Questions swirl around Carmelo Garcia and missing campaign reports
UPDATE: See below for a related breaking report on breaking information on the recent election campaigns, courtesy of Grafix Avenger!
He’s gone but not forgotten. The musical answer on Jeopardy would lead some Neil Young fans to answer in the form of a question “Who is Johnny Rotten” but the question of rotten is swirling around the now bounced out of elected office Carmelo Garcia.
Again.
There’s no clarity on his overdue campaign reports in his controversial bid last November to obtain a council seat. As it currently sits, the violations of state law under NJ ELEC, the campaign watchdog agency are mounting.
The limited incomplete answers raise more questions. How much was spent on Carmelo Garcia to see overturned Council President Jen Giattino in the sixth ward council race last November?
Other than the five figures of funding by Beth Mason and her husband Richard G. Mason of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz in a torrent of ugly mailers through their political subordinates John Keim and Ines Garcia Keim via a shadowy PAC, “Real Democrats for Hoboken,” questions loom large.
 |
| Richard G. Mason of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz underwriting some of the ugliest campaign mailiers in memory on behalf of the ethically challenged Carmelo Garcia. |
According to the limited filed reports with NJ ELEC, Carmelo Garcia allegedly made zero campaign expenditures in the month of September leading up to the November election.
That will raise eyebrows among politicos inside and outside of the Reform movement who reported Garcia to be in “full blown campaign mode” back last July.
Based on the voluminous campaign activities, Garcia is thought by some to have spent the most of any council candidate last year but the totals remain a mystery. Six figures certainly seems likely.
The Carmelo Garcia campaign reports showing a complete listing of campaign contributions, their sources and expenditures were due last year.
Garcia was handily defeated at the polls by Councilwoman Jen Giattino last November. Reports about a broken election machine on Election Day in a strong reform oriented sixth ward district may have kept his lopsided defeat from being worse.
NJ ELEC unlike some other agencies of late has taken action on Hoboken and ethically challenged officials.
Back in April of 2014, MSV was the first media to make a direct inquiry to former Councilwoman Beth Mason at a City Council meeting on the mountain of potential millions faced for her lack of accountable campaign reporting. (ELEC overlooked numerous expenditures never reported focusing on Mason’s thumbing her nose intransigence.)
Beth Mason and her treasurer husband, Richard G. Mason of Wachtell, Lipton eventually saw a negotiated reduction of fines from seven figures to $44,000 placing her in the top 15 of all time NJ ELEC violatiors in the state of New Jersey.
Is Carmelo Garcia going to be Hoboken’s next NJ ELEC poster child?
 |
| An actual limited and late filing by Carmelo Garcia claims to have made no expenditures last September in the heat of his failed City Council campaign. |
Talking Ed Note: Unrelated, issues continue to surface and plague Carmelo Garcia after his iron handed reign ended in the Hoboken Housing Authority revealed serious audit problems.
The HHA falls under the federal agency HUD, Housing and Urban Development based in Washington D.C.
Related: Grafix Avenger broke a story earlier today showing alleged monies being routed by Beth Mason and her family using her political operative “business partner” to Carmelo Garcia and Ruben Ramos!
Correction: MSV stated Sara Barracato is listed as giving the Ruben Ramos for Council campaign $2,000. The correct figure is $2,600, the individual maximum contribution.