two articles of interest on the political situation in hudson county and the rise and fall of peter cammarano.


The Rise and Fall of Peter Cammarano
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By Max Pizarro
July 28, 2009 | 8:33 p.m

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When Peter Cammarano III wanted to kick off his campaign to become the mayor of Hoboken, the 32-year-old chose the Frozen Monkey, a hip salad-and-wrap joint here, for his venue.

It flaunted the young professional?s credibility with the other young professionals who have flocked to this city since the real estate got hot.

But Mr. Cammarano was careful to stay on message from the beginning: This city is deeply divided, after all. The born-and-raised are one faction, resistant to the change wrought by the influx of wealthy Manhattan commuters, which in their view had quickly and purely by dint of money become a powerful force in the city. To cobble together a coalition big enough to win, Mr. Cammarano knew, he would have to appeal to both.

He succeeded, barely edging out an opponent in a June 10 runoff election. And 22 days later, he is facing charges of accepting cash bribes, his scarcely begun political career in tatters.

Mr. Cammarano wasn?t a Hoboken native, but as an at-large councilman, he?d forged good relations with the Latino community and the poor. He was a friend of the police and firefighters and promised not to cut city employees from the payroll. It didn?t hurt to be an Italian-American in a town where some of the born-and-raised proudly display pictures of themselves mugging with prominent Hoboken native Frank Sinatra.

?I never wanted to be identified with one side or the other,? Mr. Cammarano said at his home in the lead-up to his run for mayor. ?I?m not a born-and-raised guy, and I?m not a reformer. I?m not a revolutionary or reactionary.?

By the time he reached the June 10 runoff, Mr. Cammarano was optimistic that his base would come through. His problem is that he was offering his political analysis to an F.B.I. informant wearing a wire and offering him a bribe.

?Right now, the Italians, the Hispanics, the seniors are locked down,? he told the informant, according to documents in a criminal complaint filed by the U.S. attorney?s office. ?Nothing can change that now. I could be, uh, indicted, and I?m still gonna win 85 to 95 percent of those populations.?

It might have seemed that way at one point.

What struck observers as Mr. Cammarano built his organization and remained competitive with two candidates running on reform platforms?Second Ward Councilwoman Beth Mason and Fourth Ward Councilwoman Dawn Zimmer?was the loyalty he inspired in his supporters.

When a story circulated on the Internet describing an alleged love child being raised elsewhere, just a week before Election Day, the councilman was able to round up an impressive phalanx of soldiers to join him on the sidewalk in front of City Hall to denounce dirty campaigning.

New Hoboken was there.

?Peter gives us the best chance to move forward,? said Jason Maurer, a young professional and former Wall Streeter who stood with Mr. Cammarano, and who said the story wasn?t relevant to his candidate?s run. But remarkable, too, was the turnout of Old Hoboken: Former fire chief and onetime longshoreman Richard Tremitiedi appeared visibly pained as he watched Mr. Cammarano answer the charge; he himself had run for the Second Ward Council seat two years before, on a ticket representing Old Hoboken against the influx of new money. He?d described his opponent, Ms. Mason, a financial consultant, as a local amalgam of ?Corzine-Bloomberg.?

Now, Mr. Cammarano was facing off against Ms. Mason--an expensive proposition. Feds say Mr. Cammarano was accepting cash payments in $5,000 increments from a man he thought was a developer looking for a pay-to-play connection in Hoboken.

On July 25, protestors--a mix of Old and New Hoboken--appeared in front of his brownstone. One of their signs read, ?Powder to the People,? a reference to that now-notorious campaign boast. The young champion had united Hoboken again, in wanting to see the back of him.



Hudson County Confidential
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By Matt Friedman
July 28, 2009 | 8:38 p.m

Corzine.
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When political operative Joe Cardwell walked past the television cameras and into F.B.I. headquarters in Newark early on the morning of July 23, New Jersey Democrats could almost see the thousands of Democratic votes following him into oblivion.

Mr. Cardwell holds sway over Ward F of the city, by far the largest municipality in Hudson County and a ward that New Jersey Democrats depend upon, because of its large black voting bloc, to turn out their base in a big way every election day.

Coverage of the immediate impact of Thursday?s corruption busts on the state?s competitive upcoming gubernatorial race focused on the public?s perception of the two candidates in the wake of the scandal: Would Governor Jon Corzine, already trailing badly in the polls, be seen as weak on ethics and reform compared to his opponent, Chris Christie, a former U.S. attorney who built his campaign on a record of putting 130 politicians in federal prison? Would Mr. Corzine?s recent ad campaign accusing Mr. Christie of doling out no-bid federal monitoring contracts to friends, allies and former bosses seem suddenly irrelevant?

Things being what they are in New Jersey, though, insiders knew it hardly mattered: The real problem for Mr. Corzine is practical, not perceptual, and it?s in Hudson County.

?The corruption thing will fade from voters? memories very quickly,? said Patrick Murray, a pollster and political science professor at Monmouth University. ?Where it?s going to play out is among the party operatives who either want to keep their heads low because the feds are looking at them, or are not happy with the way Governor Corzine has handled this.?

?If you have 10 operatives who for whatever reason can?t do their jobs on Election Day, that can cost Corzine 30,000 votes?not because the voters care about corruption, but because nobody knocked on their doors,? said Mr. Murray.

Mr. Corzine?s problems in Hudson County were bad enough already: His support from two important northern Hudson County mayors, still left standing after last week?s bloodbath, has ranged from unenthusiastic to nonexistent. Union City?s Brian Stack and North Bergen?s Nicholas Sacco both also run powerful political machines and represent their legislative districts in the State Senate. (Running against Mr. Stack for State Senate in 2007, Cuban-born West New York Mayor Silverio ?Sal? Vega compared his control over Union City to the grip of the Castro regime.)

Mr. Stack has yet to officially endorse Mr. Corzine, and Mr. Sacco reportedly attempted a behind-the-scenes maneuver earlier this year to shift Democratic support for the governor to popular Senate President Dick Codey of Roseland, a former acting governor who, it turned out, did not want to run.

Meanwhile, Hoboken, already a political mess, is paralyzed with the arrest of 32-year-old Mayor Peter Cammarano three weeks into his tenure. Secaucus Mayor Dennis Elwell? He was arrested, too.

In Bayonne, Mr. Corzine forced Joe Doria, a former mayor and Assembly speaker, to resign from his cabinet position as commissioner of the Department of Community Affairs after the F.B.I. raided his home and office, but did not arrest him. An officeholder since 1975, Mr. Doria had developed a reputation as one of the straightest arrows in the state, let alone Hudson County, and over the years accumulated many friends and supporters.

And then there?s Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy, who heads the Democratic Party in Hudson County. Though he wasn?t arrested last week, he was not untouched by the scandal, having met twice with real estate developer Solomon Dwek?the government?s cooperating witness?over lunch with three local politicos who were charged with funneling Mr. Dwek?s bribes into Mr. Healy?s own reelection campaign, as well as taking a cut for themselves.

At their second meeting, after Mr. Dwek informed Mr. Healy of the $20,000 he gave to his allies and the $10,000 more he planned to give after the election, the complaint quotes Mr. Healy proposing a relationship that would be ?mutually beneficial.?

?If you do not have 100 percent from Nick Sacco and Brian Stack going into election day, and you have the situation in Jersey City like you have today, where key players are hobbled, and the issue of Joe Doria in Bayonne, where people might feel like he?s slighted, the governor might have a problem in Hudson County,? said New Jersey Democratic strategist Julie Roginsky. ?You cannot expect to win Hudson County marginally and expect to win this election. You need incredible turnout in Hudson County.?