Fact: Absolutely not true until at least November 2012 when a special election will be held.
Opinion: This is very unlikely until at least May 2013 when the at large seat is up for re-election anyway as stipulated below:
If Ravi is elected to NJ Assembly, Reform/Good Governance will not lose their hard won City Council majority. Ravi would continue to serve on the City Council until January 2012, at which time he would be replaced by a vote of the City Council with Mayor Zimmer casting the tie-breaking vote. This means that Ravi’s replacement on the City Council would be selected by his reform Council colleagues and Mayor Zimmer.
This new reform Councilperson would serve through November 2012 when a special election would be held together with the 2012 Presidential election, for the balance of Ravi’s term (June 30, 2013). Given the large turnout for the Presidential election, and the enormous significance Ravi’s election would have in Hudson County politics, pundits in both Ravi Bhalla's and Mayor Zimmer's camp are quite confident that the reform majority would be retained through and beyond Mayor Zimmer’s probable re-election in May 2013.
See NJ Statutes 40A:16-4, 40A:16-7, and 40A:16-8 for confirmation.
My comment: This is a whisper campaign likely started by nefarious agents of Ruben Ramos' campaign (think Lane Bajardi) to suppress Ravi Bhalla's turnout. Ravi getting elected is actually in play here since there are three people looking to get into 2 spots for NJ Assembly. Ravi needs your reform support in Hoboken so make sure you vote row C. I say if you live in Hoboken and like Ruben Ramos and plan to vote for him(for the record I don't but he is a Democrat), also consider voting for Ravi just to make sure Hoboken gets the representation it deserves.
Keep in mind: If you are unregistered in a party but still registered to vote you can vote in the Democratic primary on June 7th but keep in mind you will be automatically reigistered as a Democrat when doing so. You can switch it back later to unregistered if you want. So please consider voting in this primary if you normally don't. Row C down the column if you are a democrat or independent for honest democrats. ◦
