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| Ramos devours Occhipinti's campaign |
Once again, Beth Mason and her chief political operative, 'Finboy' Barracato, have driven a campaign into the ground. Once again, a campaign was hijacked by their maniacal obsession to turn a member of our community into a pariah, destroy their reputation and make them unemployable. Such attacks lack a political objective; they are purely personal.
Last year it was yours truly starring in a Nazi Truck video, in the BoE race. This year it's Ravi Bhalla, starring in Mason newsletters, press releases, a City Council resolution,and a full-on marketing effort.
These tactics fail because they 'preach to the choir' and only serve to galvanize Reform. This year, they have accomplished more. Because WHO is the biggest beneficiary in the relentless pursuit to trash Bhalla?
Ruben Ramos.
One Hoboken's failures seem to have moved Ramos into second place, and wrecked Frank Raia.
How? One Hoboken's chief political strategist, Finboy Barracato, once again forgot that campaigns are about winning elections and not using the boss's money to bash his enemies.
The One Hoboken 'brain trust' was in fact, focused on the Ravi- jihad: resolutions, newsletters, seeking publicity for his Ravi-obsession. The only press release they have issued was the Peyton Letter, an attack on a football legend.
One Hoboken has not issued a single press release critical of Ramos!
Not one! Raia's paying a reported $1,000/week to a PR person for.... what? Apparently to do nothing while Ruben leapfrogs over Occhipinti and 'Finboy' Barracato is waging war on Bhalla.
And Raia? Out to lunch.
GA will continue to believe that One Hoboken has been infiltrated by Ramos, who has effectively suppressed ALL criticism of Ruben and fanned the silly, counter-productive jihad against Bhalla.
More 'fuel' to my belief: Al Sullivan writes in his column this week that Occhipinti backed out of a cable tv debate because Zimmer declined and he would face Ramos alone. Occhipinti declined a chance to go head-to-head with Ruben? WHO told him to do that? Even the cable producer, Pat O'Meila, called Occhipinti's decision a "failed opportunity".
Of course!
And who is living with Occhipinti? His PR person. She didn't persuade Tim he should appear and challenge Ramos? Unless she did the opposite. See what I mean? Holy MOLEy.
One Hoboken's refusal to campaign against Ramos plus the inordinate amount of energy and resources directed at whacking Bhalla (Finboy's obsession) has driven Occhipinti into Siberia, and with him Frank Raia.
GA read the Raia letter in the Hoboken Reporter. Holy cow. Another 'communications' disaster. Who let that go to print? Holy MOLEy.
Remember, when Occhipinti entered the race it chopped the ABZs (Anyone But Zimmer) cleanly in two.
Now Tim's lackluster effort to campaign against Ruben for his lousy record on Hoboken City Council, his mom's patronage job- the first one cut by the Hoboken Fiscal Monitor, late Judy Tripodi- his double-dipping on a full time teacher's salary while he's in Trenton... Tim's FAILURE to campaign against Ruben and to oust any MOLES.... well look what's happened.
A third place Occhipinti wrecks his political viability in the future. A third place Ruben does the same.
Ruben recognized that and is running a professional campaign, dirty and devious. Timmy is simply running dirty. Dirt doesn't win. If it did, Beth Mason would be mayor, and Move Forward would be on the BoE. GA hears Russo is the brains behind Ramos.
As a Reformer, GA is disappointed that Timmy rolled over and played 'dead' and is getting stomped by Ramos. We are where we started: a two-way race with Ramos. Don't take anything for granted, peeps.
We must GET OUT THE VOTE for Zimmer, Bhalla, Mello and Doyle.
Meanwhile, will Tim's trouncing wake up Mason and will she finally ditch the crazies? She has invested plenty of resources in this race for Timmy. Her chief political strategist seems to have fucked that up, once again. That fish is a political bad-luck charm.
GA hasn't read the Ravi-drivel in the Hoboken Reporter yet. I glanced at it- it appears to be written in he said-she said fashion, instead of the Reporter's taking the conclusive evidence that Bhalla has done nothing wrong and writing the piece THAT way. Instead, publishing this he-said she said crap on fallacious ethics charges by a heavy ad buyer ON THE EVE OF AN ELECTION is out and out yellow journalism.
SHAME ON THE HOBOKEN REPORTER for doing BETH MASON"S BIDDING ON THE EVE OF AN ELECTION.
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| Lies and Obsession |
The Reporter is hemorrhaging money and cut all of the staff salaries by 10% across the Board. Of course that rag is going to do ANYTHING to keep the money from the Mason checkbook open, even if it means compromising any shred of journalistic ethics that they still had and taking marching orders from that slimy tuna chum Finboy.
ReplyDeleteMindak and Gonzales were working the soccer parents at 1600 this AM. Table set up. Giveaway toys on table to bait kids; then parents would come along; working to charm the naive uninformed newbies.
ReplyDeleteLook both Ramos & Occhipinti are for Vision 20/20. Frank Raia no doubt has told Timmy not to debate Ruben, because the whole purpose of both campaigns is only to unseat Dawn to get Vision $/$ going. Remember mayor Zimmer is against Vision $/$ in the same way she was opposed to giving away our city's only hospital to developers to build luxury housing in its place. They are not fighting against each other on the question of issues, but who will write the contracts for Vision $/$ and get the majority of the graft $ which will be in the millions. This is why it's important to get the word out to vote for Dawn & her slate. It's not only to save Senior & public housing from being done away with in Hoboken or the 20 year potential tax abatements that will cause homeowners taxes to sky rocket to pay for the abatements, but most importantly that these candidates don't care about our city. With Public Housing gone, what else will they give away to developers at the expense of the taxpayers? Our Public Parks, the hospital? I went into cardiac arrest. All I can say is thank goodness I live right nearby the Hoboken Medical Center or I'd be dead. Hospitals, parks, and public housing, especially for Seniors & the disabled are a necessity, not assets for private developers to takeover and profit from.
ReplyDeleteIt's too late, but Raia and Finn boy have finally figured out that AP and Cryan actually are working for ruben to destroy Raia and Tim's campaign. We'll know more after the election when we seen how long AP stays with unemployed Tim. And what reward Cryan gets for destroying Raia? My guess, both AP and Cryan will find comfortable seats in the Ruben administration -- provided Ruben can actually beat Dawn
ReplyDeleteOf course Amandas working for Ramos. Why else would she freak out on GA like that? And do nothing but let Ramos run over Tim. It looks like a success.
DeleteA PR person who does no PR. Obvious.
Of course Amanda's working for Ramos, why else would she be shacking up with him? I mean, really, have you seen those recent photos of Timmy, all puffy and sweaty with thinning hair. Yeah, dude's a real catch.
DeleteHey AP, why don't you tell Timmy to put a ring on it? Go on, I dare you.
Just received call from telemarketer asking if they could count on my vote for Occipinti ticket. For real, she grossly mispronounced each and everyone of their names; butchered them. Hilarious! What else would you expect from the Keystone Cop ticket?!
ReplyDeleteI got it. I bad at lying so told them they did not have my support.
DeleteGot that same call and of course told them they had my support.
ReplyDeleteMason's stinky salmon was so focused on Ravi he didn't see what was happening to Tim's campaign. The guy's an idiot.
ReplyDeleteFinn boy, Raia, and Tim got taken for a ride. They were betrayed from the start by AP and Cryan. Both are working for Ruben and deliberately destroyed the Raia campaign from the inside. Look at the horririble letter AP wrote in this week's Reporter. It makes Raia out to be an idiot, and there were people close to Raia who saw it and puked, but couldn't stop it. The question is what will AP and Cryan get from Ruben for doing this?
ReplyDeleteYou say Finboy got taken for a ride? If that's the case its because he was wrapped up in Ravi Ravioli idiot blog posting and scheming against Bhalla, NOT doing his job which is to PROTECT and ELECT his team. Tim will come out of this as damaged goods because Finboy wasn't minding the store. Holy moley!
DeleteEvery time I read that name I crave Italian food.
DeleteAnd yes, he's an idiot.
You guys are way off track. Cryan hates Ramos because he thinks that Ramos stabbed his cousin Joe in the back. The chances of Cryan working for Ramos is less than the chance of him working for zimmer.
ReplyDeleteThere's no grand Ramos spy operation going on here. These guys (and gals) are genuinely as stupid as they seem hard as that may be to believe.
Nobody could be that stupid unless it was on purpose. I mean, badly written press releases and letters, pathetic campaign. I thought at least Finn Boy had some kind of brain. And why isn't AP and Tim going after Ramos? why did they duck a debate with Ramos?
DeleteYou do realize she is a former model, right? Yes they can be that stupid and not on purpose.
DeleteI disagree. These people were put there for the purpose of derailing Raia and keeping him from getting the council seat.
DeleteLegitimately useless and stupid people are just at good at screwing up a campaign as someone who deliberately tries to do it on purpose. Considering how dumb some of the people surrounding both campaigns are, I would discount the possibility that more than a few of those people are derailing the campaign inadvertently.
DeleteIMO that's the Tell. Someone should have dragged his ass to that debate. The guy quit his job to run for mayor and he's skippng debates? Someone's stopping him from swinging at Ruben. Occhipinti hasn't landed one punch. The only one the campaigns hit is Bhalla and as far as i can tell its helping Zimmer.
ReplyDeleteSomeone inside the campaign is protecting Ruben. Who do you think it is and why?
AP denied working for Ruben back in June. But she might as well be since all of what she's done so far (and there hasn't been a lot of anything and nothing that doesn't damage Tim and Raia more than it helps) has been against Ramos. Finn Boy apparently raised a squawk about it at a meeting last week, but Cryan has done nothing except allow AP's horrible letters and releases to get printed. If Cryan isn't helping AP to destroy Raia's ticket, then someone's holding a gun to Cryan's head and making him turn a blind eye to all AP is doing to damage Tim and Raia
ReplyDeleteDavid Cruz ran Timmys communications in 2010. He knew what he was doing though TO got in on 575 paid campaign workers who coincidently voted absentee. Did Cruz make a grand per week? Cryan managed that one too.
ReplyDeleteI'm told Cruz hated every minute of it -- and that he would never do it again. Tim was that full of himself.
Deleteyou know your campaign sucks when the campaign becomes more about the consultants than it does about the candidates or the issues. But shame on the candidates. There are some good professional consultants available in Hudson County with years of winners. Why didn't they hire the tried and true?
ReplyDeleteany objective reader of the HR has to come away from this week's issue wondering what the hell is up. instead of reporting on all the candidates' records and what they stand for, every election article instead puts the mayor and councilman bhalla on the defensive. the articles are largely used to force the administration to defend itself against every hair-brained accusation, none of which are questioned or challenged by the HR. not that anyone ever mistook the HR for actual objective journalism, but geez they so are blatantly carrying the water of mason and the OG that it could actually benefit reform.
ReplyDeleteSorry, I didn't read it. Our porter usually throws that crap out as soon as it shows up on our doorstep.
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