Menendez-Bhalla Battle Gets A Twist From Hoboken's Former Mayor And Her Husband

HOBOKEN, NJ — Back in June of 2017, then-Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer held a surprise press conference to announce that she wouldn't seek re-election, and to say she was endorsing Councilman Ravi Bhalla in the next mayoral election.

Some of Zimmer's fellow council members were disappointed by the announcement, but Zimmer felt that Bhalla was the best candidate.

Seven years later, Zimmer and her husband, who've moved out of Hoboken, have been taking aim at Bhalla as he tries to manage a run for higher office—in this case, the congressional seat currently held by Rob Menendez Jr.

Bhalla has focused on Menendez's father, posting on social media about Menendez Sr.'s indictments.

At the same time, Zimmer and her husband, Stan Grossbard, have broken their silence about current Hoboken events to subtly and not-so-subtly criticize Bhalla in a number of ways—particulary implying on Twitter in November that he wasn't doing enough to stop Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop from allegedly holding up local flooding safeguards for Bhalla's flood prone city.

Stan Grossbard has recently called Bhalla a "hypocrite" on Twitter for suddenly coming out strongly against the controversial "County Line" system, in which New Jersey political bosses award a preferable spot on the primary ballot to favored candidates.

Bhalla has gotten much praise from around the state for this stance, famously joining Rep. Andy Kim to blast the line — but Bhalla's criticism came after he found out he wouldn't be on the line in the upcoming June Democratic primary.

Bhalla has been in office since 2017 without openly criticizing this breed of "bossism," and he has elevated allies and turned away critics while taking advantage of the line.

Most notably, Bhalla's former chief of staff, John Allen, got Bhalla's support for state Assembly last year, replacing Assemblywoman Annette Chaparro in the spot. Bhalla recently blasted another candidate who ran with Allen for benefiting from the line, conspicuously failing to mention Allen, something Grossbard pointed out.

Bhalla Tweeted:

I am grateful for the leadership of @StevenFulop, @SenatorMcKnight, & @RajMukherji here. I also appreciate the honesty of Senators McKnight & Mukherji on this matter as they have benefitted from the line’s corrupting force yet want to abolish it in order to open up pathways to…
— Ravinder S. Bhalla (@RaviBhalla) March 11, 2024

But there was at least one name missing from his Tweet: Which was not lost on Grossbard:

So, if you can follow:

The Zimmer/Grossbard duo are now calling Bhalla a hypocrite regarding bossism, after their endorsement helped make Bhalla the boss.

For his part, Grossbard argued that all Zimmer did was endorse Bhalla, and voters chose him:

Why Now?

The sudden groundswell of animosity toward "bossism" in New Jersey politics — coming from some candidates and officials who were publicly quiet about it through one, two, or even three elections — begs a question, a question that some New Jersey political reporters have failed to ask.

If these anti-line officials get elected, what happens when they see other political unfairness? Will they return to staying silent for four to eight years?

After all, other independent voices may have been kept out of office due to the line, never getting the chance to shine on the wider stage.

This Week's Twist

The back-and-forth among Zimmer, Grossbard, and the Bhalla administration came to a head this week when it was reported that Bhalla's business administrator — Jason Freeman — had been filing public records requests for texts about the anti-flooding initiative Rebuild By Design between Zimmer and current Hoboken council members. The requests seek documents starting with Nov. 3, which happens to be the date of Zimmer's Tweet.

"This misuse of OPRA is a flagrant abuse of power by Mayor Bhalla and his business administrator," Zimmer responded in a story in Hudson County View this week.

In the story, Freeman said he was making the requests as a citizen, not as a City Hall employee.

Then came another round of unusual exchanges from a former mayor's husband and the current mayoral administration:

Grossbard, however, may have cost the city money with his comments in the past, which were cited in at least one employee lawsuit.

As all of this plays out, those who endorsed each other in the past will still command the political spotlight — and will use it to either oppose or tacitly approve machine politics. But what will they do after they're elected?

(Got Hudson County news? Here's how you let Hoboken Patch or Jersey City Patch know.)

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