In Bid To Unseat Menendez, Hoboken Mayor Bhalla Reveals Campaign Team

HOBOKEN, NJ — In his campaign bid to replace Robert Menendez Jr. as the 8th District Congressman this year, Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla announced a team of political heavy hitters on Wednesday.

Overseeing the team will be Campaign Manager Al Freedman, who managed the successful reelection of Democratic New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham. Freedman has also worked with nonprofits to advance causes such as Everytown for Gun Safety, and served on the campaigns of Hillary Clinton, Martin O’Malley, Chris Murphy, and Beto O’Rourke, according to a release issued Wednesday.

Freedman will oversee a campaign team that includes Anna Greenberg, whom the New York Times says was once considered part of former New York Mayor Bill DeBlasio's "Circle of Power," and others. The team will also include Bhalla's longtime campaign spokesman, Rob Horowitz.

The Bhalla Campaign Team

The team includes:

• Pollster: Anna Greenberg, GQR Insights and Action
• Direct Mail: Peter Jones and Leticia Martinez, Mission Control
• Digital and Media: Eric Goldman and Dana Sherry, Break Something

• Fundraising: Justin Shoham, Enigma PC
• Strategist and Spokesperson: Rob Horowitz, Rob Horowitz Associates, Inc.

“With Al at the helm, I know we will build the kind of forward-thinking and professionally run campaign that will give the voters of the 8th district a real and honest choice this June," said Bhalla, in a press release. "He and his team are already building a data-driven, sophisticated campaign that will inform the voters of my proven track record of results on issues that matter to New Jerseyans."

Freedman said, “I am thrilled to be joining Mayor Bhalla’s campaign for New Jersey’s 8th Congressional District. Mayor Bhalla is one of the nation’s most effective mayors and he is prepared to bring his track record of results to Congress."

He added, "From improving his city’s quality-of-life by eliminating all pedestrian traffic deaths over the past 7 years to developing innovative solutions to the crisis of climate change, the country would benefit a great deal from Mayor Bhalla’s presence in Congress."

He noted, "With trust in Congress at an all-time low, we need new leadership from people like Mayor Bhalla who not only know how to get things done, but have also earned their own accomplishments.”

Political Machine V. Political Machine

Recent reports in the New Jersey Globe indicated that Bhalla has already raised more than $1 million for his campaign.

Menendez and Bhalla will first battle it out in the Democratic primary in June, then face Republicans and possibly Independents in the general election in November.

Some have noted that while Bhalla has positioned himself as a man fighting the well-connected local machine, including taking on Menendez — the son of recently indicted Sen. Bob Menendez — Bhalla has made use of the machine as well. Hoboken Councilwoman Tiffanie Fisher noted this recently in her newsletter.

"I have been asked by many my views on the various federal level races, including our mayor's run for Congress," she wrote. "... [Bhalla] says: 'Machine politics and a system that puts personal profits over the common good aren’t cutting it.' This coming from the person who used machine politics to place his friend, John Allen, as our assemblyman ... Mayor Bhalla has plenty of policy achievements to run on. He should focus his energy there, not trying to convince people that he is somehow different than machine politics when he is not."

Menendez has, however, gotten the endorsement of Hudson County's most storied machine: The Hudson County Democratic Organization. Bhalla gained an endorsement from Mayor Steven Fulop, who is running to be New Jersey's next governor in 2025.

New Jersey’s 8th Congressional District includes most of Hudson County, as well as Elizabeth in Union County, and the North Ward and East Ward of Newark in Essex County.

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