Sikh On His Way to Hoboken Council Seat

May 12, 2009

Author: Staff Writer

Source: SikhNN

http://www.sikhnn.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=671&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

Ravinder Singh Bhalla won the municipal election today for councilman-at-large of Hoboken, N.J., which would give him the national distinction of holding the highest elected office as a Sikh if he also wins the run-off election on June 9.

Election rules require mayoral candidates and their slates to win with more than 50 percent of the votes. But because of the large number of candidates, six for mayor and 12 for the council-at-large, no one candidate was able to collect that many votes.

Ravinder Singh was part of the slate for mayoral candidate Dawn Zimmer, who won with 36 percent of the 9,986 votes, according to the Hudson County clerk's office. Her closest competitor, Peter Cammarano, won 34 percent of the votes. Zimmer and Cammarano will face-off in next month's election. A win for Zimmer would also make her the first woman and the first Jewish mayor of Hoboken.

A win for the mayoral candidate usually means a win for the entire slate. But not only did Ravinder Singh win his first election, he won big.

Ravinder Singh won nearly 14 percent of the 25,988 votes, statistically tying fellow slate-candidate Carol Marsh for the most votes. David Mello, also on the slate, had the third highest number of votes, at 12.7 percent. If Ravinder Singh wins again next month, he would hold one of the three at-large seats, for a four-year term.

See also: Sikhism, Civic