Hoboken Mayoral Candidates’ Forum
07
May
5/7/2009 Update:
Nuggetized Servings of Video Clips
In case you wanted to quickly find candidate responses to specific questions or topics, People for Open Government has once again sliced and diced the entire Mayoral Forum into bite-sized pieces!
http://videos01.hobokenpog.org/2.aspx

SEE PREVIOUS VIDEO UPDATES AFTER THE JUMP…
4/30/2009 Video Recap:
For those who didn’t go to the Mayoral debate at Our Lady of Grace Tuesday night, fear not! Video is now available here on Hoboken411.
If you don’t want to watch the whole event, try reading the recap written by Max Pizarro of PolitickerNJ.com.
The endgame is upon them
with two weeks to go in the Hoboken mayor’s race
“At least one insider poll leaked two months ago showed 2nd Ward Councilwoman Beth Mason ahead in the mayor’s race, and if chalking up the largest number of attacks from two opposing sides signals what kind of a threat she poses, Mason tonight appeared to reconfirm her position as the frontrunner.
Peter Cammarano and Dawn Zimmer both tried to take chunks out of Mason as they suggested she has compromised her reformer brand by constructing a ticket blessed by both state Sen. Brian P. Stack (D-Union City) and 3rd Ward Councilman Michael Russo.
Mason defended her blended ticket experiment as a kind of rainbow coalition, which Zimmer in particular, trying to carry the real reformer banner, couldn’t abide without flashing an incredulous grin.
Cammarano ‘s people don’t worry about the Kids First victory, which infused Zimmer’s campaign with some headlines last week and gave her a bounce coming into tonight’s debate, making her look like something bigger than she is, the councilman maintains.
Read the whole article here – including details of the some of the “zingers” that set the tone for the second half of the debate.
(THANKS TO WETHEPEOPLEREPORTS.COM FOR THE VIDEO!)
4/28/2009 Reminder:
Tonight at 7:30pm at Our Lady of Grace Church (5th & Willow).

4/21/2009 Update:
A couple new ways to watch last week’s council candidates forum at OLG.
- It’s now on Cablevision Channel 78 – in rotation with the previous council meeting, or…
- People for Open Government has sliced and diced (or “slap chopped”) the entire forum into easy to manage bite sized pieces. By question, by candidate, etc. (good work!)
4/16/2009:
Didn’t catch the Hoboken Council At-Large Candidates Forum on Tuesday?
For your viewing pleasure…
(Thanks wethepeoplereports.com!)
4/14/2009 Reminder:
First Public Forum is tonight starting at 7:30pm – featuring the Council at-large candidates.
3/3/2009:
While we won’t know the official final list of candidates running until the filing deadline has passed Candidates can be seen here – the dates and location have been set for the forums in April!

Two candidates’ forums scheduled
Public is Invited to Join in Moderated Q&A with Hoboken City Council At-Large Candidates on April 14, 2009; Hoboken Mayoral Candidates, April 28, 2009
“Hoboken voters will have the opportunity to pose questions and hear directly from the candidates running for the position of mayor as well as those vying for three City Council At-Large seats in the May 5 election.
Two moderated forums will be sponsored by People for Open Government and the Hoboken Quality of Life Coalition, and Our Lady of Grace/St. Joseph Church.
Council Candidates
The first forum will feature candidates for the three At-Large City Council seats on Tuesday, April 14, 2009, from 7:30pm to 9:30pm in the auditorium of the school at Our Lady of Grace, corner of Willow Avenue at Fifth Street.
Mayoral Candidates
The second forum will provide a platform for those vying for the position of mayor. It will take place on Tuesday, April 28, 2009, from 7:30pm to 9:30pm, also in the school auditorium at Our Lady of Grace.”






















May 9th 2009 - 00:03:58 |
caller ID
In response to hobojoe who said:
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May 9th 2009 - 08:23:28 |
In that case just pick up the phone once, say hello and hang up. As with Verizon, Cablevision, or any other similar telemarketer, until their system records a call as completed, it will continue to keep autodialing until it makes it through. Saying ‘hello’ is important to have the call registered as completed.
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May 9th 2009 - 18:01:34 |
Anybody know Cammarano’s position on the No Child Left Behind Act?
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May 10th 2009 - 01:33:29 |
Re 182.: hobojoe is right. Relentless calls stopped, thereafter. At least for now.
Re 183.: That matters because? For any of the candidates because? It was a useless construct when Bush created it.
What are your real concerns about public education peformance criteria? What are your specific concerns about the interface between the next muni administration and the BOE?
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May 10th 2009 - 01:45:01 |
Re 183.-184.: UH-OH. Just got it. 2xDuh!
Funny, yes. But also snarky.
While his damage-control efforts seem to have only made it worse in some ways, I still hold that PC’s adolescent mistakes are past & personal—& not germaine to the current election.
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May 10th 2009 - 09:09:36 |
Youthful error is not what is in question. Oddly, people who say that is irrelevant keep referring to exactly that to dismiss the lack of responsibility and the sniveling desperate attacks on everyone and anyone.
The attacks lashing out blindly at anyone and everyone perfectly illustrates the condescending attitude that has rubber stamped every Dave Roberts budget that brought this town to ruin.
The arrogance of Cammarano is so deep, he’s actually running on the issue of voting for a budget that would further bury Hoboken.
That’s some cold political opportunism: the very belief that voters are so stupid he can say and do anything and they won’t be able to distinguish the truth. That’s what Peter Camarano thinks of people in Hoboken.
That someone/something should get in the way of his political entitlement infuriates him. How dare you/they is his mentality.
In response to Tama Murden who said:
Funny, yes. But also snarky.
While his damage-control efforts seem to have only made it worse in some ways, I still hold that PC’s adolescent mistakes are past & personal—& not germaine to the current election.
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May 10th 2009 - 09:16:24 |
That about sums up most Beth Mason voters. We really appreciated her and then she sold us out. It’s really tough to swallow.
Wasn’t easy to take either. It’s much worse to be betrayed than to be condescended and taken advantage of at every turn by the likes of Roberts/Cammarano/Russo.
This little club is like New Orleans where each of the criminals decides how to share the booty of the crime. They just take turns with who’s on top and gets to pick first.
Enough.
Dawn Zimmer has to fight the machine and money now. Let’s put a shock into the corrupt system while we still have a chance.
In response to davidcdavid64 who said:
The funny thing is that I used to love Beth Mason. I had only the greatest respect for her. I appreciated all she had dome for open government. I liked the fact she sued the city and didn’t give up. Now her choices show that doing these things was clearly a calculated move to move into higher office and see will associate with anyone to be elected mayor. There isn’t a single person on her ticket I’d like to see holding office in Hoboken (in fact it represents everything wrong with hoboken in my view). Well Beth you may win office, you have lost my vote, and you will never again have my respect.
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May 10th 2009 - 17:15:53 |
Smarty-
I am saddened to see you have fallen for the Zimmer campaign rhetoric and not digging deeper to understand what is really going on.
Allow me to present an analogy: when you say that “Mason sold us out” you sound like the people who voted for Bush in 2004 because “Kerry was a flip-flopper.” As we all know now, John Kerry is a thoughtful, intelligent man who makes decisions carefully and rationally, as does Mason. Bush is a shallow clown, who everyone thought was “likable and would listen to people” (the words you used to describe Zimmer), but who failed us miserably.
The reality is simply different: Dawn sold out to the HCDO two years ago. Despite her trying to distance herself from the most corrupt organization in NJ, she openly admits she would take their money in this election too if she makes it to the run-off against Mason. Therefore you cannot possibly say Zimmer is fighting the machine:” she IS the machine.
And I can tell you from watching her at the Council meetings: she even speaks what the machine (i.e., Michael Lenz) signals her to say. A couple of times he even yelled at her at the meeting and she would back down.
Zimmer voted against the Church Towers knowing that no one, not even herself, had an alternative affordable housing plan in place. She was ready to throw out so many needy seniors on the street, while she claims to support affordable housing. She was ready to sacrifice 300+ people for the 20 who are living there legally, but she didn’t approve of.
All she’s doing is pandering to the yuppies. And her ticket reflects that.
Here are some facts:
Beth Mason is the only Mayoral candidate to vote against the $123 million budget that raised taxes 74%
Beth Mason: the only Mayoral candidate to call for an independent forensic audit of city’s finances
Beth Mason: the only Mayoral candidate to oppose developer plans for 1600 Park and fight to have city acquire for park land. Continue to push for and promote accumulation of grant funds for clean-up and development.
Beth Mason: the only Mayoral candidate to found an organization dedicated to open government (POG) and the public’s rights to information and access.
Beth Mason: the only Mayoral candidate to fight for and support Pay-to-Play legislation
Beth Mason: the only Mayoral candidate to sponsor “green building” legislation to ensure all new city buildings are green; passed unanimously by the City Council
Beth Mason: the only Mayoral candidate to fight out-of-scale development in our historic districts; establishing Historic Hudson Street Coalition
Beth Mason: the only Mayoral candidate to testify at State Legislature to protect worker’s right-to-know what chemicals they are working with and retain truck and trains labeling for public safety.
For comparison, here’s Dawn’s list of “accomplishments:”
A bike lane on Madison Street: it took 2 years to get it done and you cannot really use it because of two many double-parked cars. Clearly, Zimmer fails to follow-up.
A one sentence change to the Park Tax resolution, originally introduced by Roberts himself, without a penny collected for the parks for over a year since Zimmer again failed to follow up.
She also claims to have a “flooding solution,” but her idea was discredited by the engineers at Stevens Institute, as I predicted over two years ago (I have an engineering background myself).
Many other useless resolutions, since Zimmer ALWAYS quits too soon and fails to follow up. And that is on top of the huge baggage that comes along with her, namely Marsh, Lenz, Soares and rest of the HCDO.
If you want the machine to run our city, vote for Zimmer and you’ll get your wish. The HCDO was happy to do it with Roberts at the helm and they’ll be just as happy with either Cammarano or Zimmer.
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May 10th 2009 - 23:09:30 |
Jolly, thanks for your well thought out post. The reality is that one has to choose the lesser of the evils and in this specific regard, that’s my conclusion.
Many of us have admired Beth for her stand on the issues and you cite some excellent ones. It was a tough pill to swallow that she’s embraced “the association” that is very entrenched in the town.
I’ve taken opportunities to speak to both Beth and Dawn when chance opportunities presented themselves. I can’t conclude why Beth made this drastic turn as that’s only something she really knows. At the same time she put that guy Addeo on her slate who returned to Hoboken and magically landed up in subsidized housing at Church Towers. That housing is needed for our teachers, firemen and police.
We don’t need additional entrenched subsidized City Council members who are keeping those units from those who are truly deserving.
Not dismissing your conclusions but I think that in the best case scenario, someone who is outside the mechanics has the best chance to shake up the system. For whatever reason, Beth made a conclusion to move away from her core of reform support and take the votes that are part of the machine body politic here in Hoboken.
On the two occasions I ran into Dawn she was down to earth and didn’t press back on criticisms. On the flooding issue, she does seem to have a better approach to fix the job properly one time instead of having it cost more with more work twice. But that’s a different matter.
Looking back to how this country began, it’s really time to open up the system and let someone come from outside and give it a try. Dawn does exhibit some strong ability to listen and not give reflex answers. Hate to say it but when I asked Beth about the Church Towers vote, she wasn’t speaking with me but talking at me about the risk to seniors being thrown out.
No one was looking for that. But not encouraging people to stay in subsidized housing is a different matter and that opportunity was not taken.
Beth certainly has invested a lot into this campaign. And she’s done a good thing helping the Y in her ward. So she deserves a lot of credit. But it appears she is looking past Hoboken already and it appears that she’s taken the shortest route to do so. Her rubber stamp on Church Towers reflects that along with embracing “the association.”
Although I abhor the HCDO and have said as much, I think we have a better chance to fight their influence with their internal fracturing as it exists now.
Having said that, you make some excellent points about Beth’s work. But why the embrace with the elements that have brought us here in the first place then? After we have all suffered so much and the state needing to come in to break up the mafia like secrecy of our government operations, just when we thought we’d finally gotten to the point of toppling the Beast, Beth turned around and rejected those that supported her most.
Last, I don’t subscribe to the class warfare psychology. I have friends who have been here since college (Stevens) and have stayed and made this home. And I don’t see their concerns any different from any other people that care about the town. If 50 plus story buildings start going up around different parts of this town, it’s all over for everybody.
As one police officer said to me a little while back after double duty dealing with the flooding, if everyone flushes their toilet at the same time, this town will be underwater.
If I had my druthers, I’d even go for someone more outside the box like Tom Vincent. Even though his bottom up technology approach isn’t fleshed out, it appealed to me. Looks like Dawn is the best vessel though in this regard IMHO. And her campaign is the closest thing to grass roots as we can hope for at this point.
Sadly, this isn’t all cut and dried. But it didn’t have to be this way. It’s been Beth Mason’s choice to take this radical turn. So now we have to put our chips (and votes) with Dawn.
In response to JollyRoger who said:
I am saddened to see you have fallen for the Zimmer campaign rhetoric and not digging deeper to understand what is really going on.
Allow me to present an analogy: when you say that “Mason sold us out” you sound like the people who voted for Bush in 2004 because “Kerry was a flip-flopper.” As we all know now, John Kerry is a thoughtful, intelligent man who makes decisions carefully and rationally, as does Mason. Bush is a shallow clown, who everyone thought was “likable and would listen to people” (the words you used to describe Zimmer), but who failed us miserably.
The reality is simply different: Dawn sold out to the HCDO two years ago. Despite her trying to distance herself from the most corrupt organization in NJ, she openly admits she would take their money in this election too if she makes it to the run-off against Mason. Therefore you cannot possibly say Zimmer is fighting the machine:” she IS the machine.
And I can tell you from watching her at the Council meetings: she even speaks what the machine (i.e., Michael Lenz) signals her to say. A couple of times he even yelled at her at the meeting and she would back down.
Zimmer voted against the Church Towers knowing that no one, not even herself, had an alternative affordable housing plan in place. She was ready to throw out so many needy seniors on the street, while she claims to support affordable housing. She was ready to sacrifice 300+ people for the 20 who are living there legally, but she didn’t approve of.
All she’s doing is pandering to the yuppies. And her ticket reflects that.
Here are some facts:
Beth Mason is the only Mayoral candidate to vote against the $123 million budget that raised taxes 74%
Beth Mason: the only Mayoral candidate to call for an independent forensic audit of city’s finances
Beth Mason: the only Mayoral candidate to oppose developer plans for 1600 Park and fight to have city acquire for park land. Continue to push for and promote accumulation of grant funds for clean-up and development.
Beth Mason: the only Mayoral candidate to found an organization dedicated to open government (POG) and the public’s rights to information and access.
Beth Mason: the only Mayoral candidate to fight for and support Pay-to-Play legislation
Beth Mason: the only Mayoral candidate to sponsor “green building” legislation to ensure all new city buildings are green; passed unanimously by the City Council
Beth Mason: the only Mayoral candidate to fight out-of-scale development in our historic districts; establishing Historic Hudson Street Coalition
Beth Mason: the only Mayoral candidate to testify at State Legislature to protect worker’s right-to-know what chemicals they are working with and retain truck and trains labeling for public safety.
For comparison, here’s Dawn’s list of “accomplishments:”
A bike lane on Madison Street: it took 2 years to get it done and you cannot really use it because of two many double-parked cars. Clearly, Zimmer fails to follow-up.
A one sentence change to the Park Tax resolution, originally introduced by Roberts himself, without a penny collected for the parks for over a year since Zimmer again failed to follow up.
She also claims to have a “flooding solution,” but her idea was discredited by the engineers at Stevens Institute, as I predicted over two years ago (I have an engineering background myself).
Many other useless resolutions, since Zimmer ALWAYS quits too soon and fails to follow up. And that is on top of the huge baggage that comes along with her, namely Marsh, Lenz, Soares and rest of the HCDO.
If you want the machine to run our city, vote for Zimmer and you’ll get your wish. The HCDO was happy to do it with Roberts at the helm and they’ll be just as happy with either Cammarano or Zimmer.
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May 11th 2009 - 07:42:25 |
Smarty-
Thank you for your detailed comment.
I must say you are still making the same “Bush vs Kerry” failed argument: Beth’s a “flip-flopper,” while I trust “down to Earth” Dawn. I realize that this is how you feel about them, but I prefer to stick to the facts: Beth has accomplished so much more than Zimmer in this town (let alone her better understanding of the government policy) that we should vote for her for that reason alone. And there is no greater fighter for open government in this town than Beth Mason.
As for her ticket, it is clear from Beth’s statement (see video above) that she had studied the issue long and hard, as always, and made the best choice for the good of the community as a whole. In other words, there is no “radical turn:” Beth is simply including people on her ticket who are accomplished (both professionally and in the community), smart, and share the same principles she’s always had: transparency, smart development, fiscal responsibility, open space and so on. Thus there is no reason for you and others to feel so offended by Beth’s choice. The same cannot be said of Zimmer’s ticket.
BTW, Beth even helped Zimmer get elected in 2007. You don’t believe me? Check the Zimmer ELEC report from 2007: one of the largest contributions came from Vote Hoboken, an organization which Beth and Ricky Mason helped fund. Many of Mason supporters contributed heavily to the Zimmer campaign. Yet, “down to Earth” Zimmer arrogantly refused to publicly acknowledge Beth for the received assistance.
A bit more on Dawn’s personality: she ran as a parks person in 2007, but now does not even address a park in her own (and mine) 4th ward and instead talks about the Western redevelopment. Her original “wireless sensor based flooding solution” has been completely discredited as useless for Hoboken. But, instead of acknowledging the mistake, she is now taking credit for the North Hudson Sewage Authority pump plan, even though it was created way back in 2003, long before she even ran for office. While we’re at it: Beth Mason supports the much better SW6 plan for flood mitigation.
In summary, Zimmer is inconsistent in her actions, with no follow-up. She takes credit for the work of others, while refusing to acknowledge her own mistakes. Heck, she even has trouble speaking coherently at the Council meetings: she once openly proclaimed that she didn’t even know “how important the budget was for a city.”
Question: which recent US president does this remind you of? (Hint: middle letter W
)
As for the HCDO, it is impossible to reform it from the inside. The reason is clear if you look into their ELEC reports: most of the HCDO contributors have been big developers and other big businesses. If the HCDO refuses to protect their interests, including the reckless over-development, the big business will take their money someplace else, leaving the HCDO powerless and irrelevant.
The HCDO brought us Roberts and Cammarano. They helped Zimmer in 2007. In turn, Zimmer and Cammarano now know who they owe favors. And it is not us, the citizens of Hoboken.
In response to SmartyJones who said:
Many of us have admired Beth for her stand on the issues and you cite some excellent ones. It was a tough pill to swallow that she’s embraced “the association” that is very entrenched in the town.
I’ve taken opportunities to speak to both Beth and Dawn when chance opportunities presented themselves. I can’t conclude why Beth made this drastic turn as that’s only something she really knows. At the same time she put that guy Addeo on her slate who returned to Hoboken and magically landed up in subsidized housing at Church Towers. That housing is needed for our teachers, firemen and police.
We don’t need additional entrenched subsidized City Council members who are keeping those units from those who are truly deserving.
Not dismissing your conclusions but I think that in the best case scenario, someone who is outside the mechanics has the best chance to shake up the system. For whatever reason, Beth made a conclusion to move away from her core of reform support and take the votes that are part of the machine body politic here in Hoboken.
On the two occasions I ran into Dawn she was down to earth and didn’t press back on criticisms. On the flooding issue, she does seem to have a better approach to fix the job properly one time instead of having it cost more with more work twice. But that’s a different matter.
Looking back to how this country began, it’s really time to open up the system and let someone come from outside and give it a try. Dawn does exhibit some strong ability to listen and not give reflex answers. Hate to say it but when I asked Beth about the Church Towers vote, she wasn’t speaking with me but talking at me about the risk to seniors being thrown out.
No one was looking for that. But not encouraging people to stay in subsidized housing is a different matter and that opportunity was not taken.
Beth certainly has invested a lot into this campaign. And she’s done a good thing helping the Y in her ward. So she deserves a lot of credit. But it appears she is looking past Hoboken already and it appears that she’s taken the shortest route to do so. Her rubber stamp on Church Towers reflects that along with embracing “the association.”
Although I abhor the HCDO and have said as much, I think we have a better chance to fight their influence with their internal fracturing as it exists now.
Having said that, you make some excellent points about Beth’s work. But why the embrace with the elements that have brought us here in the first place then? After we have all suffered so much and the state needing to come in to break up the mafia like secrecy of our government operations, just when we thought we’d finally gotten to the point of toppling the Beast, Beth turned around and rejected those that supported her most.
Last, I don’t subscribe to the class warfare psychology. I have friends who have been here since college (Stevens) and have stayed and made this home. And I don’t see their concerns any different from any other people that care about the town. If 50 plus story buildings start going up around different parts of this town, it’s all over for everybody.
As one police officer said to me a little while back after double duty dealing with the flooding, if everyone flushes their toilet at the same time, this town will be underwater.
If I had my druthers, I’d even go for someone more outside the box like Tom Vincent. Even though his bottom up technology approach isn’t fleshed out, it appealed to me. Looks like Dawn is the best vessel though in this regard IMHO. And her campaign is the closest thing to grass roots as we can hope for at this point.
Sadly, this isn’t all cut and dried. But it didn’t have to be this way. It’s been Beth Mason’s choice to take this radical turn. So now we have to put our chips (and votes) with Dawn.
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May 11th 2009 - 08:49:46 |
JollyRoger, you are an impassioned person with some sound arguments and you dissect things to a level I’ve seen little of so I must commend you for that sheer weight of argument alone. Although we share the same assessment of the HCDO and its ultimate selfish ends and dangers to Hoboken, the same can be said and perhaps more so with the inside baseball that has been played here and to a far more damaging extent since Roberts became more.
Although we may differ on who may be best in this particular race, I think we share largely similar concerns. The cynicism and negativity that has been typically submitted to the pages of our fine host here at Hoboken411 reflects the ongoing power struggle of the status quo that has operated here with rarely an interrupted heartbeat except for the occasionally FBI county arrest. Like the Mob, someone always steps up to fill the shoes and continue “the business.” Naively, and I suffer from this blind spot more than I’d like, the departure of Russo did little to stem the tide of this beast when Roberts took over. In fact, the decay of running this town like an entitlement fiefdom expanded, radically.
Is it unique to Hoboken. Probably not. It’s more systemic to the county and state and isn’t Senator Menendez one of its prize pupils? What’s his relationship with Sen. Kerry I wonder (but I digress).
This town is so incredibly unique and has reached such a great turnaround but yet one doesn’t feel with the political culture that has permeated here so long, a better day is around the corner. Although you’ve been very critical of Dawn Zimmer’s record and ties to the HCDO, the support she has gotten hardly matches the level of your criticism. They have hardly gone “all in” it appears. It would appear on the surface that they are lying more in wait to do so should their prize candidate, the soulless Cammarano get an opportunity to face off with Beth Mason.
Then I think we’d see this town literally littered with flyers all over every street as they go all in.
Dawn is clearly the underdog still operating at the grassroots. That is beneficial in many respects as I’m not sure how much listening Beth Mason would do once she gets the keys to the city.
And I’m just one vote even if America’s most beloved horse.
Thanks for your fine post again. If you are in fact proved right, I’ll be very happy and look forward to calling Hoboken home. Alternatively, if this town becomes enveloped by shadows of 50 story buildings on all sides, it’s goodbye sooner than later.
Life goes on.
In response to JollyRoger who said:
Thank you for your detailed comment.
I must say you are still making the same “Bush vs Kerry” failed argument: Beth’s a “flip-flopper,” while I trust “down to Earth” Dawn. I realize that this is how you feel about them, but I prefer to stick to the facts: Beth has accomplished so much more than Zimmer in this town (let alone her better understanding of the government policy) that we should vote for her for that reason alone. And there is no greater fighter for open government in this town than Beth Mason.
As for her ticket, it is clear from Beth’s statement (see video above) that she had studied the issue long and hard, as always, and made the best choice for the good of the community as a whole. In other words, there is no “radical turn:” Beth is simply including people on her ticket who are accomplished (both professionally and in the community), smart, and share the same principles she’s always had: transparency, smart development, fiscal responsibility, open space and so on. Thus there is no reason for you and others to feel so offended by Beth’s choice. The same cannot be said of Zimmer’s ticket.
BTW, Beth even helped Zimmer get elected in 2007. You don’t believe me? Check the Zimmer ELEC report from 2007: one of the largest contributions came from Vote Hoboken, an organization which Beth and Ricky Mason helped fund. Many of Mason supporters contributed heavily to the Zimmer campaign. Yet, “down to Earth” Zimmer arrogantly refused to publicly acknowledge Beth for the received assistance.
A bit more on Dawn’s personality: she ran as a parks person in 2007, but now does not even address a park in her own (and mine) 4th ward and instead talks about the Western redevelopment. Her original “wireless sensor based flooding solution” has been completely discredited as useless for Hoboken. But, instead of acknowledging the mistake, she is now taking credit for the North Hudson Sewage Authority pump plan, even though it was created way back in 2003, long before she even ran for office. While we’re at it: Beth Mason supports the much better SW6 plan for flood mitigation.
In summary, Zimmer is inconsistent in her actions, with no follow-up. She takes credit for the work of others, while refusing to acknowledge her own mistakes. Heck, she even has trouble speaking coherently at the Council meetings: she once openly proclaimed that she didn’t even know “how important the budget was for a city.”
Question: which recent US president does this remind you of? (Hint: middle letter W
)
As for the HCDO, it is impossible to reform it from the inside. The reason is clear if you look into their ELEC reports: most of the HCDO contributors have been big developers and other big businesses. If the HCDO refuses to protect their interests, including the reckless over-development, the big business will take their money someplace else, leaving the HCDO powerless and irrelevant.
The HCDO brought us Roberts and Cammarano. They helped Zimmer in 2007. In turn, Zimmer and Cammarano now know who they owe favors. And it is not us, the citizens of Hoboken.
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May 11th 2009 - 09:15:50 |
JR,
more = mayor re: Roberts became mayor.
Sorry typing this stuff too fast.
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May 11th 2009 - 09:30:17 |
I’m a lifetime resident, and also a taxpayer and interested party in the quality of life and keeping Hoboken as a great place to live and yet, correct the current financial mess. Cammarano, Mason and Zimmer are all incumbent councilpersons…they are the leaders for the position of Mayor. Pick the one that you think has the best stuff to do the job. I have made up my mind…and hopefully, you have and will vote tomorrow. I know who the smart choice is.
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May 11th 2009 - 09:41:46 |
This is really tough
Cammarano= more Mayor Quimby
Mason = alignment with the Russo regime
Zimmer seems to be a puppet from what i can gather.
Would going independent really just give votes to Mason?
I freely admit that i do not have that much knowledge on these candidates. It’s a lot of info to process and understand.
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