Dear Editor:

Last week, Mayor Zimmer released a political rant, and went as far as to claim that she’s been disenfranchised because she’s a woman and that she wasn’t given “the respect that has always been accorded” to mayors in Hudson County. With those comments, Ms. Zimmer in fact sets women back in their pursuit of real leadership in the male-dominated world of New Jersey politics. True leadership transcends gender and embraces strength in the face of adversity. The fact is she wasn’t shut out of the Democratic Party because of her gender. Zimmer, along with Councilman Ravi Bhalla, allowed personal political ambition to become their first priority, alienating natural political allies, and in the process, turning their backs on the people they are supposed to represent.

After failing to earn the endorsement of the Hudson County Democratic Organization for their chosen candidates, Mayor Zimmer and Councilman Bhalla, who is the Chairman of the Hoboken Democratic Party and is also running for another political office, unleashed an attack on the party’s leadership, calling them “the cancer of machine politics.” This is odd language from those who control all aspects of Hoboken government.

Zimmer and Bhalla call themselves true Democrats but devote countless hours and resources to organizing big turnouts for Governor Christie every time he visits our city. He has come here to announce millions of dollars in cuts to school funding and state aid to cities. In contrast, our Assemblyman Ramos has been on the front lines battling to restore funding for needed repairs to the Connors School, which the mayor’s much publicized relationship with Governor Christie has failed to deliver.

In Zimmer’s tirade, she claims a renewed interest in senior citizen and women’s issues, and “other core Democratic values.” But she and Bhalla stand in solidarity with a governor whose most recent attack on women was a suggestion that someone “take a bat” to a Senator Loretta Weinberg, a senior citizen and one of the most progressive female legislators in the State. Mayor Zimmer’s insensitivity to the African-American community was also on full display last week as she walked out of the NAACP Annual Freedom Awards Dinner.

Zimmer claims to be a Democrat when it’s convenient for her, but becomes the governor’s prime Republican when she ignores the local Republican leadership to impose her own choice as the governor’s appointee to the Housing Authority Board. Only Zimmer and Bhalla think they can demand respect when they don’t respect protocols and courtesies in their relationships with all elected officials.

Zimmer and Bhalla have enjoyed a good run, but now face united, real Democrats who offer a positive alternative to their ineffective, divisive, power-hungry political gamesmanship.

On June 7, I’ll be proudly supporting Senator Brian Stack, Assemblyman Ruben Ramos and Sean Connors for Assembly, and Tom DeGise for County Executive. In addition, I’ll be working as hard as I can to ensure that Real Democrats are elected to the County Committee, so that a diverse group of candidates that represent every facet of our community and the best of our party will have a voice again.

Ines Garcia-Keim