Ravi Bhalla and Michael Russo in hush-hush secret endorsement dinner!

 MILE SQUARE CITY NEWS EXCLUSIVE

Ravi Bhalla and Michael Russo hold secret dinner over possible endorsement.

Outgoing Hoboken mayor and pending NJ Assemblyman Ravi Bhalla come November's elections isn't done extracting everything of value he can from Hoboken yet. A secret dinner with Councilman Michael Russo was the venue for a pow wow over a possible Bhalla mayoral endorsement. 

The recent fiasco with a controversial automated parking ticketing device led to the mayor's office retreating with an announcement they will limit ticketing frequency of downtown Hoboken businesses. They, like all of Hoboken, saw nothing by way of input or notification. The recent controversy is not connected to the Ravi-Russo dinner. 

The Hoboken Nixle system never mentioned to the public the implementation of the suspect parking ticketing system and the City Council attempted to freeze the enforcement at its last meeting. 

A resolution to put a halt to the operation, sponsored by Councilwoman Tiffanie Fisher and Councilman Ruben Ramos failed in a 4-4 tie City Council vote. All of the Ravibot council votes including Emily Jabbour and Joe Quintero iced the public protest and voted to protect the automated ticketing and Bhalla's questionable action. The late Jen Giattino's council seat remains empty until the Sixth Ward election next month.

Perhaps Ravi Bhalla has been too busy with other "deals" and weighing endorsing Michael Russo for mayor to bother to talk to Hoboken about his actions. 

Sources who declined to go on the record for fear of retaliation say Ravi Bhalla recently held the secret dinner with Councilman Michael Russo who is feverishly cutting deals in an effort to make good use of his 100K+ Big Developer backing with the impending mayoral runoff next month. 

The secret dinner revived memories of the earlier Ravi-Russo Alliance first noticed when Bhalla brought Russo as his "special guest" to a county Democrat Committee meeting featuring Union City Mayor Brian Stack. 

The Ravi-Russo Alliance Famiglia together again? 
A secret dinner between the two discussed a Ravi Bhalla endorsement of Russo
but no one is talking about it on the record. Poor Emily! 

More recently, Russo cut a deal with Bhalla to get Ravibot council votes making him the Hoboken City Council President for a year. The deal didn't end there. Russo also extracted a guarantee to be made City Council Vice President as part of a two-year follow-up. Now he's going for it all! 

What was discussed at the secret Ravi-Russo endorsement dinner remains a tightly guarded secret. A phone call and text message to both Ravi Bhalla and Michael Russo earlier today yielded no denial, only silence. 

Councilwoman Emily Jabbour, a ready-made candidate for Bhalla's endorsement apparently is not going to get the outgoing mayor's endorsement despite almost eight years of rubber-stamping his failed agenda. Even the fiasco of the parking ticketing vote backing the suspect actions by the mayor's office won't obtain it.

Sources also point to fallout months ago where Bhalla demanded his campaign staff be placed on a Jabbour campaign for mayor. It didn't sit well with Jabbour as those people come with mega premium prices. The relationship soured and the Jabbour campaign is weighing taking action now to distance itself from Bhalla in a last minute bid to win Hoboken votes. 

Another mayoral campaign is rumored to have sought Ravi Bhalla's endorsement for mayor but those talks withered. Dini Ajmani, who contributed thousands to Ravi Bhalla and his Ravibot council members as recent as last year will not receive an endorsement.  Reportedly, she did get a one-on-one tongue lashing from Bhalla for her withering fire on his policies costing Hoboken, although she's never named (or blamed him) for Hoboken's woeful financial condition.

Last, there's Councilwoman Tiffanie Fisher who would likely choose death over an endorsement from Ravi Bhalla. She's spent years hacking away at Bhalla budgets and sounding alarm on bad policy.

What comes next? Maybe nothing as Bhalla may choose to sit out any endorsement in November and then rethink the matter pending the winners facing off in an early December runoff.

Hoboken Election 2025 Note: Whatever you do, Ravi, it's your endorsement decision. Just don't try to push the horse over a fair-minded question. 

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