In Hoboken’s 11th hour, Romano and DeFusco scrap over Stack support

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In the 11th hour before Hoboken elects a new mayor, Freeholder Anthony Romano (D-5) and 1st Ward Councilman Mike DeFusco had one more tense exchange, this time over state Senator (D-33)/Union City Mayor Brian Stack’s support. Hoboken-Stack

By John Heinis/Hudson County View

“This is a tactic from the DeFusco campaign to attempt to confuse voters by listing himself on Senator Stack’s ballot. The Senator has never endorsed Mr. DeFusco, nor provided him with permission to distribute any literature associated with his campaign,” Romano said in a statement.

“In fact, just yesterday, Senator Stack dispatched over 200 campaign volunteers to Hoboken’s 4th Ward and my name was included in that literature. If the Senator was to endorse DeFusco, he would have been listed on the flyer distributed to Hoboken residents. This is both egregious and unethical, and I have confirmed that the Senator condemns this political stunt.”

Yesterday, the DeFusco team distributed a piece of literature calling for voters to select Phil Murphy for governor, Stack for state Senator, DeFusco for mayor and Romano … for freeholder.

Despite the best efforts of a longtime political antagonist, Romano is on the ballot twice today, a fact that was not lost on the DeFusco campaign, who dismissed Romano’s criticisms as hypocritical.

“This criticism rings incredibly hollow given that the Romano campaign has been featuring Senator Stack on their literature, ads and signs for weeks. Mike DeFusco strongly supports Phil Murphy for Governor and Senator Stack, and like any good Democrat is simply doing his part to help get out the vote for the Democratic ticket on Column A,” responded DeFusco campaign spokesman Phil Swibinski.

“Perhaps if Freeholder Romano had decided to run for only one political office at a time he would avoid confusing situations like this.”

In the summer, Romano inadvertently entered into a blood feud with Stack over his most definitive adversary, but the freeholder has since smoothed things over.

Stack, who endorsed Mayor Dawn Zimmer back in March, has not thrown his support behind any of the six candidates in today’s Hoboken mayoral contest.

Zimmer changed course and decided not to seek a third term back in June.

The polls are open until 8 p.m. this evening, where Mile Square City voters will decide Zimmer’s successor – as well as three new at-large council members.


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