As reported on MSV and NJ.com last night, former-mayor Peter Cammarano III will plead guilty to corruption charges this afternoon in U.S. district court in Newark. You know this already.
Better days: Cammarano celebrates with friends and family on Inauguration DayWell, I'm not a reporter and this is a blog so you should get your news elsewhere.
What resonates for me is the irony of Mr. Cammarano, a specialist in election law and former election attorney, 'facing the music', humbling himself before a court of law to say, "I did it", on Election Day in Hoboken.
Election day. Where we the people 'hire' fellow citizens through our democratic process to execute prevailing law and powers honestly and fairly with our best interest at the forefront of their decision-making.
Mr. Cammarano's actions outlined in the criminal complaint, selling zoning board access to a 'developer' (FBI informant) in exchange for envelopes of cash, reveal the most undemocratic of behaviors, theft of the public trust that we the people endowed him with on Election Day, June 9, 2009.
So, I think it's worth noting the superb irony that Mr. Cammaraon's Day of Reckoning should fall on this Election Day, April 20, 2010, where hopefully all of Hoboken's eligible voters turn out to 'hire' School Board members that will be honest guardians of the public trust and will not betray the authority we gave them through our democratic process.
This is what it's about, folksSo please remember to vote. Polls are open from 2 - 9pm.
If you don't vote, nobody wants to hear you complain.
Ines Garcia Keim, who endorsed Cammarano, explains all...
ReplyDeleteAug 06, 2009 | 720 views | 10 | 5 | |
Ines Garcia Keim served as Beth Mason's campaign manager when Beth ran in the May Hoboken mayoral election. After Beth lost out to Dawn Zimmer and Peter Cammarano, and those two entered a June runoff, Mason supported Zimmer -- but Keim endorsed Cammarano. In fact, Keim even served as the MC for Peter Cammarano's inaugural festivities.
Some were surprised by the actions of Keim, who had run for several local political offices as a reformer, but others felt it was just the latest result of the fighting between Zimmer and Mason's supporters in the "reform" movement.
Recently, Keim explained some of her recent comments in a thread on Hobokenrevolt.com, the taxpayers' revolt website. While the tax group does not endorse a candidate, most of the posts in the last few months have been pro-Zimmer, and recently there has been a lot of anti-Mason talk since Mason said she may run for mayor in November.
After some back and forth on the site, Keim's husband, John Stevens Keim, stepped in with this post:
"At the risk of being labeled old-fashioned or worse yet, chauvinistic, I feel the need to defend the honor of my family. My wife, Ines Garcia Keim, of whom I am exceedingly proud, was recently called a prostitute by Georgia in a recent post because she en dorsed the winning candidate in our recent mayoral election. She is exceedingly sorry that his integrity has been impugned; she feels that our political leaders must be held to a high standard of ethical integrity; in fact, she VOLUNTARILY carried petitions for the People for Open Government ordinance four years ago.
"She VOLUNTEERED on Beth Mason’s campaign; Beth did not make the runoff and Ines compared the community service resumes, the private sector resumes and the perceived abilities of both candidates in the runoff election to think on their feet (the final debate and the Reporter roundtable forum) and decided that Peter Camerano was the more qualified candidate. Could she predict he would be ensnared in a sting operation? No more than Mayor Zimmer could have predicted that her handpicked choice for the Housing Authority would be arrested for taking bribes.
"Ines was not promised anything by Peter other than good, competent government. She does not have a government job; she has worked in retail buying offices, store management, airline load planning..."
www.hudsonreporter.com
ReplyDeletehaunting endorsements:
Some reformers back Cammarano, and other surprise endorsements for mayor...
Jun 07, 2009 | 555 views | 2 | 5 | |
Obama has not endorsed anyone...yet!
Say what? Some of the people you'd have guessed would be for Hoboken mayoral candidate Dawn Zimmer have thought about it and come out for Peter Cammarano, and vice versa.
It was a few weeks ago that former candidate Beth Mason publicly endorsed Dawn Zimmer and her council candidate, Ravi Bhalla, but also supported her former ticket mates for the other two council seats, Vincent Addeo and Raul Morales Jr.
Not all of Mason's closest allies followed their leader, however.
In this weekend's Hoboken Reporter, Mason ally Lane Bajardi, a citizen activist, came out for Cammarano, saying he has criticized Cammarano in the past and had a tough time deciding between the two candidates, but that in the end, Peter will be the best leader.
Interestingly, he said Peter "will not sic a band of internet attack dogs on me if I'm not in lockstep with him." Indeed, supporters of Mason and Zimmer have been exchanging sharp barbs against each other on the internet since the reformer movement in Hoboken seemed to have split into a Mason camp and a Zimmer camp last year.
There have been some other surprise endorsements for Cammarano.
Hobokennow has reported that Ira Karasick, a tenants' rights lawyer and former 1993 reform candidate for mayor, has endorsed the councilman. Karasick lost a tough runoff to Anthony Russo in 1993.
Karasick also seemed to have a problem, as did Bajardi, with certain Zimmer supporters. He said in his statement: "It's not a time for uncharted diversions and personal agendas, as typified by the Lenz/Mason duet. Forceful calm is required." Mason's camp, however, had had its own problems with Zimmer ally Mike Lenz. Perhaps Karasick feels that Mason's endorsement of Zimmer makes her guilty by association?
Ines Garcia Keim, who served as Mason's campaign chairwoman, supports Cammarano, according to the same blog.
On the other hand, Maureen Sullivan, a school board candidate who was endorsed by Mason last year even when she was an independent, publicly endorsed Zimmer in a letter to our newspaper published this weekend. Zimmer had endorsed her school board slate this year, but last year, Zimmer had endorsed a slate when Sullivan ran as an independent.
And this past week, residents received an endorsement phone message from former Acting Gov. and state Senate President Dick Codey endorsing Cammarano.
Finally, Rachelle Stuiver, the wife of former Mason campaign manager Jake Stuiver, supported Zimmer in a letter to the paper this weekend. She also supported the two former Mason council candidate, and Bhalla, doing as Mason has done.
One notable but not so surprising endorsement this weekend: Council president Nino Giacchi, an attorney, went for Cammarano, publishing a letter in our newspaper.
T'was the night before the arrests and all through house reformers were selling out for Petey the Louse!
ReplyDeleteCouncil looks at zoning, directors
Eerily pertinent issues considered hours before FBI arrests
by Timothy J. Carroll
Reporter staff writerJul 26, 2009 | 599 views | 0 | 4 | |
IN THE ZONE – Planning Board member Hank Forrest said the Zoning Board is approving an inordinate amount of variance applications. He also said the Zoning Board would see less applicants and the Planning Board would see more had the City Council codified the Master Plan.
When the City Council met on Wednesday, no one at the dais knew that at the crack of dawn the next morning, the newly-elected mayor would be leaving his home in handcuffs.
According to the federal charges brought Thursday against Mayor Peter Cammarano, the youngest mayor in Hoboken’s history allegedly told a developer and campaign contributor that he would help him get his development on the council agenda.
Just an hour after Cammarano’s swearing-in on July 1, the new board majority led by Council President Dawn Zimmer introduced an ordinance to restore appointment power for Zoning Board of Adjustments members to the council. The power had shifted from the council to the mayor in the 1990s when Mayor Anthony Russo was in charge.
The ordinance drew criticism for being an early “slap in the face” to Cammarano, and Councilwoman Beth Mason raised technical concerns, but the new council majority decided to vote to introduce the measure.
On Wednesday, the same majority heeded the concerns of other council members and sent the measure to a council committee to be analyzed and possibly reconstructed.
This time, the main concern of critics – both on the council and in the audience – was that moving the appointment power back to the nine-member council could create more development-related lawsuits, because the council is the body to whom Zoning Board decisions are appealed.
“This should be a discussion,” Mason pleaded to the council majority, adding that the ordinance may have “serious unintended consequences.”
Other members of the council and public tried to convince the five-person majority that an “advice and consent” appointee may be more cooperative than one given the seat by only the mayor or only the council. Right now, the mayor makes the appointments and does not need council approval. With the proposed ordinance, only the council would make the appointments.
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“Both case law and the statutes have been ignored way too often.” – Dave Mello
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Several members of the crowd spoke on the matter, including former Zoning Board member John Branciforte, who said he was in favor of the ordinance. He said in the past, he had received calls from a past mayor to look kindly on favored projects, especially for campaign contributors. Branciforte believes the board should not be so open to mayoral influence.
Planning Board member Hank Forrest gave Zoning Board statistics from 2005 to 2007 saying the variance-granting board was approving 80 to 94 percent of the applications that came before them, much higher than the statewide average of 50 percent.
Looks like a day of reckoning of sorts for Mr. Bajardi today as well.
ReplyDeleteGood things come in threes, right? That bodes well for the election.