Hoboken Council President/mayoral hopeful Jen Giattino certainly wasn’t lacking confidence at a private fundraiser last night, exclaiming that “I know that we are on our way to the road to victory.”
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Before Giattino addressed the crowd of about 50 supporters at the 10th & Willow Bar and Grill, Council colleagues Peter Cunningham and Tiffanie Fisher, both who have endorsed her, reiterated their confidence.
“Jen in her role as council president has shown the most amazing sense of leadership for our community, a lot of which you don’t necessarily see is her navigating a consensus on a lot of issues,” 2nd Ward Councilwoman Tiffanie Fisher said in front of a room of about 50 people at the 10th & Willow Bar & Grill.
“We actually end up voting as a council 9-0 or 7-2, high numbers, mostly because of the efforts of Jen. She does a lot of it behind the scenes … Jen’s role in leading the community, bringing people in our community together, like she’s brought our council together, to me is just the most important issue.”
During her remarks, Giattino praised her slate of Jason Ellis, Sal Starace and James Aibel before reminding everyone that election season has entered crunch time.
“42 days until the election. Really important that we have an army behind us. So I’m assuming you’re all here, and gave money, because you’re supporters, so if you could give time, that would be even better,” she said half jokingly.
“There’s a lot of people here that have done door knocking for me, we’ve had really great turnouts on the weekends. I know that we are on our way to the road to victory. We still have 42 more days. It seems like a long time, but it’s not, we’re gonna wake up tomorrow and it’s gonna be November 7th.”
The 6th Ward councilwoman also spoke about her passion for knocking on doors and getting to know residents, stating that she was confident she’d get every vote in Hoboken if she could knock on every door.
But since she can’t, she asked everyone in the room to get involved any way they can.
Once defined as a close ally of Mayor Dawn Zimmer, Giattino still decided to run for mayor after the incumbent decided not to run again and endorsed Councilman-at-Large Ravi Bhalla.
Zimmer and Giattino have since sparred over the city’s current deal with Suez Water and don’t appear to be making amends any time soon.
Other officials in attendance included Hudson County Republican Chair Jose Arango and North Hudson Sewerage Authority Commissioner Kurt Gardiner.