The following guest of the stable comes courtesy of Hoboken resident Sue Pregibon, who was on the steering committee of Hoboken Revolt, a grassroots tax reform organization instrumental in seeing Dawn Zimmer elected mayor in 2009.
Dear Friends,
Official release:
Dear Neighbors, Friends and Family, This Monday from 6:30-8:30pm, we are hosting a kick-off fundraiser for our friend, City Council colleague and Council President Jen Giattino. Jen is a declared candidate for Hoboken Mayor! I hope you will consider joining me and friends, and my council colleague Tiffanie Fisher Monday evening to hear Jen’s vision for Hoboken’s future. Details and some additional information about Jen attached.Please let me know if you have any questions, and please consider sending this around to your friends and neighbors as well. Thanks for your consideration, and hope to see you tomorrow night!
It’s a lovely Sunday and for those who are interested, a Horse is going to spell out what a push poll is and how it works courtesy of Wikipedia.
A push poll is an interactive marketing technique, most commonly employed during political campaigning, in which an individual or organization attempts to manipulate or alter prospective voters’ views/beliefs under the guise of conducting an opinion poll.
(Exactly like MSV detailed in the earlier Saturday story, “Ravi Bhalla push poll alert: are you more likely to vote for him because he saved the city hospital?” etcetera, etcetera.)
More from Wikipedia:
Instead, the push poll is a form of telemarketing-based propaganda and rumor mongering, masquerading as an opinion poll.
In Australia’s Northern Territory defined push-polling as any activity conducted as part of a telephone call made, or a meeting held, during the election period for an election, that: (a) is, or appears to be, a survey (for example, a telephone opinion call or telemarketing call); and (b) is intended to influence an elector in deciding his or her vote.[3]
Push polling has been condemned by the American Association of Political Consultants[4] and the American Association for Public Opinion Research.
MSV published some additional questions from the Bhalla campaign poll. Here’s one from a MSV reader cited briefly in the Saturday story as an example in the headline of push polling:
“As city council president, Ravi saved the city’s hospital, saved 1200 jobs and protected taxpayers from a huge tax increase.”
Talking Ed Note: Push polling is not a crime. It is sleight of hand deployed to alter voter perceptions, re: in this instance how the hospital board, Mayor Zimmer and a group of people on the City Council: Peter Cunningham, Carol Marsh, Dave Mello, Ravi Bhalla and Jen Giattino all played important roles in seeing the hospital saved but are not credited. (Certainly not even paltry “equal credit.”)
In this push poll question, the objective is to see Councilman Ravi Bhalla elevated for “saving the city hospital” which of course is inaccurate among many people who worked tirelessly for hundreds if not thousands of hours without pay to do the impossible. Think the Hoboken hospital board members, especially, Toni Tomarazzo and the late Steve Rofsky who were central to this victory.
In a push poll, highlighting that one council member on a body of nine credited he “saved the city’s hospital” is an example of how such tactics may be used. Push polling is generally acknowledged as a form of negative campaigning.
Campaigns can do polling and insert push polling questions to achieve a desired result; namely, the altering of voter perceptions favorable to a campaign.
Readers continue to share details in their receiving telephone polls on this beautiful summer Saturday. It’s July and four major campaigns are out vying for your vote come November.
Some readers say it’s the shinny penny, Councilman Mike DeFusco running another poll. (His earlier version was a push poll.) This one has some choice questions on Freeholder Anthony “Stick” Romano but is a tamer version than the last.
| Ryan Yacco, the campaign manager for Councilman Mike DeFusco is running a poll for his candidate in Hoboken this weekend according to some reader responses. Here he is back in the day recording a public speaker circa 2011 when he worked for former councilwoman Beth Mason. Some think she ran a poll last weekend. Hoboken is already polled out. |
Councilman Ravi Bhalla apparently has a push poll out
Official release:
Dear friends and neighbors, It is 2.5 weeks in and Jen’s campaign continues to build momentum! And we are excited about Monday’s kick-off fundraiser at Moran’s that we hope you will all attend to hear Jen’s vision for Hoboken’s future! Click here for more details: http://ymlp266.net/z8gYJ8 A number of people have asked us how they can help and there are so many ways:
- “Like” Jen on Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/JenforHobokenMayor/
- Invite your friends on Facebook to “Like” Jen’s page
- Follow Jen on Twitter – https://twitter.com/JenGiattino6
- Follow Jen on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/jengiattinoforhoboken/
- On all three – share/retweet her pictures, posts and events!
- On all three, post your own endorsements of why you think she is the best candidate for Mayor, and tag / link her in your posts!
Ravi Bhalla push poll alert: are you more likely to vote for him because he saved the city hospital?
Another weekend and another political telephone poll, this one of the push poll variety on behalf of Councilman Ravi Bhalla.
Among the dazzling questions for those telephoned:
Are you more likely to vote for Ravi Bhalla because he saved the city hospital?
Are you more likely to vote for Ravi Bhalla because he’s a champion for civil rights?
Well, the push poll matches up well with the Bhalla for Mayor campaign literature which hit the streets within hours of Mayor Zimmer’s withdrawal from the November election and her endorsement of the eight year councilman last month.
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In an exclusive interview, Angelo Valente a former Hoboken City Councilman in the 80’s highlighted the quality of life issues he views as most important to the Mile Square City and how an independent voice can best represent its residents.
“I’ve been contacted by people throughout the community… I’m exploring running for mayor or City Council at-large,” Valente stated. He added that a decision is being weighed with friends, family and neighbors within a week or so saying in a phone interview, “I can have a positive impact either way.”
Official release
Hoboken has a plethora of options for mayor, the partisans of which extol their virtues and never forget to mention the vices of the others. Yet underneath the cacophony that is the politics of personal destruction and aside from the previously closed-door battles in the (formerly united) Zimmerite organization, the public skirmishes between the DeFusco and Freeholder Ramano camps, and apart from the principled independent campaigns of community leader Karen Nason and bicycle supremacist Ronald Bautista, is the question voters are asking – is Hoboken on the right road? Though many friends (including the editor of this site) in the Zimmerite camp celebrate Mayor Zimmer for helping bring Hoboken out of the dark ages of fiscal mismanagement and governance this question remains unanswered and ignored. Instead there is the de facto policy of stumbling through governance that has brought us a program of parking problems rather than solutions, flooding prevention measures that fails to prioritize the regular rain caused flooding, an antiquated POV on local business that has prevented the growth of eateries in neighborhoods across our Mile Square City, and more. This is why I am running – because Hoboken deserves better. We deserve, and I will fight for a fair city government that understands every new business brought to our town means a lessened tax burn on our citizens and enriches our community. I will fight for more flood prevention pumps in the low-lying areas so that none in our city have to worry about coming home after a long day of work only to find a flooded car. I will fight for those who do not have the luxury of going car-free because they need to commute to the suburbs and those that know putting meters on residential blocks changes the character of our neighborhoods. We have an amazing array of positive opportunities to make life in our Mile Square both more affordable and more enriching. From allowing smaller buildings to add one to two levels for added rental stock to permitting the north west of town to become the mix of cultural spaces, restaurants, residences, and parking solutions it could be; from a proposal such as the shot down 2014 project that would have included a bowling alley and rock climbing gym to expanding the official business district from between Observer and 4th on Wash to all the way up Washington St., these are some of the answers to the substantive questions that many of the mayoral candidates have failed to yet answer and that I will pursue when elected to city council. Sincerely, Joshua Einstein
Official release
Dear friends –
I look forward to seeing you this Monday evening at Moran’s to help me kick off my campaign!
Thank you to the many who have shown their support already for my candidacy for Mayor.
As each day passes and I talk with more of our neighbors, I am increasingly excited about what
we will be able to achieve together for our city! See you in 5 days!
– Jen
* if you cannot join Monday and would like to contribute to my campaign, please click on the link below.
I appreciate everyone’s support!
It’s not quite the glory days of SNL with Point-Counterpoint where they’d mix it up with a taste of politics skewering all points of view but today’s Bhalla vs. DeFusco or is it DeFusco vs. Bhalla holds all the entertainment value of your basic rock’em sock’em robots.
For those of you dated enough to recall games with mechanical physical flair before the digital age; this one was jam packed with action and fun.
The Hudson County View has all that action:
http://hudsoncountyview.com/in-hoboken-defusco-goes-after-bhalla-for-adding-political-establishment-attorney/