Dear Friends,
Happy New Year!
Only six weeks into the New Year and I have so much to share!
Please come and join me for Hoboken's first ever State of the City Address this coming Tuesday.
When: 7:00 pm, Tuesday, February 22
Location: DeBaun Auditorium in Edwin A. Stevens Hall on Stevens Campus.
Directions: The main entrance is on 5th Street directly across from Stevens Park.
Save the Date: Thursday, March 10thCome Meet Six Great Candidates!
Party & fundraiser at my house to support this critical citywide effort.
Moving Hoboken Ahead:
Transforming our City is going to require a Council team willing to take on the tough issues in the best interests of Hoboken residents. This can only happen with a change of the City Council in May, and this week’s Council meeting was just one more example of why we need change. Lucky I have been working out because it's like a blood sport out there. Read on to understand why.
Anti-wheeling and the future of Hoboken:
Peter Cammarano received over $100,000 in June, 2009 alone in “wheeled” money from outside vendors and developers.
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| Graphic added by the Hoboken Journal to verify for the reader the Mayor's claim |
Our proposed legislation, sponsored by Councilman Cunningham and Councilman Bhalla, would limit the excessive flow of external money into Hoboken's elections. This will ensure that all of you, concerned
Hoboken residents, decide on the future of our town, not developers, vendors, political machines or wealthy individuals.
This legislation could change our City for the better forever, and the fierce push back from the Russo/Mason machine demonstrates they are petrified of this legislation and will do and say anything to stop it.
As always, thanks for listening and hope to see you on Tuesday!
- Dawn
P.S. In case you missed it...
Click read more below:
(Dawn Zimmer's) statement on this week’s Council meeting:
Last night the “new majority” of the City Council cast their votes to oppose legislation that would have stopped the practice of wheeling which has corrupted Hoboken’s electoral process.
Put simply, wheeling is the practice of laundering contributions through campaign committees to circumvent campaign finance or pay to play laws.
The law sponsored by Councilman Cunningham was modeled on an ordinance passed four years ago in Atlantic County.
Six other jurisdictions in New Jersey have followed Atlantic County’s lead, and the legality of Atlantic County’s statute has never been called into question in the almost four years that it has been in effect.
While Hoboken has a strong pay to play ordinance that has successfully kept out direct contributions to candidates from vendors and redevelopers, it has resulted in hundreds of thousands of dollars instead flowing indirectly through PACs outside of Hoboken.
This money corrupts our electoral process, and anti-wheeling legislation is crucial if we hope to have truly transparent and fair elections in our City.
The meeting was noteworthy not just due to this unfortunate and inexplicable vote, but due to the efforts of the Council President to stop Councilman Cunningham from even explaining the legislation to the public before it was voted down.
Not a single Councilperson opposing this legislation provided a substantive reason for their position. Instead two Council members, Council President Mason, and Council Vice President Russo attempted to distract the public’s attention from this critical issue by making malicious and false allegations against me.
Councilman Russo asserted falsely that I had received a campaign contribution from County Executive Tom DeGise that I had “wheeled” to former Councilman Michael Lenz in the last election.
This claim, which was also made on a Facebook page by a member of an editorial board of a local newspaper, is a figment of Mr. Russo’s imagination.
Councilwoman Mason falsely asserted that I had received “thousands of dollars” in campaign contributions from a committee that had received money from the government informant who bribed Peter Cammarano.
This too is a malicious and untrue statement completely made up to divert attention from the real issues raised by the wheeling of money into Hoboken political campaigns.
While Councilwoman Mason and Councilman Russo are fully aware that their allegations are untrue, the ironic thing is that if they were true, they would be compelling arguments for passing the anti-wheeling legislation, not for voting it down.
I urge Councilwoman Mason and Councilman Russo to issue an immediate public apology to me, County Executive Tom DeGise and former Councilman Michael Lenz for their knowingly false and defamatory statements.
I ask all of the City Council members to reflect upon this very serious issue and move forward with this critical legislation which will ensure that Hoboken elections are decided by the people of Hoboken, not by developers, wealthy individuals, or political machines.
- Mayor Dawn Zimmer ◦
