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Hoboken Democrats Pick New Chair
10
June
6/10/2008:
Hate local inside baseball political stuff? Then skip this post.
Since the results of last week’s primary elections a small number of Hoboken residents have been involved in a whirlwind of political wheeling and dealing to decide the fate of Hoboken’s nearly broke Democratic party organization. Each district within each ward elects members of the county Democratic committee for one-year terms, who then meet to choose officers at a citywide level.
Roberts goes, then Fitzgibbons
Last year Mayor David Roberts stepped down from the chairman’s seat in the middle of an election season where everyone had their political guns drawn on him. Then Freeholder Maurice Fitzgibbons resumed the role and tried to broker peace between the many factions who secured seats on the committee. When all was said and done there was no peace, alliances flipped and flopped, and Fitzgibbons not only lost the chairmanship, but his freeholder seat as well. That’s how crazy things are with the infighting Democrats in this town.
Who’s in charge here? Does anybody care?
Two years ago Dave Roberts and Bernie Kenny had full control of the party and it’s purse strings, which were little more than an arm of the infamous Hudson County Democratic Organization. As Roberts and Kenny fell from power, so to did the Hoboken Democratic Party. Last night only about half the committee showed up for the reorganization, which was negotiated by faction leadership in advance. Some expected committeepeople connected with Mike Russo to take key positions, but in the end the HCDO maintains it’s hold on the HDP. Here are the new officers:
Chairman: Jeff Barnes (Ward 6, District 6)
Vice Chair: Anne Graham (5-6)
1st Vice Chair: Phil Cohen (5-3)
Treasurer: Ernie Marmer (5-1)
Secretary: Maritza Emanuelli (1-3)
Sgt at Arms: Brian Assadourian (5-5)
So who is Jeff Barnes?
Barnes is an enthusiastic supporter of Barack Obama who was placed on the Planning Board by Mayor David Roberts at the suggestion of Councilman-at-Large Peter Cammarano. Barnes was a compromise candidate designed to put a fresh young face on the Hoboken arm of the HCDO. The second most important position (assuming the HDP ever raises any money) is treasurer, which went to Ernie Marmer. Now, if you heard the rumor that Marmer is planning on moving out of town, you aren’t alone, though Marmer angrily denies he is going anywhere.
The winner: Peter Cammarano
You read that right. The makeup of the new board of the HDP resurrects Cammarano’s bid for Mayor. Barnes, like Fitzgibbons before him, is seen as likely to promote Cammarano as the man to inherit the combined HCDO/DFHC money and support for Mayor now that it seems obvious Dave Roberts has a better chance of getting elected President than Mayor. The machine has money invested in Cammarano, and if the right people make their deals to support him he could very likely become the HCDO’s choice to replace Roberts.
Of course, anything and everything can change between now and the day candidate petitions are due next spring. In the meantime, that’s an update on Hoboken’s latest political intrigue.
Got more inside info? Thoughts on Cammarano? Post it in the comments section.
June 11th 2008 - 12:14:37 |
tubes wrote:
Not just local! How the hell do you think we got 8 years of Bush? Because people said he seemed like the kinda guy they wanted to have a beer with. I think that’s pretty silly.
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June 11th 2008 - 12:42:46 |
he cut taxes, something no democrat will do.
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June 11th 2008 - 12:49:09 |
strand tramp wrote:
It’s funny that the Democrats’ favorite President was J. F. Kennedy – whose policy was anything but of the Democratic Party’s. JFK cut taxes to stimulate the economy, brought us into a long war to confront a global threat (Domino Theory – communists attacking South Vietnam) in which other countries were supplying them weapons and training in a proxy war with the U.S., he championed Civil Rights which the Republicans from the Industrial North brought down to the Solid South to change the Dixiecrat Democrats’ minds about equality, and he stood up to the global threat of the U.S.S.R. who intended to turn the world into a communist planet.
Damn, who else does that sound like.
Nonetheless, that’s their favorite guy. Nothing of the traditional tax and spend D.
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June 11th 2008 - 13:02:54 |
HHoney wrote:
Not intentional at at all. HDP’s financial activities tailed off significantly during 2007, particularly during the second half of the year, but not until after $1500 was spent on a fundraiser on April 11 for the mayor’s BOE slate (Garcia, Kearns, Defalco) and $4500 was moved to the 2009 election fund of Terry Labruno on May 23, effectively emptying the HDP’s account.
As usual, there were other disbursements for election workers and advertisements that were not attributed to any specific candidate(s) as they are required to by ELEC. As with many expenses in other years, I give the HDP the benefit of the doubt. Amounts spent on Russo/Roberts were probably higher, if anything.
But yes, HHoney, you are correct that the HDP stayed out of non-partisan activities for a little while in 2007. The HDP did nothing at all for the latter half of 2007. It was not my intent to mislead, only to compare disbursements made to partisan and non-partisan races while the HDP was still functioning as an active participant in local elections.
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June 11th 2008 - 13:05:27 |
i find the democrats puzzling. as you point out they don’t seem to have anything in common with their favorite son. they support people like clinton, pelosi, and reid who are little more than shills for the lawyers and unions. and while both parties are subject to the needs of interest groups, how could the tort lawyers and unions be appealing to anyone? and this preoccupation with redistributing wealth rather than creating more wealth is so socialistic that i can’t fathom how ANY Americans find it attractive? you folks need to get to know mr george soros and then decide if he’s someone you want running things around here because he is the MAIN money behind today’s democratic party and he is really f’d up.
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June 11th 2008 - 14:17:24 |
estevens wrote:
That’s more like the E I quietly lust after. I get that with the cynicism that it inherent to anyone who pays attention to politics in this town, that a full-year is equal to only “a little while”. As to “The HDP did nothing at all for the latter half of 2007,” I believe you are only referring to contributions to political campaigns and not the two voter registration drives, get out the vote effort in November and reinstating the holiday party – all the party building activities that they are supposed to be doing but floundered under previous chairs.
Here’s a thought: as all experts in change management can tell you, real, sustainable change results from a consistent application of “carrots” and “sticks”. If we want people to do the right behaviors, then can we remember to award them “carrots” so they’ll do it again and again? By only using “sticks” for behavior modification people feel like they can’t ever win or ever do or be good enough. Does anyone win if all we do is beat people into the ground? Just a thought.
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June 11th 2008 - 15:05:19 |
estevens wrote:
Nice to see Mayor Quimby using HDP $ to support Garcia, Kearns, Defalco in behind the scene way and not thorugh his own personal election account. This is a perfect example of why this faucet of free campaign money for our incompentent leaders needs to be turned off or at least had a high power flashlight shine into the deepest and darkest corners of the back rooms to watch the roaches run.
I wonder Roberts paid for the racial bating fliers that went out on behalf of but not to the knowledge of (wink, wink) of the candidates. Why would Terry Labruno get $4500? Her mayoral campaign, puuuhhlllllease! Maybe that was to funnel more money to another campaign….not that she has ever done that before (wink, wink).
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June 11th 2008 - 15:36:02 |
we would all win if dave roberts was beat into the ground.
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June 11th 2008 - 16:18:40 |
katie scarlet hits the nail on the head with those last posts.
If mason wants to win she needs people like me and katie to spend our weekends next spring registering voters and knocking on doors.
Right now that’s not going to happen.
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June 11th 2008 - 21:35:16 |
strand tramp wrote:
The country is bankrupt. Thanks to President Gump.
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June 11th 2008 - 22:08:01 |
estevens wrote:
Whoa! Now this is news to anyone who received the flyer from Romano that called him the “official” candidate of the Hoboken Democratic Party. OK, so he lied, but no one from the HDP called him on it. And what about this list? Did Pupie and Ines know about this list? Did they meet with Brian Stack or anyone from the Democratic party? And when did she attack the Democratic party? I don’t mean the HCDO.
and strand in #42, Bush is good because he cut taxes? Cm’on he also increased the deficit by a gazillion dollars! That’s like saying Roberts is good because he kept Hoboken taxes “stable” (until this quarter).
I think my favorite Democratic president was FDR, not JFK. And my favorite Republican president was Bill Clinton.
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June 11th 2008 - 22:09:16 |
sorry, I deleted the wrong brackets in the above post. The quote is from HHoney, not estevens.
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