Peter Cammarano

Magazzu now hiding behind an attorney connected to disgraced former Hoboken Mayor

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."

Two days after then-Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano was arrested on corruption charges, Jay Lassiter, a South Jersey political activist, publicly dropped him from his Facebook friends.

"Please don't re-friend me until after you've resigned," Lassiter wrote on Cammarano's wall on July 25 - a message visible to hundreds of the disgraced mayor's Facebook friends. It was supposed to be one of those "who's coming with me?" moments. 

"It didn't go over like I thought it would.  I thought I was going to lead the parade," said Lassiter.  "I actually got snarky notes by Cammarano supporters telling me what a worthless South Jersey piece of (expletive) I was."

Outside of cyberspace, Cammarano, 32, saw his political career come to an abrupt end and his associations evaporate after he was arrested for allegedly taking bribes from an FBI informant posing as a developer. 

But that obligatory public distancing did not extend to Facebook, where many politicians, insiders and media types (including this reporter) remain Cammarano's "friends" - if only out of morbid curiosity over whether he'll update his profile or out of neglect in pruning their own profiles.  

Many politicians have embraced social networking technology, but, as the July 23 corruption sting demonstrates, there is no standard for online etiquette when your online friend has been arrested.  Some politicians (or the staffers who administrate their profiles) do "defriend" ethically troubled Facebook associates, while the thought doesn't cross others' minds.  

Senate President Richard Codey (D-Roseland) is still Facebook friends with Cammarano.

"I think he's suffered enough," said Codey, who added that he tries to be humorous and non-political on his profile.  "I try to be different, as you know if you ever read any of the things I put on there.  I try not to be political, and do different things to get a chuckle sometimes, lighten up somebody's day."

Assemblywoman Alison Littell McHose (R-Franklin Twp) remains Facebook friends with Cammarano, and with former Assemblyman Lou Manzo (D-Jersey City), who was arrested in the same sting.

"I didn't defriend either one of them. That wasn't something I consciously thought about doing," said McHose, who has 1,233 friends.  "I was curious to see whether it would be a means for them to reach out to supporters."

Beth Mason launched her campaign for Mayor of Hoboken last night standing in front of signage that proclaims "Real Reform. Lower Taxes."  That's a similar slogan Peter Cammarano used earlier this year -- "Lower Taxes. Real Change." when he defeated Mason in the Hoboken mayoral race.  Cammarano was arrested a few weeks after taking office for taking bribes and resigned after just one month on the job.

The "Lower Taxes. Real Change." plan was also used in November 2008 when Mark Smith was elected Mayor of Bayonne.  Mason, Cammarano and Smith used veteran Democratic messagemeister Paul Swibinski as their consultant.

Photo courtesy of Paul Swibinski

2nd Ward Councilwoman Beth Mason at her kickoff tonight with daughters Shipley and Virginia.

Updated 

HOBOKEN - Those exhausted by head-to-head Hoboken politics will have to gut out yet another round in the aftermath of Mayor Peter Cammarano's late July fall down, which cleared the way for now-Acting Mayor Dawn Zimmer and 2nd Ward Councilwoman Beth Mason to recharge, reset and redo.

Zimmer hopes the result of an encounter with Mason will be the same as last time, when she quickened the Mason campaign's May meltdown and earned a berth in the runoff with Cammarano, which she lost by fewer than 200 votes.

Cammarano subsequently exited, resigning the mayor's office amid federal bribery charges - and now Mason's back, arguing that she has the best professional profile and public record to deliver a real era of reform to Hoboken - and a plan to win this time.

She formally kicked off her campaign tonight at the Brass Rail, chastising Zimmer for losing her way in the thicket of City Hall.   

Hoboken 2nd Ward Councilwoman Beth Mason will officially announce her candidacy for mayor at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 15, according to a statement issued by Mason spokesman Paul Swibinski.

Mason's family, friends, supporters, business associates and fellow activists will be present as she formally enters the race at the Brass Rail, Swibinski said.

Mason is challenging Acting Mayor Dawn Zimmer, who took over in mid-summer when Mayor Peter Cammarno resigned amid federal charges of corruption.

2nd Ward Councilwoman Beth Mason

Rematch. Hoboken.

It looks real right now as 2nd Ward Councilwoman Beth Mason picked up petitions to run for mayor, opened a campaign account, is assemblying a team and filing with the state Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC).

"Over the past few weeks, I have heard from family and friends from all corners of Hoboken asking about my future plans," Mason said in a statement. "Many have urged me to run for Mayor in the Special Election in November.

"She will make a final announcement next week," said spokesman Paul Swibinski.

Mason is looking to challange Acting Mayor Dawn Zimmer, who assumed the oath of office on the day Peter Cammarano issued a statement of resignation following his indictment on federal corruption charges.

Wayne DeAngelo Must Return Tained New Frontier PAC Cash

Peter Cammarano, elected Mayor of Hoboken in June by a narrow margin and gone in July after federal prosecutors arrested him for taking bribes, seemed to believe that he was on his way to political stardom.  While still a candidate for Mayor, Cammarano appeared to be planning a bid for the Democratic nomination for Governor.  The events that led to the resignation late last night of Burlington County Democratic Chairman Rick Perr were tied to Cammarano's empire building strategy.  Perr, it seems, was to be Cammarano's man in South Jersey. 

Just a week before Cammarano was arrested, he had a lunch meeting with a group of about a dozen young Democrats from different parts of the state to talk about his statewide prospects.  Perr was there.  Perr even sent out an e-mail to Democratic donors talking up Cammarano and seeking contributions to his campaign.  He did this while Republicans were outspending Democrats in Evesham by a 4-1 margin as they won back control in the May elections - a move that truly annoyed some key South Jersey Democrats.

Perr had personal political ambitions too.  He aggressively lobbied party leaders to win the Democratic nomination for Congress last year when it appeared that Rob Andrews (D-Haddon Heights) would not return to the House.  Sources say that in a Global Strategy poll paid for by the Burlington Democratic organization, Perr tested himself as a potential candidate for State Senator in District 8, where the conventional wisdom is that Philip Haines (R-Springfield) will resign later this year to become a Superior Court Judge.  The poll showed that Perr had little name ID and that the leading Republican candidate, former Medford Mayor Christopher Myers, was beating him by a huge margin.  Sources say that Perr ally Jeff Meyer, a lobbyist who quit as party Treasurer because of his ties to a PAC that was helping Cammarano, was himself eyeing a run for State Senate against Diane Allen (R-Edgewater Park) in two years.

Democratic political consultant Paul Swibinski with U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-Cliffside Park)

Veteran Democratic strategist Paul Swibinksi spent several hours this week in a conference with Beth Mason laying out a plan for her to win a November special election for Mayor of Hoboken against the new incumbent, Dawn Zimmer.    Swibinksi, who was the consultant on the recent mayoral campaign of Peter Cammarano, who beat Mason in the May election and Zimmer in the runoff, thinks Mason can win - if she hires him.  Mason has not hired a consultant yet in a race to replace Cammarano, who resigned last week after nearly a month in office.