Emily Jabbour elected mayor of Hoboken

Hoboken Councilwoman Emily Jabbour won Hoboken’s runoff mayoral election.

She has defeated Michael Russo, a two-decade member of Hoboken’s Council and the son of a former mayor.  At 11:13 PM, and with 100% of the votes counted, Jabbour defeated Russo by 853 votes, 6,407 to 5,554 (53.6% to 46.4%).

Two at-large city council candidates allied with Jabbour — Caitlin Layson (6,211), Steve Firestone (5,888) and incumbent Joe Quintero (5,783) won.  Liz Urtecho (5,361) came within 422 votes of Quintero  Nicole Magana (5,291) and Peter Keelig (4,952) were defeated.

Jabbour will succeed Mayor Ravi Bhalla, who won a 32nd legislative district seat in the state Assembly last month. Jabbour was first elected to the Council in 2017. 

In the nonpartisan general election, Jabbour led the field with 27%, while Russo nabbed 24% to move on to the runoff. 

Assemblywoman-elect Katie Brennan, who will serve alongside Bhalla and represent Hoboken, endorsed Jabbour, as did state Sen. Raj Mukherji (D-Jersey City).  Councilwoman Tiffanie Fisher, who finished third in the general election with 19%, endorsed Russo in the runoff.