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| left: Frank Raia's 10/25/2013 ELEC shows $10K payment to Skyline Media right: LinkedIn profile shows Skyline Media owner has worked for Swibinsky's Vision Media for 23 years. Raia's campaign work was brought to Skyline Media by James Barracato. Barracato was working on the Raia campaign. |
Frankly, GA's taken aback by the response to Thursday's post Smoking Gun: Finboy Hired Swibinski Director for the Raia Campaign.
This blog has documented years of non-kosher, occasionally "illegal" activities going on in the Mile Square with hardly a ripple. Other than Hoboken's tight-knit community of reform bloggers (most of whom are Defendants in SLAPP litigation initiated by political operatives Lane Bajardi and Kim Cardinal Bajardi) it seemed like everyone else was sleeping through a very long movie.
Including Hoboken's Fourth Estate, which has been corrupted by the very elements GA and MSV write about. Why bite the hand that feeds you Page 3 ads and otherwise keeps you afloat? Hence, Hoboken's Fourth Estate has worked cooperatively with political operatives against the blogs, with one in particular James 'Finboy' Barracato, a key player in the effort to silence the blogs and it seems, co-opt local media for his boss, Beth Mason.
Well, Friday's story has woken folks up like never before. Why?
I am told because GA caught Barracato, dead-to-rights on his own ELEC report, showing he hired Ruben Ramos' political team to do the Raia campaign's TV ad!
And GA thinks it's because it is the tip of iceberg, of a much larger operation (scam) that's been going on in Hoboken for some time, to control Hoboken's print and online media on behalf of Beth Mason while double-crossing Mason and skimming money from her, and now- Frank Raia!
Frank appears to have been the unwitting victim of a conspiracy to tap his wealth at the same time, destroy him politically. Holy MOLEy.
Who was a key player in the scam? Finboy.
Because you don't hire the opposition to 'help' your own candidate unless you want to (1) destroy the campaign you allegedly work for and (2) destroy the candidate.
And at the same time, the sneaky salmon was presumably being paid by Beth Mason to work for Tim and Raia.
In fact, GA believes it gets even worse, and involves others and their manipulation via sex, but you know, I'm a G-rated blog, so not going there. Sorry.
Oh, witnesses at this weeks League of Municipalities in Atlantic City spotted the traitorous trout in the company of Tim Occhipinti and his former Communications Director, Amanda Palascciano.
So, here is what Earwitnesses told GA about the fall-out, which is only beginning.
Raia is livid. He's completely humiliated. Raia and his people are having a big meeting tonight about this. You can't say he wasn't warned but he wouldn't listen to nobody.Wow! GA has opened a Pandora's box of sorts, so it will be curious to see what else flies out.
Sacco's people read your post and brought it to him. Sacco is furious at Swibinski. Bernie Kenny is furious because he elicited a promise from Sacoo to keep Swibinski out. Then you have Phil Swibinski writing on your blog that he worked exclusively for Ruben. I guess nobody told Sacco. Now he looks like he broke a promise to Zimmer. Now Sacco and Zimmer have to talk. Kenny's been calling. This makes Sacco look bad.
Barracato is a longtime friend of Stephen Israel, the Swibinski guy. Barracato brought him the Raia campaign then skimmed $5Gs off the top of the $10Gs he charged Raia. Barracato took a 50% cut for himself.
I did notice a large payment, $5G, to a "Field consultant" on a campaign that literally had no ground game. And the address points to a residence-- GA hasn't found a business listing to that address, or for the listed company name.
So GA asks, was this a legitimate campaign expense, or another run on Frank Raia's wallet?
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| Curious payment: $5G to a 'Field Consultant' at 76 Seaview Ave. in Jersey City, The campaign seemed to have no field operation. |
Never mind Snooky, we in Hoboken ARE a reality show.
This is not a new routine. Finn Boy has had a relationship with this North Bergen TV guy for almost a decade. Finn Boy, pretending to have Beth's best interests, most likely sank her mayoral election in 2009 as well, shaving his share of the wealth from her bank account. He only got caught this time,. The question is: how do we stop him from doing this again?
ReplyDeleteYou can't !
DeleteBut stories like this just might make anyone who hires these people think twice.
Once they lose credibility it will reduce revenues and then maybe they will be more ethical.
Why stop him from doing it again? We should award him a medal instead! Just imagine 4 years of Mayor Mason, followed now by 4 years of Mayor Occhipinti!
ReplyDeleteYa think?
DeleteAsk Ravi Bhalla, the blogger lawsuit Defendants, Nazi Truck victims GA and Horse, anyone ever smeared on Hoboken411, victims of racist and offensive anonymous blog postings (Ravi Ravioli), victims of slanted stories in the Hoboken Reporter, etc., stc., etc., what they think of about James Barracato's effect on media and civil discourse in Hoboken and what kind of medal he deserves.
Man, that guy's an idiot. This all blew up because he didn't cover his tracks on the ELEC. He put the Swibo guys company right there. Its all his fault everybody found out. I think fish are smarter than that guy. You should call him Turnip Head.
DeleteFinn boy wanted Ramos mayor he's working for the Russia that's why
Deletethe Russia? you mean the Russos.
DeleteWhy stop him? How thick can you get? Finn boy betrayed Beth in 2009 to get Cammerano elected. He tried the same thing this year to get Ramos elected. If you don't stop him, next time he'll succeed like he did in 2009. That's why
DeleteRaia is livid, but what about Mason? Does she read this stuff? Does she know she's been double-crossed and scammed for years by James? Does she care, or just see it as the cost of doing business?
ReplyDeleteThose are great questions. I'd love to know myself.
DeleteI doubt she reads the blogs. It seems like she's delegated all of that to one particular operative- the guy Terry Castellano puts on email distributions in place of Mason, and who seems to run her whole political operation.
GAs had this guys number for a long time.
ReplyDeletehttp://grafixavenger.blogspot.com/2012/11/was-mayor-richard-turner-set-up.html
Ha! Forgot all about that one.
DeleteSome in polititcs change sides more than most people change their underware. Note: At one time Joe Boxer men's shorts had a message 'to change daily' - lol
ReplyDeleteSome people only pretend to change sides: beware the trojan horse
DeleteSome people play both sides against each other for profit. Isn't that what we are talking about ?
DeleteFinBoy is just another candidate for the Hall of Slime in Hudson politics.
ReplyDeleteFirst, I never stole a shekel I didn't have coming to me and all of Bet's shekel's are mine. She is just holding them until she give them to me.
ReplyDeleteAs for Pupie, he doesn't even know how to manage his money. He's no land baron either. Just a guy who got lucky off a deal and a leaper. One guy took a leap off a short roof. What is Raia some kind of business genius? If you need to ask...
Yeah, I took the money. Whaddaya gonna do about it?
Well I gotta go. Business is bad now and Timmy and I are doing a Spongetta threesome show at an AC motel. We don't even have to pay her a share. She's "into it."
The sad part for you, FinBoy, is how many people you're taking down with you, the women you hired, the press you manipulated, the political figures who stuck their necks out presuming you would give them a just reward. The fact that you milked Raia and failed to deliver for ramos will weight heavy on you later when Raia, Ramos and others come to get you for all the bad things and back stabbing you did.
ReplyDeleteThe only pity is that they didn't catch onto you sooner and saved the rest of us a lot of pain.
i'm confused...if james was secretly working with ramos/russo to tank the mason/raia ticket, why did he go so overboard on the midnight flyer calling old man russo a criminal? i can see his need to fake an attack ad for timmy to make it look like he's really working for raia, but didn't he realize that was going too far for the russos?
ReplyDeleteI was told the Ramos-Russo flyer was printed on that organic dissolving paper and had that note on the bottom about it being environmentally friendly material and non-toxic ink so that Russo people would think Zimmer did it. I guess that's why Finboy called him a "criminal", to make it look like it came from reform. That's a guess.
DeleteAnother genius idea.
It was a very limited and uneven distribution. A serious flyer would have been like the ones targeting me last year- EVERYWHERE. No, this one was on random light poles, no car windshields, no mailboxes. That campaign certainly had the access to enough money to do a serious, city-wide flyer distribution. Based on my own observation, it seems like this was not a 'real' midnight flyer but a dirty trick.
Some have inquired about the genesis of the name Spongetta. I cant take total credit for it. I remember the name (and of course the implications for the dynamic 4th Ward duo) from an old Flip Wilson series of skits where he would dress up in drag as Geraldine Jones a/k/a Spongetta and talk about a number of things, including Spongetta's boyfriend Killer, who called Geraldine "Spongetta", because she was his main squeeze. She would always meet Killer in a corner in the dark in a booth and int he dark". Much like how our Spongetta meets her own "Killer", aka Himbo, in the dark recesses of Ted & Joe's, that inimitable den of iniquity owned by the silly looking penguin guy with a pool cue always stuck in his beak, taking his shots on top of some old worn out law books.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9tb56G7HIo
Ted and Joe's?
ReplyDeleteI still don't think there was a giant doublecross - seems more like simple incompetence + ripping off the money being put up.
ReplyDeleteIf there was a doublecross, then they wouldn't make a tv commercial targeting ramos and making him look bad - they'd make a tv commercial targeting zimmer. They'd use Mason's money to help Ramos get more votes.
To me they are just the gang that couldn't shoot straight, and that also could convince someone that a TV commercial that could literally be created in 2 hours should cost $10,000. Wonder where the rest of that $10k went.
Finn Boy was getting heat for only campaigning against zimmer from people close to Raia. That's why he put out one of the few flyers campaign managed to actually get on the street and only on a few corners. This was also a sign of Finn Boy's over kill. He mentioned Russo's father. Raia people also complained about the ad only having Ramos' face and said it actually looked like a pro Ramos ad. Combined with the fact that Finn Boy brought on AP who had worked for Camrello and Ruben prior to the campaign to do writing for Tim -- and what she did made Tim and Raia look so horrible it had to be deliberate -- of course this was a double cross. But then Finn Boy has no loyalty to anyone, and he will work any side that gives him money -- a true political protitute
DeleteFrank is slow to show his anger but when he does it is devastating.
Deletewhat you had was a cocaine and sex orgy paid unwittingly by Raia where most of the ideas were concocted in one of the back rooms of Room 84. The flyer was designed to look at if Zimmer's people had done it. The TV ad done to look like an attack on Ramos, but never bothered to show Tim as a candidate -- so any senior citizen or someone not paying close attention would mistake it for a pro ramos ad.
ReplyDeleteThis is all about Raia's money. How to grab as much of it from him before he realized he'd been taken to the cleaners. The question is how much of Raia's money wound up in Swibinski's pocket? Ramos was broke, and couldn't get anybody do work for him for months and suddenly Swibinski -- after being told not to get involved with Ramos -- is suddenly doing the campaign behind the scenes. Swibinski doesn't work for free. So was money flowing through Finn Boy to Swibinski in other ways than just this TV commercial? And was everybody dipping their fingers in this pot of gold from Tim's squeeze to Aqua turd?
ReplyDeleteHey now, I think we might be jumping to conclusions here. Maybe it was really a discount double check going on. . .
ReplyDeleteIt is not a question of whether these people bilked Raia, only by how much.
DeleteDirty is what dirty does!
ReplyDeleteYou should have been an investigative reporter, you're better than any journalists we currently have in Hudson County in that arena. Great job, great stuff. Keep it coming.
ReplyDeleteThank you. These people make it easy.
Deletewhat was that comment about the Trojan horse? Everyone knows that when a Trojan is involved someone is going to get f_ _ _ _ _ d
ReplyDeleteHa! Good one!
Delete