HOBOKEN — The city woman charged by federal prosecutors with promoting a cash-for-votes bribery scheme is tied to a committee that unsuccessfully campaigned to weaken the city's rent control regulations in 2013.

The committee, Let the People Decide, paid Lizaida Camis $1,600 for "campaign work" in two $800 increments in September and October 2013, campaign records show. She was one of nine people the committee reported paying for campaign work in those two months.

In October and November of that year, prosecutors allege, Camis arranged to pay at least three voters $50 each to apply for and cast mail-in ballots in that year's municipal race. The U.S. attorney's office arrested Camis on Sept. 20 and hit her with a bribery charge.

Let the People Decide reported giving nearly 350 people $50 each to act as "campaign workers" in November 2013, totaling over $17,000, in its effort to pass the rent control referendum. The ballot question failed by 122 votes.

The committee is linked to real-estate developer Frank Raia, who unsuccessfully ran for mayor in 2009 and for a City Council seat in 2013. When the referendum intended to weaken rent control laws first went to voters in 2012, Raia, known as "Pupie," was listed as the Let the People Decide chair in the group's campaign finance reports. Andrew Canonico was named as the treasurer.

When the issue went before voters again in 2013 — a judge rejected the 2012 results — Let the People Decide's campaign reports listed Canonico as its chair and treasurer.

Phone calls and a text seeking comment from Raia were not returned. Reached by phone, Canonico said he did not know anything about the charges facing Camis.

"I guess we'll find out in the future," he said.

Raia and Canonico listed their address on Let the People Decide's campaign reports as 450 Seventh St. in Hoboken. On a resident directory in the building's lobby, Raia's name appears next to a third-floor unit and Canonico's next to a fourth-floor unit. Property records show Raia owns both units.

The arrest has stunned political folks in this city, both because of the length of time between Camis' alleged misdeeds and her arrest and because she is unknown even to some people who are deeply involved in Hoboken's elections.

Prosecutors allege she told voters to pick up their $50 "from the Jefferson Street office." 520 Jefferson St. is the address of Raia's social club, which is furnished with some couches, a television and a framed "Hillary 4 Prison 2016" shirt hanging on the wall. Two men who were there on Monday night said Raia was not around.

Roman Brice, who blogs at Mile Square View, posted a picture in 2013 of people lined up outside 520 Jefferson St. the night after that year's election. He quoted one woman who told him she had been paid to vote.

A phone call seeking comment from Camis' attorney, Brandon D. Minde, was not returned.

Camis' criminal complaint does not say which campaign she worked for. The mayoral candidates in 2013 were Dawn Zimmer, the incumbent and winner; Tim Occhipinti; and Ruben Ramos, currently the City Council president. Zimmer said Camis did not work for her campaign. A request for comment from Occhipinti was not returned. Raia ran for council on Occhipinti's ticket.

Camis shows up on Ramos' campaign finance reports, via a $250 donation on June 28, 2013 from his campaign to Camis for a "community health fair donation." Ramos told The Jersey Journal Camis did not work for his campaign and he said the $250 was a donation to her church.

Terrence T. McDonald may be reached at tmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @terrencemcd. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.