Hoboken's biggest website exposing corruption and bad pols
One of the rules for a fair election is that no signs, buttons or candidate literature can appear anywhere within 100 feet of a polling station. But what about non-candidate self-promotion.
In one 4th ward polling station, there’s this bag o’ donuts. Note the special sticker:
Photo courtesy Citizens for an Ethical & Bethless Hoboken
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Friends,
Our time has come. We now have the distict priviledge of making our voices heard today through the act of voting.
In a democracy there can be no greater honor than voting. It is our chance to play our part in building stronger communities, a stronger state, and a stronger United States of America.
Of course I respectfully ask you for your vote today. If you believe in lower taxes, rooting out government corruption, and building high performing public schools, then I am your candidate.
I am in Column “C”. If you are in Hoboken, I also urge you vote for the rest of the Column “C” Democratic Committee candidates today.
You can find your polling place here. Please remember that polls close at 8:00 p.m.
Exercise your franchise! Our time has come.
Sincerely,
Ravi S. Bhalla
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Today is the primary election for two Assembly seats and the local party committees. Hoboken’s Reform movement last year overturned the control of the Democratic Party Committee and has a real fight on its hands now.
Michele “five dollars a tow” Russo is working hard to get people out to vote so she can get her hands back on the local machinery. Historically the Hoboken Democratic Party has been a vehicle for wheeling hundreds of thousands of dollars into the hands of La Familia, greasing the wheels for elections and polluting the whole body politic in town.
There’s been notations reaching MSV Councilwoman Beth Mason is leveling charges Mayor Zimmer campaigned for Gov. Chris Christie back when he was a candidate for NJ Governor. To this some might say they only wish but the truth is Mayor Zimmer came around when the Governor presented a toolkit for municipalities to regain control over their tax structures, not before.
The mayor had attended an event in Hoboken for then Governor Corzine and never did attend any Chris Christie event.
The Wiley Coyote, Eric Kurta notes when a Hoboken Mayor actually did campaign on behalf of a Republican candidate for Governor:
If you put money down there would be a special City Council meeting Monday night, you were out of some coin. Bet. Word from the City Clerk’s office was there would be no meeting but reality has a way of intruding on the best laid plans of operatives and grandstanders even when they think they have crossed all the i’s and dotted the t’s.
| A plan to harass and sully the names of two mayoral staffers didn’t materialize in a special city council meeting. The meeting called by Councilwoman Mason turned into nothing at all. Did anyone else cover this? |
In this case, the Friday letter delivered late afternoon from Councilwoman Beth Mason calling for a meeting didn’t get off the ground. Since she never answered the questions on the Open Meetings Act, it’s not clear what transpired between her letter and Monday but the doors at City Hall were locked up tight.
Update: The feedback from this investigative story has been nothing short of tremendous. Some of you have provided great responses and it has been consistently very positive. Almost every single subscriber who has touched base expressed very strong positive reaction. MSV will keep digging.
One subscriber advised the article be distributed to media and law enforcement. As stated at the end of the article, you are free to send it to the New Jersey Attorney General Paula Dow’s office:
From the desk of Councilman Ravi Bhalla: Dear Trusted Friends, For many reasons things are breaking our way in the Assembly race. I’ve put in tremendous resources into this 4 week race. We have a full-time campaign manager, field coordinator, assistant field coordinator, and a Get Out the Vote organizer for this last week. In addition, we’ve had about 40 canvassers who’ve visited the home of every registered Democratic voter in Jersey City and Weekhawken and most of Union City. In addition, every registered Democrat has received at least one mailer from me and should receive a second today or tomorrow. We’ve also aired a television commercial on all the main local cable news outlets. Finally all voters in the District will be receiving microtargetted robocalls tonight. I’m feeling great and energized coming into this last day. I write in part because we need your help with Hoboken turnout. Unlike past elections, we now have a crystal clear list of ID’d voters who are our supporters throughout Hoboken. =&0=& Hoboken could be the difference tomorrow. Alternatively, if you want to be at key areas around town to handout campaign, that’s fine too. Please contact ben@hobokenahead.org if you can help. Thanks to everyone who has helped get out the word tomorrow. I know the powers that be are shocked that we ran this level of campaign. Let’s go out and shock them some more tomorrow. Contact ben@hobokenahead.org tomorrow if you can help. Thanks, RaviBelow is a release from The Hoboken Journal’s Kurt Gardiner. He has decided to run as an Independent for Hudson County Freeholder. He gives his reasons below and will be at the PATH station between 5:00 and 6:30 gathering signatures. He then plans to be outside his residence at 807 Garden St. between 7:00 – 8:00 to obtain the needed 100 signatures to get on the ballot by 4:00 pm tomorrow. He’s halfway to the goal. =&0=& |