Tuesday was election day in Hoboken and the streets were full of campaign workers wearing T-shirts, holding signs and handing out fliers in support of one of the six people running for mayor.
Some of these campaigners are volunteers; others are paid to do this work. Hudson County's Democratic Party machine has a long and sordid history of paying people to vote for its chosen candidate. After being exposed for this illegal practice the machine instead began hiring legions of people to canvas the city on election day... and it delivers these workers to the polls, too.
While the Hudson County party establishment can now claim it's paying people for their day of work and not for their vote, the net effect is often the same. In mid-term, low-turnout elections this tactic often generates enough votes to tip the election to the machine's favor.
In this year's mayoral election the establishment's chosen candidate was Anthony Romano, which should have been evident to anyone who walked our city streets on Tuesday. Romano campaigners were clustered at intersections within a block or two of polling stations. Others were being carted from one location to the next by a fleet of minivans and SUVs.
For two weeks prior to Tuesday's vote, Romano and friends hired video trucks to cruise the city and blast messages from the mayoral wannabe to anyone unfortunate to be within earshot. "Romano continues to fight for the integrity of Hoboken," one mobile video claimed at top volume, as imagery urged a vote for Hudson County party boss Brian Stack. But such ham-fisted politics failed to deliver. Romano came in fourth; Hoboken voters sent their own message to Hudson County's old guard: You no longer get to pick winners in our city.
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