Former Hoboken resident Dean Kemph finally got around to writing his commentary on the recent swearing of Dawn Zimmer after the resignation of Peter Cammarano who was listed on an FBI criminal complaint for corruption charges. His firebrand pen starts after a few quotes to get the reader warmed up. Without further adieu Dean Kemph:
Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes? Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.
-- Matthew 21, King James Bible
Like a steam locomotive, rolling down the track
He's gone...he's gone...and nothin's gonna bring him back...
-- The Grateful Dead
Well. That's that.
I've received considerable email in the last couple of weeks chastising me for my failure to opine on recent events, and I'll grant that this was a perfect scorched earth opportunity for a flamethrower like myself. You know, it's hard to parody a parody. And I just felt sad. Sad for all the efforts (I've been there myself) of the scores of people who put in so much time without looking for personal benefit, and are disappointed again and again. I had a lot of friends in both the Mason and Zimmer camps, but I felt real empathy for those in (or who came around to) Cammarano's. I'm not talking about the Ines Garcia Keims of the world, early and vehement detractors of the Cammarano old-school politics, who weakly rationalized that the recasting of his charms in a new and favorable light was not, in truth, actually predicated on a bevy of slights, both real and imagined, from the Zimmer camp. I'm talking about those good citizens, fully cognizant of the risks, who kept their fingers crossed and opted for the promise of knowledgeable efficiency and adept political maneuverability, whose qualified hopes were served up and digested with the Malibu's blue plate special on an absurdly premature July afternoon.Poor Peter. He didn't even have time to establish a legacy of wrongdoing. Mr. Fast Track is now Mr. Footnote, and people won't even remember his name five years from now. Perhaps he just recognized that most Hudson County politicians are eventually indicted, and he just thought that he'd fast-track that process too. Why else the inexplicable and self-destructive partnership with Michael Schaffer, whose inevitably implosive combination of dishonesty and "disintelligence" ought to make the idiocy of associating with him an indictable offense on its own.
In the legislative arena, I think we've pretty much decided the question of whether or not it's better to have nine people or one person decide zoning board appointments. I assume Ms. Zimmer will agree, as she said she would, regardless of who is mayor. (Note to Lane Bajardi: When you rant about the "legislation of sour grapes" before the Council after you've just concluded your stint as a chief strategist for the most dramatic campaign free fall in memory, it can sound kinda like, well, you know...sour grapes.)
Cammarano's resignation was like a pheromone spray in the face of undeterred political wildebeest Beth Mason, who impatiently snorted and pawed her way through Dawn's swearing-in before immediately thereafter announcing that she, Beth, was, in fact, still the most qualified person to direct Hoboken, dismissing the antiquated notions of the actual voters. Apparently determining that the appropriate elixir for a besieged city is an additional three months supply of bottled invective, Ms. Mason has sent out an advance scouting team to search for any young saplings which may have matured enough in these intervening weeks for their own "Mason for Mayor" sign.
At least Beth maintained the proper dour countenance through the whole ordeal, somberly plodding her way through Rosanna Scotto and any other interviews she could find. Dawn, on the other hand, could barely conceal her unseemly glee in the midst of this unlikely turn of events. The woman who couldn't get loose enough to crack a few 81-vote-swaying smiles during the runoff has morphed into a grinning kid in a candy store with an uncanny penchant for the wrong expression at the wrong time. Perhaps she should Youtube some Lyndon Johnson or Jerry Ford footage for guidance on required demeanor during an accidental assumption of power in a time of crisis. With her husband hovering perilously close to the podium, Hoboken's new Acting Director of Tourism paid scant tribute to the unusual circumstances that brought her there, behaving instead as if it was merely a fated historical correction of sorts. Her supporters didn't have enough time to get their green shirts through a wash cycle before this unexpected chance to don them anew. Just a note, kids: this whole sorry thing was a loss for Hoboken, not a victory for Zimmer.
It doesn't take much to become the next great political hope in Hoboken, but Dawn's anointment by a certain segment of her supporters as a Messiah is particularly odd. Usually, it takes a disarming charisma or compelling intellectual adventurism to offset such a dearth of experience or policy depth. Dawn's primary qualification for the mayoralty seems to be her willingness to run for it. (Well, that should earn me a new spew of red-faced off-the-wall accusations by the blogging zimmealots.) In any case, I hope that Dawn will abandon her Palinesque "I'm MORE than ready" assertions and will have the judgment to grow into the job with some introspection, humility, and the right counsel. Let’s just close our eyes and try to erase the image of her guffawing inauguration day photo op with the man many consider the godfather of boom-era corruption in Hoboken, Steve Cappiello.
This could, of course, become a promising and progressive time for Hoboken. Dawn should skip to victory in November. Michael Russo will likely lay low, cursing his surname in an emphatically anti-corruption atmosphere. Pupie Raia? He might argue that, as a developer, he'll never bribe himself, but I don't think that will get much traction. A comeback by Dave Roberts on the "Honest Incompetence Isn't Looking So Bad Now, Is It" ticket? I don't think so. The HCDO has been essentially disemboweled by the scandal and will be too distracted by self-preservation to recover in time to be a player in the fall. We can only hope that Mason will be overcome by the logic and advice that she's so breezily ignored thus far and realize that another bitter race will eradicate her remaining pockets of support. Mend fences and cooperate, Beth, and you'll have a measurable impact from here on out. You and Dawn should be natural allies, and can establish a clear governing majority. The City is reeling from the oh-so-recent tawdry and divisive campaign and ensuing events, and the only thing Beth's recycled candidacy could accomplish is leave the back door ajar for some Clonamaranno in a simple plurality election. Neither Mason nor Zimmer has been strong enough to repel all of the endemic taints of political immersion, but they both still seem to have the best interests of Hoboken at heart underneath the nonsense. Here's hoping that they spare both themselves and the City any further erosion of that overarching principle.
As always, best of luck to my beloved and adopted Hoboken!
-Dean Kemph
Former Hoboken Resident
My comment: These are the words of Dean Kemph and not mine. I don't agree with every point he makes but his writing style is hard to ignore as an editor of blog that focuses mostly on Hoboken politics. ◦
