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Exit, Cammarano

by: Rosi Efthim

Thu Jul 30, 2009 at 03:04:23 PM EDT

Peter Cammarano will resign tomorrow, less than one month after that Young Turk, whose political future looked limitless, took the oath of office as Mayor of Hoboken.

Cammarano was stubbornly working at his desk, and swearing to stick it out without resigning the day after he was arrested for taking $25,000 in cash bribes - including $10,000 just days ago - from Solomon Dwek, the government's cooperating witness.

But immediately after last week's early-morning federal law-enforcement sweep hauled in a motley crew of pols and rabbis on corruption and money laundering charges, the pressure was on to step down. Gov. Corzine called for all those in public office to step down, the day of the arrests. The locals had their say too, at a protest rally Saturday [VIDEO], and again outside City Hall in the rain Monday night, and in crudely-made signs popping up on local telephone poles.

But in the end, it looks like a deal brokered by Gov. Corzine - and transacted by attorneys from the Governor's office coming to terms with Cammarano's own lawyers - is what sealed the deal.

Cammarano is a lawyer, too, and was the protegee of Democratic uber-lawyer Angelo Genova, the Democratic Party's go-to guy on election and campaign finance law. And that makes it all the more repulsive, if the charges against Cammarano are true; he must have known precisely, and in detail, what a vicious twist of justice he was perpetuating.

At just 32, Cammarano was a rising star of the Golden Boy variety, who managed a fragile alliance of Old Hoboken forces and New Hoboken blood, and rose through a complex and dramatic election and run-off to become Mayor of the hottest place to live in the state of New Jersey.

Done, now.

Rosi Efthim :: Exit, Cammarano

Tags: Peter Cammarano, Hoboken, corruption, Solomon Dwek, resigns, (All Tags)

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Exit, Cammarano | 6 comments

Good (0.00 / 0)

But a bigger question, what would have happened if he didn't resign? He wasn't in office 100 days, so they couldn't recall him.

by: Jason Springer @ Fri Jul 31, 2009 at 03:01:24 AM UTC

by: you @ soon

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the law needs a fixin, no doubt (0.00 / 0)

If you create a law that says when indicted you must resign from mayor or council seat, then we've got a problem. What if the prosecutor is a known partisan? They will go after popular mayors, indict them and then even if the case is lost, they did their party a favor.

If you give the council and ability to get rid of a mayor - I can speak to you as a councilperson and i wil tell you there will be games played with that. the amount of attempts to remove a mayor will be astronomical. You could make a council vote contingent on an indictment, but if you have a Rep. prosecutor, Dem mayor and Rep. council, you have the same problem as above - what if its a renegade prosecutor and a partisan council?

But if you don't do anything, you get Cammaranos...

I have no answer to it, but those are the issues at hand.

by: CouncilmanBruceCarlson @ Fri Jul 31, 2009 at 13:20:11 PM UTC

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They (0.00 / 0)

haven't been indicted yet. You need a grand jury to do that.

by: SmartyJones @ Fri Jul 31, 2009 at 16:14:51 PM UTC

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Restrict The Law to FEDERAL Indictments! n/t (0.00 / 0)

by: Nick Lento @ Fri Jul 31, 2009 at 16:41:12 PM UTC

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That's good for 7 years (0.00 / 0)

but after Obama leaves in 2016. Yes optimistic i am.

I suppose I would go with some kind of 'referendum' exmeption to the recall law for anyone under criminal prosecution. If a political knew they could face a recall, they'd step down and wouldn't use their office as a bargaining chip.

by: CouncilmanBruceCarlson @ Mon Aug 03, 2009 at 13:43:11 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

It's often thought that the yong folks (4.00 / 1)

are incorruptiible. In reality, they are just as corruptible, in fact many of them are more dependent on the various machines for what they do.

Our mayor in Bergenfield is 82, Loretta Weinberg is 74 and they are among the most ethical people i know in politics. As an under-40 myself, I don't get any extra comfort from youth.

Does that mean all the Golden Boys are corrupt - no there are some great young politicians out there.

Genova also helped Loretta Weinberg in her State Senate election court case.

On another note - it appears Cammarano thought at least he was using the 25K to retire a campaign debt, vs. going in his bank account. This brings this FBI sting to the issue of pay to play. there are lot of things that go on beyond the 44 arrested, and we should look at that.

by: CouncilmanBruceCarlson @ Fri Jul 31, 2009 at 13:12:57 PM UTC

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Exit, Cammarano | 6 comments