'I Could Be, Uh, Indicted, and I’m Still Gonna Win'

Well, you were, uh, indicted, and uh, now you're going to prison. Happy trails to another rising star in, uh, Democrat circles in New Jersey. And, uh, there are plenty more to follow you to, uh, jail.

Of all those charged in last year’s sprawling FBI sting, perhaps no one was caught uttering more brazen words than Peter J. Cammarano III, the former mayor of Hoboken.

At a meeting last May with an undercover informant, the 32-year-old Democrat was videotaped boasting about grinding political opponents "into powder." During the same conversation, Cammarano predicted not even criminal charges could prevent his election, according to a criminal complaint.

"I could be, uh, indicted, and I’m still gonna win," said Cammarano, who was arrested three weeks after taking office.

That bravado was gone today as Cammarano, the youngest mayor in Hoboken history, pleaded guilty to extortion conspiracy before a federal judge in Newark. With his eyes downcast, he quietly admitted accepting $25,000 in illegal campaign contributions through a deal that could send him to prison for up to two and 1/2 years.

"He was pretty explicit that he was willing to trade his office for campaign contributions," U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman said.

In exchange for the money, Cammarano, an attorney who specialized in election law, promised to support building projects proposed by the informant, who posed as a crooked developer. U.S. District Judge Jose Linares set Cammarano’s sentencing for Aug. 3.

He was charged in July as part of the largest federal sting in state history, ensnaring 46 people including politicians, rabbis and one man accused of trying to sell a human kidney. Cammarano is the most prominent of the 17 defendants who have pleaded guilty in connection to the probe.

"This case serves as an unfortunate example of how pervasive public corruption can be considering the fact that someone so young in his political career can succumb to such enticements," said Michael B. Ward, head of the FBI’s Newark office.

To local Democrats, Cammarano seemed to brim with potential. He was a gifted speaker who married his law school sweetheart, had clean-cut good looks and worked at one of the state’s most prominent firms. During his campaign, Cammarano cast himself as a fiscal watchdog and family man, often appearing with his wife and daughter. But authorities say behind his boyish smile, Cammarano practiced a raw style of politics that long festered on the local waterfront.

Weeks before his run-off election, Cammarano told the informant, Solomon Dwek, that he planned to break the world into three categories after capturing city hall. "There’s the people who were with us, and that’s you guys. There’s the people who climbed on board in the runoff. They can get in line . . . And then there are the people who were against us the whole way . . . They get ground into powder," he said, according to the complaint.

With his wife and daughter beside him, Cammarano was sworn into office July 1. Three weeks later, he was led handcuffed into FBI headquarters.

Here's the former rising young star (on the right) with some of his political mentors. You probably recognize the cadaver on the left, Democrat Senator Frank Lautenberg, flanked by Cammarano's former boss, Democrat Senator Robert Menendez and (thankfully) former Governor, Democrat Jon Corzine. Ah, happier times.