Zimmer vs. Christie: the backstory

On January 18, in a MSNBC interview, Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer accused New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s administration of holding hostage millions of dollars in Sandy flood mitigation funds unless she green-lighted a two million square foot office development at the north end of town. Zimmer said that top officials in the Christie cabinet told her that the project was “very important to the governor” and if she worked for its approval, “the money would start flowing to you.”

In the preceding weeks, a scandal that involved lane closings on the George Washington Bridge, allegedly for political retribution, put the governor and his administration in damage control mode. Christie was forced to dismiss an aide who stated in an email, “Time For Some Traffic Problems In Fort Lee” and Bill Baroni, the Deputy Director at the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey that manages the bridge, was forced to resign along with David Wildstein a close friend and political operative of Christie. Zimmer’s charges added fuel to that fire and may have delivered a knock-out blow to the Governor’s presidential prospects.

The election of Dawn Zimmer as mayor in 2009 marked a sea change in Hoboken politics. Her predecessor, Peter Cammarano, was arrested by the FBI just 22 days after being sworn in as mayor. He subsequently pled guilty to accepting a $25,000 bribe. He was caught on tape by an undercover cooperating witness posing as a Hoboken developer looking to get his project expedited. In 2004, former Hoboken Mayor Anthony Russo pled guilty to accepting thousands of dollars in bribes from the owner of the City’s accounting firm in exchange for awarding contracts to that firm. Then U.S. Attorney Chris Christie successfully prosecuted both of these cases.

Unlike nearly all of her predecessors, Mayor Zimmer was not born and raised in Hoboken. She was born in Maryland and raised in New Hampshire. She had only lived in town for five years before being elected to the City Council in 2007, her first foray into politics. Prior to that she had worked as a family portrait photographer. She had also worked for several corporations doing public relations and communication work that may help explain her flair for dealing with the media.

Several factors contributed to her unlikely rise to political prominence. Hoboken’s development boom began in the 1980s and reached a fever pitch by 2008. Hoboken lies on the other side of the Hudson River from Manhattan and developers began to call it the sixth borough of New York City. The Hoboken renaissance brought waves of new residents to town. From 1990 to 2012, the town’s population grew by over 18,000. Many of the old-time residents were displaced. Much of the political patronage consisted of jobs at the police and fire departments and the Board of Education. But many of these municipal workers moved out of town and could no longer vote in Hoboken elections. Elected officials became the biggest boosters of the development boom yet ultimately, it eroded their own political base. Newcomers were eager to dispense with the old-style machine politics seen as corrupt and out-of-date.

By 2005, Mayor David Roberts’ re-election campaign raised an unprecedented $1.4 million. Most of these funds poured in from companies vying for municipal contracts and developers seeking approvals for their projects. For those doing business with the City of Hoboken, showing up for political fundraisers was mandatory. Major developers all gave the maximum allowed. For them it was a small cost of doing business in Hoboken. But a local group, People for Open Government (POG), fought back and successfully passed a ballot initiative banning political contributions from professional firms working for the City. Subsequently, POG pushed the City Council to pass an ordinance that prohibited political contributions from developers with redevelopment contracts with the City. By the time Dawn Zimmer ran for mayor, the new ordinances dramatically reduced campaign cash and leveled the political playing field.

In her initial election campaign, Zimmer vowed to clean up corruption and put the brakes on over-development. When she became mayor, she enjoyed a slim 5 to 4 majority on the City Council. She acted with her council allies to appoint new members to the Planning Board and Zoning Board of Adjustment eventually replacing nearly all of the “born & raised” commissioners with “newcomers.” This past November, she was re-elected to second term as mayor with 47% of the vote. Her council slate also took all three at-large seats. In that election, she regained control of the City Council that had for months been locked in a 4 to 4 stalemate. A split opposition made easy work of this re-election effort. During the campaign, her political opponents leveled charges that she was divisive and treated long-time residents with contempt.

As U.S. Attorney, Chris Christie made a name for himself going after corrupt public officials and developers. In addition to successful prosecutions of Hoboken Mayors Russo and Cammarano, he also oversaw the case against Hoboken’s biggest developer at the time, Joe Barry, the president of Applied Companies. Barry was caught in a sting operation providing kickbacks to Hudson County Executive Robert Janiszewski in exchange for securing government funds to subsidize his development projects. Prior to his arrest and conviction, Barry enjoyed overwhelming influence with political leaders in Hoboken. He had built up a huge political base developing federally subsidized Section 8 housing where his employees turned out the Section 8 tenants to vote for the candidates he favored.