Peter Cammarano

Background

He was born on July 22, 1977 in Wayne, New Jersey and attended Boston University and Seton Hall University School of Law.

Education

Boston University.

Career

On July 23, 2009, just 22 days after assuming office, Cammarano was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation as part of a major political corruption and international money laundering conspiracy probe known as Operation Bid Rig. He moved to Hoboken, New Jersey in 2001 while attending Seton Hall University School of Law. He was Hoboken"s coordinator of the John Kerry presidential campaign, 2004, and in 2006 was the New Jersey legal director in Senator Robert Menendez"s campaign.

In a 2005 run-off election, he was elected Councilman-at-Large in Hoboken.

At the time he was an associate attorney at Genova, Burns & Vernoia, a top election law firm. Observers credited his victory to absentee and provisional ballots in combination with hiring many residents from districts that eventually voted in large numbers for him.

Cammarano was sworn into office on July 1, 2009. At 32, Cammarano became the youngest mayor in city history.

On July 23, 2009, just 22 days after assuming office, Cammarano was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation as part of a major political corruption and international money laundering conspiracy probe known as Operation Bid Rig.

On July 31, 2009, Cammarano announced his resignation. Cammarano sent a letter to the city clerk saying his resignation was effective at noon. "I apologize to the residents of Hoboken for the disruption and disappointment this case has caused," he said in the letter.

He was succeeded by Zimmer, who had been elected council president and as such was next in line as acting mayor until elections could be held.

Cammarano remained free on a $100,000 bond pending his sentence. The guilty plea effectively ended his political career.

New Jersey, like most states, does not allow convicted felons to hold office. On August 5, 2010, Cammarano was sentenced to 24 months in federal prison.

In late September, 2010, Cammarano was designated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons to serve his 24-month sentence at the minimum security component at Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary in Pennsylvania and was scheduled to report there on October 4, 2010.

He was released from Lewisburg Federal Prison Camp in Pennsylvania on Wednesday September 14, 2011 to a halfway house in New New York After his conviction, the New Jersey Supreme Court disciplinary review board decided to suspend Cammarano"s law license for three years. The decision was appealed by the Office for Attorney Ethics to the Supreme Court who said that the former mayor’s behavior warranted an outright disbarment, to which the court agreed in September 2014.

Peter Cammarano currently lives in Hoboken, New Jersey. After his release from prison, Peter now works for a construction company.

Achievements

• On June 9, 2009, Cammarano won the Hoboken Mayor"s race in a runoff election, beating Dawn Zimmer by 161 votes. Zimmer"s three running mates won control of the city council despite Cammarano"s mayoral victory.

Views

Quotations: "I apologize to the residents of Hoboken for the disruption and disappointment this case has caused,".