ELEC: In pursuit for Hoboken mayor’s seat, Jabbour raises $82k, has $127k COH

Hoboken Councilwoman-at-Large Emily Jabbour raised $81,561, spent $13,786.89, and has $126,558.09 cash on hand after the first quarter of 2025 in her pursuit of the mayor’s seat.

By John Heinis/Hudson County View

“Thank you, Hoboken! My campaign is taking off because residents know that I have the best track record for getting things done for this City. I want Hoboken to be the best place to live, work, raise a family, and play – with a City Hall that is deeply engaged, listening, and working for you,” Jabbour wrote on Instagram last week.

She continued that 71 percent of her donors were Hoboken residents, 70 percent were first time donors, and 72 percent were small dollar contributions.

The Light Group COO Brandon Bovino donated $5,000, as did JLL Senior Vice President Nicholas Dinallo (and another $5,000 from JLL as a company), while Alex and Daniel Cocoziello, both of Advance Realty Investors, gave $2,500 each, according to Jabbour’s April 15th campaign finance report.

Hoboken Fire Capt. Mario Fini, who also owns several local restaurants, contributed $3,000, the Hoboken Firefighters Local 1078 got involved at $1,300, and the Hoboken PBA Local 2 wrote a check for $1,000.

Her expenses were nearly all on nominal fees from ActBlue and Stripe for processing online donations, with one expecting being paying City Bistro $3,119.75 for using their venue for a February fundraiser.

Jabbour is running in a five-person filed in the November 4th non-partisan race to succeed Mayor Ravi Bhalla, who is seeking a state Assembly seat in the 32nd Legislative District rather than seeking a third term.

The other candidates are 2nd Ward Councilwoman Tiffanie Fisher, 3rd Ward Councilman Mike Russo, 4th Ward Councilman Ruben Ramos, and former U.S. Treasury official Dini Ajmani.

Like Jabbour, Ramos and Ajmani both have over $100,000 cash on hand, though the latter’s funds largely came from a $200,000 loan, both as HCV first reported.

Russo, the leading fundraiser in the race thus far by a wide margin, just filed his Q1 report late this morning (they were due on April 15th).

Also of note, despite being the first candidate to declare for mayor in January, Jabbour has not opened a mayoral account yet and her Q1 fundraising was done via her council account.