In the run-off election Tuesday for Hoboken, N. J., mayor and council, Ravinder Singh Bhalla won the most votes for councilman-at-large, which will give him the national distinction of holding one of the highest elected offices as a Sikh.

“This election demonstrate that a Sikhs can be successful in the public sphere if (he/she) runs an issue-based campaign,” Ravinder Singh said. “The community is better off as whole if we engage with the (public).”

Ravinder Singh was on a slate with gubernatorial candidate Dawn Zimmer who won by a slim margin, 51 to 49 percent, leading her opponent by 265 votes. But after a large number of absentee ballots were counted early Wednesday, the results flipped. Cammarano is now leading with 67 votes, said Jerry Lore, spokesman for the county clerk’s office. About 100 provisional ballots remain to be counted on Friday. Provisional ballots are essentially those ballots for which a voter’s eligibility was questioned on Election Day. The results may flip again.

“These are very exciting times,” Lore said.

But none of this affects Ravinder Singh. With the highest number of votes, 5,810, he leads his slate candidates, Carol Marsh and David Mello, by a narrow margin. The nearest council candidate from the Cammarano slate is about 300 votes away, Lore said.

“(Ravinder Singh) is right now the strongest of all council members,” he said. “I am 99 percent sure that he will be on the council.” The Hoboken city clerk is expected to certify and announce the new council members once the provisional ballots are counted on Friday.

The losing mayoral candidate is expected to go to file a lawsuit asking that all the ballots be checked for eligibility. “This is very common that when all of a sudden absentee are counted and it changed the results,” Lore said.

Once certified, Ravinder Singh will be sworn in on July 1 in the city council chambers in city hall, his first day in office.

“It’s very humbling,” Ravinder Singh said. “It shows that people were focused on what a candidate brought to the table.”

This was a very competitive election. And several times, Ravinder Singh endured personal and thinly veiled racist attacks from his opponents. But he did not give into negative campaigning.

“He ran one of the highest caliber campaigns that all politicians should follow,” said Arvind Singh, a supporter from Pembroke Pines, Fla., who helped with campaign fundraising. “When going through a campaign, it’s a struggle. You have personal moments when you question your own motives and the campaign’s direction.” He often called or emailed Ravinder Singh for moral support.

When the election results were announced by the campaign, Arvind Singh and many other Sikhs around the country emailed their congratulatory wishes.

Ravinder Singh shares his accomplishment with fellow Sikh, Harvinder Singh Anand, who was elected in June 2007 as mayor of Laurel Hollow, a small community in Long Island, N.Y.

Ravinder Singh said he is cannot think about a career in politics beyond the four years he will spend on the Hoboken council. Right now he just wants to do his best for Hoboken, but nothing is off the table.

“This election proves that anything can happen.”




Note: By Anju Kaur
Sikh News Network staff journalist
anjukaur@sikhnn.com
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