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The Company You Keep, The Price You Pay

by: Scott Shields

Sat Oct 13, 2007 at 04:26:43 PM EDT

It never ceases to amaze how tone-deaf some politicians can be. Take, for example, the entire Hudson County Democratic Organization. Last week, State Senator and North Bergen Mayor Nicholas Sacco held his annual HCDO fundraiser in Garfield (which is, incidentally, in Bergen County, but I digress). It was, as I've been told, the place to be seen in Hudson County politics.

Guttenberg Mayor David Delle Donna certainly thought so. Fresh off an indictment for extortion and mail fraud, Delle Donna joined a number of HCDO luminaries at the fundraiser. But some of the attendees were not what I'd lovingly call the usual, ahem, suspects.

There was a strong Hoboken contingent in attendance, for example. Carol Marsh, the HCDO's primary candidate for Assembly from the 33rd District, Frank "Pupie" Raia, the HCDO's candidate for Council from Hoboken's 3rd Ward, and gadfly Michael Lenz all showed up. What's interesting about this group is that they make up the brain trust, as it were, of 4th Ward Council Candidate Dawn Zimmer's campaign to legitimately win the seat she stole through election fraud in June and then vacated when challenged in court. And yet somehow, Zimmer still claims she's not an HCDO candidate.

A few weeks ago, the anonymous poster Jersey Boy went to bat for Hoboken Council candidate Dawn Zimmer, claiming she wasn't part of the HCDO machine and that attacks against her for taking HCDO support were hypocritical coming from those who had also accepted HCDO support in the past.

It's time to knock down the spin and set the record straight.

The problem here is not the extensive support Dawn Zimmer has received from the HCDO. That's her right. Good people have accepted that backing in the past and will again in the future. The problem is that Zimmer's a hypocrite, consistently denying that the support she's received makes her an HCDO-backed candidate. Dawn has presented herself as an opponent of the organization and, well, that's a tough sell when they're providing her core of support.

On March 26, 2007, Dawn Zimmer announced on Hoboken411.com that she had not accepted HCDO money and would not in the future.

My campaign has not received, and will not accept, any contributions on a personal or organizational level from the Mayor, the Hudson County Democratic Organization, Brian Stack, or any of the other players involved in the battle for control over the Hudson County patronage machine. We have had no discussions whatsoever with any of those people or organizations in which support has either been solicited or offered.

That's a promise she broke repeatedly, taking thousands from HCDO-aligned County Executive Tom DeGise, HCDO Chairman and Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy, and the HCDO itself. In response to this, Zimmer has said that she only took $4,000 from HCDO. She clearly misses the point. She made a campaign promise to take nothing from them.

Again, neither I nor anyone else associated with her opponent, Councilman Chris Campos, think there's anything wrong with Healey's or DeGise's money, but Dawn Zimmer has gone on the record in the past saying that there is. Politicians are free to change their minds, of course, but there's always a price to be paid for it. And in Zimmer's case, she needs to stop denying that she is a beneficiary of HCDO support. After all, DeGise and HCDO consultant Paul Swibinski didn't end up at her campaign headquarters on election night by accident.

Dawn Zimmer is a hypocrite, plain and simple.

Scott Shields :: The Company You Keep, The Price You Pay

Tags: Nicholas Sacco, David Delle Donna, HCDO, Dawn Zimmer, Hoboken, (All Tags)

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The Company You Keep, The Price You Pay | 6 comments

Has the machine (0.00 / 0)

come unhinged? There are some names there that I never thought I'd see used in conjunction with one another.

by: Thurman Hart @ Sun Oct 14, 2007 at 01:41:41 AM UTC

by: you @ soon

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Even more... (0.00 / 0)

If you want to have some real fun, we can always talk about the fact that HCDO candidate and major Zimmer backer Carol Marsh spent 2006 heading up the Hudson County chapter of anti-Menendez GOP front group Democrats for Kean.

Are Tom Kean Jr, David Delle Donna, and Dawn Zimmer all "perfect together?" ;)

by: Scott Shields @ Sun Oct 14, 2007 at 20:14:03 PM UTC

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by: you @ soon

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My own. (0.00 / 0)

Look, the HCDO leadership loves to tout its members. They would never want anyone to deny that X, Y and Z are loyal members, working in concert with the HCDO machine. They probably liked that Torres column that I was writing in response to. They would firmly disagree with me about someone being called HCDO as a bad thing.

What set off my b.s. alarm were two machine politicians denouncing Zimmer for being a machine politician. She took $4,000 from the HCDO. Campos took eight times that from HCDO splinter-group DFHC. Their machine-backing is not comparable. That's the point I'm making.

I don't like Zimmer. She's another self-funding candidate who's got a too-cool-for-school attitude, and I don't know anything about the current situation in Hoboken. Is she HCDO now, too, because some of her long-time backers have now allied themselves with the HCDO? I don't know. I do know that in the last election, the HCDO wasn't in force for her the way DFHC was for Campos.

But the HCDO would never admit that. They want people to think that they were instrumental in her victory -- it's a badge of pride for them. But they'd be lying. That's all.

And then again, who the hell knows what's really happening? I don't claim to have the perspective on this. Just my own.

by: Jersey Boy @ Sun Oct 14, 2007 at 12:14:29 PM UTC

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My issue (0.00 / 0)

What set off my b.s. alarm were two machine politicians denouncing Zimmer for being a machine politician. She took $4,000 from the HCDO. Campos took eight times that from HCDO splinter-group DFHC. Their machine-backing is not comparable. That's the point I'm making.

But Campos and Cammarano were not simply "denouncing Zimmer for being a machine politician." They were denouncing her for pretending to not be a machine politician while enjoying the support of the machine. I'd like to give you the benefit of the doubt here, and assume that you misunderstood their point and that you are not deliberately misrepresenting it. But the case they have presented against Zimmer in the press is more nuanced than you have suggested.

In fact, I think I was exceedingly fair and accurate in my understanding and characterization of your earlier post...

A few weeks ago, the anonymous poster Jersey Boy went to bat for Hoboken Council candidate Dawn Zimmer, claiming she wasn't part of the HCDO machine and that attacks against her for taking HCDO support were hypocritical coming from those who had also accepted HCDO support in the past.

I disagree with that characterization, which is exactly the case you continue to make -- that Campos and Cammarano, part of the DFHC "machine," have no right to attack Zimmer for being part of the HCDO "machine." Again, that's not what any of us were saying. It's not about "machine" vs. "non-machine." It's about holding Zimmer accountable for misrepresenting herself and breaking a critical campaign promise not to take any support from those she has derisively called "the Hudson County patronage machine."

She wants support from political organizations to be a campaign issue? Then she ought to be held to the standard she has set.

by: Scott Shields @ Sun Oct 14, 2007 at 20:11:15 PM UTC

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Definitely (0.00 / 0)

You're absolutely right about Zimmer and her involvement with the HCDO and machine pols -- more than she'll admit and less than the HCDO would have you think. As someone who only read the Torres column and has not been following the race closely, I didn't pick up those nuances of Campos and Cammarano's positions.

But you may have misinterpreted something about my earlier post -- "that attacks against her for taking HCDO support were hypocritical coming from those who had also accepted HCDO support in the past." It's not just about that.

When the HCDO and DFHC make peace -- maybe soon, even before this election -- the machine will execute people like Marsh, Lenz, and Zimmer. These non-patronage pols will no longer have an intra-machine rivalry to benefit off of. I think everyone is just as aware of the situation (how could they not be?). So while I don't like people like Zimmer, I both root for and pity them in a way.

by: Jersey Boy @ Mon Oct 15, 2007 at 11:22:05 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Possibly (4.00 / 1)

When the HCDO and DFHC make peace -- maybe soon, even before this election -- the machine will execute people like Marsh, Lenz, and Zimmer. These non-patronage pols will no longer have an intra-machine rivalry to benefit off of.

That is very possibly so. But it certainly calls into question the judgment and ethics of people who are willing to make deals with "the devil" (in their minds, not mine) to get ahead.

by: Scott Shields @ Mon Oct 15, 2007 at 15:32:30 PM UTC

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