it's election day again in Hoboken voters are deciding a runoff contest for a Council seat in the city's first Ward it's a significant race that could shift the balance of power on the nine member Council either for or against current mayor Ravi Bhalla and comes after neither of the two candidates Paul penano or Rafi Cordova secured at least 50% of the vote during the general election as Ted Goldberg reports the campaigns have been full of mudslinging that could spur an investigation once the votes are counted Hoboken being Hoboken it's you know try anything you can when it all costs that's how Paul prano is reacting to allegations that one of his supporters is paying people to vote for him the runoff election for the last seat on Hoboken city council got a bit more salacious after the campaign behind candidate rafy Cordova claims residents in this apartment building were given $50 to vote for his opponent Cordova and pres Zano were the top two vote Getters during last month's election but neither of them got half of the vote prompting the runoff election some residents wanted to uh come forward uh they were nervous about retribution and so we uh I helped them on their behalf submit a letter to the attorney general um and and you know we we we made it public because we wanted people to be aware we've had nothing to do with it uh we've been told even from my opponent's side that we have nothing to do we've run a campaign just to be sure Cordova's campaign sent a letter to the Attorney General's office asking to investigate the woman accused of pulling the scheme is Anison Tron who told us last month I vehemently deny paying anyone to vote and I'm looking into filing a defamation suit against those who have made these false allegations city council members at Hoboken are split on if they think these claims are legitimate or just last minute mudslinging everything about that story is just literally a madeup story story I don't know what to believe coming coming uh out of there you know I'm focusing on helping the residents uh with respect to this particular issue the opponents supporters have a tendency in the last week of an election to just create awful allegations and don't really care about who they hurt along the way not saying Paul's coordinating it but but you know when your supporters are out there uh sewing Discord and and you know adding confusion to the mix uh you you know it it makes me wonder once I understood even more clearly what the assertions were um and how they were saying it was happening they weren't consistent with what we've known to be what a paid for vote operation actually looks like hobok and mayor Ravi Bala has indorsed cordiva and would have majority support from Council if he wins Bala spokesman Rob Horowitz says councilwoman Tiffany fiser and councilman Ruben Ramos are demonstrating that they will do or say anything to come to the rescue of the candidate they deem key to their own personal Ambitions they don't know any of the facts yet are willing to smear Joe Quintero one of their Council colleagues who has a well-earned reputation for honesty both candidates say they would welcome an investigation if there is any Mis prooi or anything wrong there should be an investigation and things should happen uh swiftly on that people should want to get to the bottom of it because it's not the first time it's happened time and again in Hoboken and so we uh you know who whoever is uh responsible should be brought to Justice the candidates say their first-term priorities are both focused on tenants housing Justice Public Safety and quality of life issues specifically um I would like to Define unconscionable uh rent hikes cuz uh in Hoban they're getting out of control people are getting sometimes 20 30 40% increases the first thing that we should uh tackle is the rat situation uh nobody wants to talk about a rat crisis but at the end of the day they're going to sleep right now for the winter when they wake up let's have a comprehensive plan the results should be in shortly after 8:00 p.m. when polls close in Hoboken I'm Ted Goldberg NJ Spotlight News [Music] [Music]