon Corzine today said Cammarano will be gone tomorrow, but no one's yet heard that publicly from Cammarano.

If he steps down prior to Sept. 4th, the mile-square-city will hold a special on Nov. 3rd, the same day as the gubernatorial contest between Corzine and Republican challenger Chris Christie.

Most people assume Zimmer will run for mayor.

She was the top vote-getter in the May election, and in the runoff beat Cammarano on the machines only to lose by 161 votes after the Board of Elections factored in absentee ballots. Her supporters will be more revved up than ever with a sense of righteousness. Cammarano was already an opponent. Now, charged with allegedly taking cash bribes, he departs as an outright villain.

The defense attorney for Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano in a telephone conversation this afternoon with PolitickerNJ.com would not confirm that his client intends to resign tomorrow.

But he did say Cammarano is finding it hard to govern a week after the U.S. Attorney's Office charged him with taking cash bribes and is "seriously weighing" resigning.

"He'll make a final decision tomorrow and any press conference would, of course, depend on that decision," said veteran criminal lawyer Joe Hayden.

Last Friday, Cammarano vowed to stay in office.

The next day, protesters showed up at his house, and on Monday evening, they descended on City Hall.

Senate Republican Leader Tom Kean called on Governor Corzine to order an immediate meeting of the state's Local Finance Board. The board should consider exercising emergency control of cities in turmoil because their mayors and other key officials haven't stepped down after their arrests on corruption charges.

HOBOKEN - A self described "true believer" during Peter Cammarano's run for mayor, who stood with the candidate in front of City Hall to defend him against deadbeat dad charges, today at noon left the mayor's transition team.

"I wish him the best possible outcome," said Jason Maurer, a young veteran of Wall Street who worked hard to get Cammarano elected, particularly among younger voters. 

"We got into this to help deliver better government, but I don't know how this group can continue given the events of the past week," he told PolitickerNJ.com.

In office for less than a month, Mayor Cammarano was charged in federal court on Thursday with taking $25,000 in cash bribes.

"After today, a substantial amount of the transition team leadership will have stepped down." added Maurer, who described the shoulder-to-shoulder impassioned support for Cammarano during the then-candidate's run as "a haunting image."

For Immediate Release;
Contact: Andrew Bloschak(201)-705-2257July 26, 2009 Grandfathered Quadruple-Dipper Caputo Remains Silent on Money Laundering ScandalBelleville-Assembly candidate Andrew Bloschak is asking his opponent Assemblyman and Freeholder Ralph Caputo why he has remained silent on the massive corruption scandal that has destroyed the fabric of New Jersey politics over the last week. Bloschak invited Caputo to join him in condemning corrupt officials in both parties on Thursday, but so far the back-bench legislator is nowhere to be found.

Political operative Tony Soares, who backed Dawn Zimmer in the 2009 mayoral election, wrote a letter to city transition team organizer Michael Novak today, saying he couldn't help as long as Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano remains in office. 

"While I accepted the offer to help Hoboken (despite my continued support of Zimmer) where I could, I never expected Cammarano to bring this black mark on our city," Soares wrote of a mayor now in office 23 days, who on Thursday was charged with accepting cash bribes from a confidential witness posing as a developer.

"Peter must resign," Soares wrote. 

"Thanks again. I know you are an upstanding man and I respect your hard work," he added, in a nod to Novak, a buisnessman who ran unsuccessfully for council this year on Cammarano's slate. "However, I simply cannot trust an administration led by an official who by his own words was selling our city out and threatening to crush folks like me 'into powder'."

Councilwoman Beth Mason

Second Ward Councilwoman Beth Mason on Friday called for the resignation of Mayor Peter Cammarano, who on Thursday was charged in federal court with extortion.

In a brief statement before the cameras at City Hall yesterday morning, Cammarano said he has no intention of resigning, and looks forward to overcoming the "baseless" allegations detailed in the feds' criminal complaint.

Mason just wants him to go.  

"Like many residents I am shocked by the allegations leveled against Mayor Cammarano," said Mason. "As someone who has always advocated for open, inclusive and transparent government, I believe it is in the best interests of the people of Hoboken for Mayor Cammarano to resign his office immediately. While Mayor Cammarano is entitled to his day in court, his refusal to step down is both disturbing and arrogant.

As they headed into the teeth of their head-to-head June contest, then-Councilwoman Dawn Zimmer wanted to know why At-Large Councilman Peter Cammarano hadn't reported his campaign contributions to the state Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC).

Every call PolitickerNJ.com placed to Zimmer or to her campaign resulted in the councilwoman's repeated question about why Cammarano hadn't met the deadline.

In the 11th hour, on election day, June 9th, in point of fact, the Cammarano campaign released to the local press a list of campaign contributors and accounting of its finances, but these contributors were not listed on the ELEC website prior to the election.

The complaint filed by the U.S. Attorney's Office today against Cammarano reveals a mayoral candidate in the throes of a competitive May 12th mayoral campaign, intent on exchanging promises of expediting development projects to a federal cooperating witness for cash - $5,000 before the election and $5,000 after; the second payment to come in time for the runoff with Zimmer.

When he allegedly accepted $5,000 in cash for his campaign, then-Hoboken mayoral candidate Peter Cammarano told a cooperating witness, "In this election, we are breaking the world into three categories at that point (in the event he won).

"There's the people who were with us, and that's you guys. There's the people who climbed on board in the runoff. They can get in line. And then there are the peole who were against us the whole way. They get ground ...they get ground into powder."

One of those people opposing the man who ultimately won that runoff election in early June and became mayor was 2nd Ward Councilwoman Beth Mason, whom Cammarano defeated in the May non-partisan contest to force his later runoff with Counciolwoman Dawn Zimmer.

"Right now I'm sad," said Mason. "I'm sad for Hoboken. I'm sad the city is going through another situation like this. I've been fighting pay-to-play and advocating open government for years. I've seen it across the state. This is an issue I felt so strongly about that I ran for office and put forth legislation to make the process more open and transparent."