GOP State Committeeman and NJ Young Republicans Executive Board member Joshua Einstein is running for Council in Hoboken.  In the aftermath of Mayor Zimmer’s unexpected dropping of a third term bid, its already a crowded field for mayor – six declared already – with the potential of eighteen council candidates if each mayoral aspirant fields a full slate.  

Hudson County GOP Chairman issues an endorsement, saying Einstein has his support and the support of the county GOP in the non-partisan race.  “Joshua Einstein is the only council candidate that has outlined a positive, pragmatic, and common-sense plan that addresses Hoboken’s needs,” said Arango in a statement.

Einstein made his announcement with the following letter:

Dear Hoboken,

I am running for City Council and I am a proud Republican. Like 5,478 of our fellow Hoboken friends and neighbors, I cast my vote for President Trump. Between 10% and 11% of the total population of our city voted for Trump and he received 22% of all votes cast in Hoboken for the office of President on election day. City Council President Jen Giattino may have been one of them as she is Hoboken’s only registered Republican elected official. In fact, in the battle between Councilman Bhalla and Councilwoman Giattino for who is the rightful heir to Mayor Zimmer, Giattino has been attacked for being a Republican.

Councilwoman Giattino has done nothing wrong by being a Republican, nor was former Republican and current Councilman Cunningham wrong to have possibly voted for and supported NJ Governor Chris Christie. Republicans and independents understand that who one voted for on the state and federal level is less important than the puritanical attitude of many hyper-partisan progressives who assume everyone out of ideological lockstep with them to be a bigot. Do they really believe that one in ten of the people they know in our city are the evil caricatures they portray them to be? Do they really think 10% of their friends are the secret racist, sexist, anti-Semites they portray Republicans as?

Many will undoubtedly argue that that ten percent is not represented in their friends, that it is the old Hoboken crowd that are Republican, yet the born in Hoboken community was raised in a time when it was even less socially acceptable to be a Republican in NJ than now and many of our communities GOPers live in new construction dominated by those who have moved into town in more recent years.

The attempted (and juvenile) character assassination by association against Giattino is no different than the presumed guilt many hyper-partisans within the Zimmerite camp assign those with which they have local policy differences. The notion that those who have been born and raised in our city or have not agreed with Mayor Zimmer’s direction are somehow inherently corrupt is just as offensive as the idea that Giattino’s membership in the Republican Party and Cunningham’s reported vote for GOP NJ Governor Christie means they should be disqualified and dismissed from having an opinion on the fate of Hoboken.

Who one voted for president, who one will vote for in the upcoming gubernatorial election, or one’s background should not matter in our local election race. What does matter is that every voter feels their chosen candidates has a plan to address actual issues facing our Mile Square home. Our city has no shortage of real issues, from a parking crisis to regular west side rain cause flooding, an approach to business that many believe to be selectively punitive to a growing cost of living, taxes to regular water main breaks – that I will address when you elect me to City Council.

Joshua Einstein

Joshua Einstein is a member of the New Jersey Republican State Committee and the Hudson County Regional Jewish Council. He co-founded a Democrat-Republican Dialogue group which alternates meetings between Hoboken and Jersey City. He writes a regular column for a north Jersey community newspaper and has been published in over 14 sites and newspapers. He is an Executive Board member of the New Jersey State Young Republican Federation and walks dogs in town.