Hello boys and girls, it's storytime!
Our story begins on Thursday, July 6, at the Hoboken home of John Allen and his lovely fiance, Tara.
John and Tara are newly elected Hoboken Democratic Committee-persons representing District 5 in Ward 3; one month earlier the couple shellacked the Russo slate in Russo's own ward.
That night, John and Tara hosted a Meet-and-Greet for Hoboken mayoral candidate Ravi Bhalla.
On Friday morning, Ravi posted this on his Facebook page.
Mayoral candidate Mike DeFusco must have read or heard about the post because two days later- on Monday, (as told to Hudson County View):
"...[DeFusco] solicited the support of John Allen and his fiancée Tara Mullins for his campaign, asking them to host a meet and greet, and even going so far as dangling the prospect of a board appointment...”Do you follow?
It's safe to assume that John and Tara said "no" to DeFusco about the meet and greet and the quid pro quo board appointment.
So does does our story end there? No....
On Wednesday, Bhalla announced his At-Large Council slate, which included John Allen. Within minutes, DeFusco blasted this press release:
The Bhalla campaign fired right back, on Hudson County View:
Is that the end of our story?
It shouldn't be. Mayoral candidate Mike DeFusco has some 'splainin' to do.
Yup, being a hypocritical crybaby is always a good look for a mayoral candidate. Way to go MDF!
ReplyDeleteNot sure if that's even true .. but sounds like when the Reform (Balla and Zimmer ?) asked Jen for their support and .. oh sorry .. that didn't happen either .. they just backstabbed her and then she chose to do whatever she wanted to begin with .. and that's a neighbor meeting ? There's like 4 people there , and my guess is that they are all involved in his campaign .. looks to me as they were just discussing their plans sinve they don't have headquarters ready yet .. and they posted as if it was a " neighbor" meeting
ReplyDeleteyou truly are a sourpuss, HO. you need to get out more.
DeleteHobokened Out is a bit cranky today, maybe the heat.
DeleteHow did anyone backstab Jen? She wanted to run and she's running, if she's not getting the support she hoped for that's a problem of her expectations and nothing else.
DeleteOh, Jen is getting plenty of support...
DeleteFolks, Hobokened Out is a DeFusco surrogate who comes here to stir the $hit. That includes trying to turn Reformers against one another. Keep that in mind, I wouldn't take him seriously.
DeleteAt this point no one actually knows how much support any of the candidates have unless they've done polling, so Stick Romano is really the only candidate with an actual clue. Pretty much anybody can get 50-100 people to cheer for them at an event. Probably even the bike guy. Fewer people can get those 50-100 people to pony up any significant $$. And even fewer people can turn those 50 - 100 people plus donations into the thousands of votes needed to make their candidacy real, much less the thousands more it takes to win. That's why running for office is so much harder than people think, and why so many people with delusions of election grandeur wind up with their egos and dreams crushed. Some of the announced candidates are almost certain to wind up in that category, since realism is in short supply and ambition causes people to mistake wishful thinking for reality. But as we get closer to the filing date the fog will start to clear with reasonable bank balances and tickets (or absence of reasonable bank balances and tickets) being a pretty good bellweather of which campaigns will be for real come November.
DeleteI agree with you, numberscruncher. Geting 15 phone calls saying "Run!" in one day is flattering, but it doesn't translate to the numbers needed to win a citywide election where both Reform candidates polled about the same in January.
DeleteI'm no one's surrogate .. I just try to keep things fair in this blog ... true thing is .. the reform's competition is someone from their own clique .. and in a small town where you normally don't change people's minds over one or two meet and greet dinners , especially at someone's Maxwell's apartment (needless to say without a bigger reach ) will end up with their votes being split .. I can see Jen more likeable , approachable and with a more independent thinking process than Bhalla who seems to me like a ZimmerBot
ReplyDeleteAw c'mon. I know who you are but of course, you're welcome to join the discussion. Just keep it real. I'd like to know why Mike has surrounded himself with a bunch of ne'er-do-wells, felons, frivolous lawsuit plaintiffs, and what his real motives are for running for mayor. Seems to me like he uses people to step up to the next level.
DeleteOh yeah .. I'm sure that's why he left the "Reform" .. he was surrounded by all that .. I thought Dawn "used" him to get rid of Terri ( which btw that was all Him )
DeleteAnd why's he running such a nasty campaign? Is it the Swibinski effect? Those instant press releases to dump on Ravi's running mate and the Suez contract make him look like a nasty, petulant jackass.
DeletePerhaps Mike's problem is the delusion that winning the 1st ward was all Him. Hubris is a dangerous characteristic, particularly when it inhabits an empty vessel.
DeleteWell .. how many people tried and failed with Dawn / Reform's "help"??
DeleteHow many ?
OK let's crunch the numbers shall we. One candidate, Eric Kurta tried and failed in the 1st ward with the Mayor's help in 2011. One candidate, Mike DeFusco, tried and succeeded in the 1st Ward with Dawn's help in 2015. Eric is a great guy but he wasn't a great political campaigner so the Mayor's support wasn't enough to get him and Tom Greaney over the top like it did for Jen Giattino. DeFusco is a bad guy but voters, like the Mayor didn't realize that because in his Dr. Jekyll personna he's a smooth talker, much like his hero and mentor Peter Cammarano, so he was able to ride the Mayor's support to a win against a weakened, spent over the hill Terri.
DeleteDo you genuinely believe DeFusco would have won without the Mayor's support? She not only endorsed him and campaigned for him she fund raised for him. Yet it was all Him?
Like I said, hubris in an empty vessel is a dangerous thing, mostly dangerous for the empty vessel and those foolish enough to sign on for the ride to political oblivion.
When Mike runs for re-election in 2019 we will have an opportunity to see how mighty he really is because it will truly be just Him.
Oh please .. "bad guy" .. and Peter Camarano was not his mentor .. get your facts straight plus she barely campaigned .. last thing Hoboken needs is a socially awkward woman saying hi on the corner of Washington st .. he won by talking to people .. getting to know them .. not be offering rent control or jobs in city hall .
DeleteLet's talk in November .. you'll have to clarify what type of re election you are talking about . We don't need a town where the Holtzpeople scare small businesses with million dollar fines for a stupid flag on the streets .. that's the kind of stupidity supporting Bhalla
Where were you before you were no one's surrogate? I don't remember seeing you here before election season and don't expect to see you one minute after. Am I missing something?
ReplyDeleteAnd btw , please ask Tara Mullins who approached whom ...first ... seems like John Allen wanted to get in ANYONE's slate no matter what and somehow he ended up with Ravi .
ReplyDeleteNo request for a neighbor meet and greet "party" either .
There's so much misinformation here , I think a little research would be great before posting in this blog .
Hint : MDF and Tara (Allen's wife ) went to school together
Hobokened Out, there's a way to prove that everything you've written is false, but that's not my call.
DeleteI really can't dignify the stupidity of your word salad other than to say it's false. Oh, and John and Tara aren't married. But yes, Tara and MDF went to school together- I guess your roommate told you that.