Today marks one year. A sad Lenz-i-versary.
The 4th Ward Special Election on November 2, 2010 brought Hoboken this unhappy result:
Ding dong...
In he washed, Tim Occhipinti, in a tidal wave of VBMs with a nearly equal number of 'paid workers' and 13.4K of Beth Mason cash... which eventually resulted in a pile of criminal complaints sitting on the desk of NJ Attorney General Paula Dow.
Here's what Blue Jersey said about that election:
Red Flags: How much does it cost to buy an election in Hoboken's 4th ward?
Outgoing Hoboken Councilman Michael Lenz's supporters say it costs about $22,000.
That's how much his opponent Tim Occhipinti spent on "campaign workers" to win Ward 4's Council seat in November. What's unusual about that? Well, nothing, until you consider that there were about 575 of them, and that for all that Election Day "field" help there was little Occhipinti campaign presence visible on 4th Ward streets (say the Lenz folks). And that Occhipinti paid 575 workers for an election in which only 2,076 people cast ballots (Lenz Election Day paid workers = 17). Most alarming is a spike - a big one - in vote-by-mail ballots, and who it was who turned them in: overwhelmingly it was Occhipinti's "campaign workers". Hoboken Ward 4 absentee voting dwarfs that of every other election in Hudson County, according to the Hudson Clerk's figures. The county prosecutor's office recently referred 190 vote-by-mail ballots to the state Attorney General's office, though it's not known if any investigation concerns the Lenz campaign's allegations.
Take a gander at this graphic, then tell me you don't see red flags. You're looking a chart of the vote-by-mail percentages for the Hudson County general election (data source). Compare Occhipinti's absentee voter percentages with other Hudson races, and with Lenz's race:
(GA added the pile of money, etc. atop the bar to the original graphic)
Pretty horrific.
Some speculate the FBI wanted an 'in' to Hoboken to investigate election fraud; fortuitously, Mayor Zimmer's call on City Hall's data theft handed them our Pandora's box of corruption.
So, today is a sad day for honest and smart government. Speaking as a lover of clean government and as a Lenzbian.
Yes, November is a month of anniversaries... for Hoboken and for GA.
It'll be my one year Smear-i-versary soon. Here's how GA celebrated my 1-month Smear-iversary:
Remember that?
When Beth Mason (a Jewish convert) ran to the Jewish media to report that this Jewish artist (me) was an anti-Semite ?
You know, the Beth Mason that runs around town wearing a big honker of a crucifix (see below)? That one.
She enlisted her lawyer-friend Larry Stempler (on the Board of Directors of the Washington PAC, National Jewish Democratic Council(NJCD)) to have me "condemned". Yup, I'll be celebrating THAT Smear-i-versary on November 17th and you're invited!
Yes, indeed. November is a month of anniversaries. Shall we, um.. celebrate?
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