Three Candidates Fight For Two Assembly Seats

Hobokenites get to choose two candidates to be the Democratic candidates for Assemblyman in Tuesday’s primary elections. The 33rd district, which includes Hoboken, was recently re-drawn. It now includes more parts of Jersey City, in exchange for West New York and Guttenberg.

On the ballot on Tuesday for assemblyman are incumbent Ruben Ramos Jr., Hoboken City Councilman Ravi Bhalla and Jersey City Board of Education member Sean Connors.

State Senator Brian Stack, County Executive Tom DeGise and Hudson County Freeholder Anthony Romano are all running unopposed. Hobokenites will also be able to elect their committee men and women, who will decided the make up of the local Democratic party in the Mile Square.

Ramos and Connors—with Stack’s backing—are running with the support of the Hudson County Democratic Organization. Bhalla—with the support of Mayor Dawn Zimmer—is running independently, or in more jargony terms, “off the line.”

In Jersey City, councilman Steven Fulop is also running off the line.

The two winners in Tuesday’s election will be most likely be elected into office in November, seeing how the 33rd District is overwhelmingly Democratic.

Ruben Ramos

On a recent afternoon, sitting in his campaign headquarters on 11th and Washington Streets, Ramos is writing thank you notes to his supporters. He seems calm, there are no signs of stress.

“It’s really not much of a change,” Ramos said about election season, “reaching out (to constituents) is what we do all year.”

Compared to the other two candidates Ramos, a born and raised Hobokenite, has some advantages. He is the incumbent and has Stack's full support. Ramos said also that he has a bond with the new parts of Jersey City over which he will be the assemblyman, because he attended Hudson Catholic High School and many of his childhood friends live in Jersey City.

But, Ramos said, "I don't take anything for granted." 

It doesn’t just matter if he wins, it matters how he wins, Ramos explained. He is looking to win the majority of votes in Hoboken and to get more Hoboken votes than Bhalla. It has been rumored—reported on PolitickerNJ and floating through the streets of Hoboken—that Ramos is interested in running for mayor in 2013. Without a big win in Tuesday’s elections, those chances may be in jeopardy.

As an assemblyman, Ramos voted to approve Governor Chris Christie’s budget, which included large cuts to education and several health services. While both Connors and Bhalla said they would not have voted for the budget, Ramos explained his reasoning.

“That’s where leadership comes into play,” Ramos said. “If we don’t approve the budget, we’re looking at a government shut down … I decided to step up to the plate.”

Although Ramos—a public school teacher in Paterson—said he didn’t approve of the governor’s cuts in education funding, he said plenty of items included in that budget are beneficial to Hoboken. He said it included $1,5 million for Hoboken’s sinkhole repairs and $16,1 million for  other Hoboken projects.

“I can’t sit here and take credit for funding,” he said, “and not vote for the budget.”

But that doesn't mean he hasn't felt the governor’s cuts. “In the school I work in,” he said, “we have no music program, no librarians, no art programs.”

Before Tuesday’s election, Ramos is encouraging as many people as possible to come out and vote, as well as support the other candidates in column A.

“We want to rebuild the HCDO to what it once was,” Ramos said.

Ravi Bhalla

One of the differences between Councilman-at-Large Bhalla and his opponents, Bhalla said, is that he will bring to the table a good working relationship with the mayor of Hoboken.

“It’s important for us to have a partner in Trenton,” Bhalla said. Not working with the mayor, Bhalla said, “is problematic.”

Bhalla, a lawyer, said also that he would not have voted for Christie’s budget if he were in office. “(Ramos) is one of seven Democrats who voted for the budget,” Bhalla said. “It’s not a budget I would have voted for.” One of the reasons why, Bhalla added, is because it cut about $2.4 million in funding to Hoboken’s public schools.

The budget, Bhalla continued, “is balanced on the backs of working families and school children.”

If elected to the Assembly, Bhalla said, he would also focus on campaign finance reform laws. Bhalla said he would like to work with State Senator Loretta Weinberg, who has introduced a state wide law for stricter campaign finance laws. 

Bhalla was first elected into office in 2009, when he ran for council on Zimmer’s ticket. If elected, he would be the first Sikh to be elected to the state assembly.

Although Bhalla faces the challenge of not being supported by the HCDO—and therefore not being on the same line as wildly popular State Senator Stack—he has some adventages too.

The new parts of Jersey City that were included to be part of the 33rd district include a large Indian American Community. Bhalla said also that Jersey City Councilman Fulop has been very helpful, sharing some events with his candidates in Jersey City. In Union City, where Stack is also the mayor, Bhalla said he worked for a few years as a tenant advocate.

“I’m not against Stack,” Bhalla said. “People have two votes,” he continued, indicating that he would encourage people to vote for both him and Ramos. “There’s a misconception that I’m running against Ruben.”

Bhalla’s name, as well as the local committee candidates, will appear in Column “C” on Tuesday’s ballot. Bhalla said he had many canvassers out in the streets of the Hudson County towns. He has also hosted several campaign events over the past few weeks.

If elected, Bhalla said, he would be able to put political differences aside and work together with the HCDO candidates. The most important thing, he added, is making the HCDO more transparent.

“The whole process in Hudson County is anti-democratic,” Bhalla said. “It lacks transparency.” He said that in other counties in the state, candidates who run “on the line” get elected at so-called nominating conventions. Not in Hudson County, Bhalla said.

Connors’ candidacy was decided by Mayors Stack and Jerramaiah Healy of Jersey City.

If Bhalla gets elected to become one of the district’s assemblymen, he will have to step down as city councilman. A temporary councilperson will be appointed and a special election will have to be held in November 2012.

Sean Connors

Connors is a born and raised Jersey City resident, who also serves on the Jersey City school board and is also being backed by the HCDO. Although Connors is technically Ramos' running mate, both candidates have their own headquarters and run their own campaigns.

Connors paid a visit to a senior bingo in Hoboken last week and will be at a meet and greet with the other HCDO candidates in Hoboken on Monday night.

Connors, too, said he would have voted against the budget. He added that Jersey City was hit so hard by cuts that it has to shut down the government one day a month. “The governor’s budget has drastically urban areas,” Connors said.

Connors, 42, said that Hoboken has has many of the same issues as Jersey City does. He said that he doesn’t know Hoboken that well, but that he will come to town and “sit down and listen.”

Mostly, Connors said, he’d like to fight for more education funding for Hudson County. “I’m a community activist,” Connors said. Between his experience as a school board member and more than two decades in the Jersey City police department, he'd be an “asset” to the assembly, he said.