Cammarano Machine Takes One on the Chin

As of 5:30 am on Wednesday neither Dawn Zimmer nor Peter Cammarano has conceded in the Hoboken's mayoral election. according to the Associated Press.

Councilwoman Zimmer surpassed all expectations by winning at the polls (with a slim margin of more than 200 votes), but Councilman Cammarano edged ahead by 67 votes after absentee ballots were counted. Several dozen "provisional ballots" still need to be added to the mix.

Provisionals were cast after a voter's qualifications were challenged at a voting station. Both campaigns had monitors at stations throughout the city Tuesday, and I witnessed a voter challenge by a Zimmer monitor shortly after polls opened.

City Clerk Jimmy Farina told the AP that the candidates will head to court Wednesday to determine the provisional count.

Elsewhere the machine took a beating. Zimmer's slate of City Council-at-large candidates -- Ravi Bhalla, Dave Mello and Carol Marsh -- handily defeated Cammarano's crony line up, solidifying a progressive voting block on the council, and making it increasingly difficult for the patronage system to gain control of city spending.

While final results aren't in it's clear that Tuesday's vote was a significant victory in the long-term fight to reform local politics. The machine is breaking down in Hoboken. With more and better organizing of citizens, it may soon fade toward irrelevance.

Grassroots v. Machine

The machine was in full swing today as many of the city's police and fire department personnel took time off from protecting and serving to pass out glossies of Peter Cammarano.

Some donned blue (the Cammarano campaign T-shirt that is) while others had their Hoboken Police and Fire Department baseball caps, decals and shirts on show.

It's a formidable force for the campaign, though some officers didn't do their candidate well by loitering around ferry terminals and NJTransit bus stops in packs of five or six.

Let me paint the scene: four to five guys standing around shooting the bull; one guy actually working to hand out campaign material.

Does that inspire you to vote Cammarano on Tuesday?

For me it offered up a glimpse into the bloated future of a Cammarano administration. As local resident Oanh Nguyen pointed out in her own flier to citizens:

"Cammarano says that he will work towards lowering taxes, but I do not understand how that will happen if in his history as councilman, he has not done much that has helped the City save money."

Nguyen, who like me is getting involved in local Hoboken politics for the first time, has done so by passing out fliers to her neighbors (She slid one under the door of my apartment this evening).

"I am concerned that Peter Cammarano and his machine may fool people into voting for him," she wrote. "And a vote for him is a vote to continue the same old politics as in the past."

I wish I had a link or pdf file to share you the whole of Nguyen's handout. She makes a sincere case for voting down the machine, one that's far more convincing than the blue Cammarano guys hanging out at the bus stop.

Others should follow Nguyen's example, pick up their phones, call five friends and urge them to vote. Nguyen inspired me to do more. Now it's your turn.

Break the Machine ... and make Hoboken better

I’m spending my Sunday sharing information with neighbors about the upcoming election. I have printed 500 fliers and will be handing them out in key areas around the city.

I encourage HobokenLocal readers to do the same (Follow this link for a pdf of the flier which you should feel free to use). Then follow me on Twitter to join the discussion.

Canvassing is a proud American tradition that dates back to Thomas Paine and the 18th century pamphleteers. Imagine what Paine could have done with access to the Internet!

Here’s the copy of my flier:

Who Am I?

I am a non-aligned Hoboken resident who has devoted this day to do what I can to improve life in our community.

I supported Barack Obama in 2008, but this is the first time I have become involved in local politics.

It cost me about $12 to print 500 of these fliers, and a day away from family to pass them out to people like you. In exchange I ask you to take five minutes today to read this, and additional time on Tuesday to Vote.

If you want, you can do more. Please print out a stack of these fliers (or craft your own) and hand them to the people in your neighborhood. And then tell me about it!

Why Do I Care?

On June 9, Hoboken faces an important choice. We can choose candidates who represent a break from the patronage system that is sucking our city dry. Or we can elect the status quo by voting for Peter Cammarano and his crony slate.

Cammarano presents himself as a force for “real change,” but don't believe it. His political pedigree is a textbook case of the machine in action. He has ascended by seeking favor from behind-the-scene power brokers – including property developers, real estate and insurance companies, career politicians, and city employee unions.

This is not speculation. It is written into the financial reporting required of all candidates. It is also reflected in the back-slapping endorsements that Cammarano has received -- all people who expect a return on favors if he is elected.

Patronage machines use these types of insider networks to hold our democratic process captive. Over time, the machine breaks faith with the public and seeks only to serve itself. Hoboken's political machine has elected nearly every mayor over the past 75 years. Look what it has gotten us:

• A crony entitlement system where 80% of the operating budget pays for personnel costs -- at salary levels far out of proportion with other U.S. cities.
• Fiscal mismanagement so severe that in 2008 the state had to step in to take over the city’s budgeting.
• Lack of transparency in decision making and governance that has spawned dozens of law suits against the city.
• Short-sighted urban planning, which favors extravagant "luxury" developments that inject short-term cash into a corrupt system, over any longer-term vision for a better city.
• Neglect of infrastructure that has darkened our drinking water, flooded our basements and streets, and short-circuited our electrical grid.

Hoboken simply cannot afford more of the same. We Cannot Afford Peter Cammarano.

We can break the machine and build a better Hoboken by voting on Tuesday, June 9. It doesn’t matter if you were born in Hoboken or are a recent arrival. All votes count the same. Please choose wisely.

Cammarano Supporter Channels Dick Cheney

Here's one Peter Cammarano operative in action via Twitter:

If Michael Stefano's rhetoric sounds an echo, there's good reason. Former Vice President Dick Cheney has deployed similar scare tactics against the Obama administration.

Cheney recently took to the air on CNN's "State of the Union" to claim that Obama's policies have made Americans less safe:

President Obama campaigned against [Bush security policies] all across the country. And now he is making some choices that, in my mind, will, in fact, raise the risk to the American people.

Admittedly the circumstances are different, but the tactics the same. The politics of fear can be an effective tool if not called out for what they really are.

Opening the Thread

We hit the trifecta for gay marriage with strong statements of support from mayoral candidates Peter Cammarano, Dawn Zimmer and Governor Jon Corzine

That's the good news. Here's the bad.

Cammarano's efforts to keep his machine's dirty tricks at arms length are coming across as shrill and disingenuous.

Cammarano knows that the 527s behind the smear-mail are part of the same machinations now propping up his campaign. These practices are standard operating procedure among more ethically-challenged campaign apparatchik.

If Cammarano wanted to put integrity behind his rhetoric of reform, he'd start by being transparent and forthright about his ties to entrenched special interests in local real estate development, old-boy politics, and insurance brokerage. These lobbies have coddled the candidate, placing his run for mayor at odds with the actions needed to advance real change for Hoboken.

Meanwhile Keith Carbone, the machine operative allegedly behind the attack mailers from the Astroturf group "Building America Committee," has dropped from the radar.

Friend me Keith, please.