GA was surprised to learn that the NJ Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC) does not mandate Quarterly reports for candidates/committees that file within 5 months of the election date. Instead, these candidates/committees are required to file 29-day pre-election reports.
The above calendar shows the 5-month period highlighted in yellow, with each of the 8 Hoboken mayoral candidates' announcement day circled. The candidates who announced within the 'yellow' period are Ravi Bhalla*, Stick Romano, Jen Giattino, Angelo Valente and Patricia Waiters; they aren't required to file until October 9, 2017.
(*Ravi Bhalla is the only Hoboken mayoral candidate within the 'yellow' period to file a July 15 ELEC for his mayoral campaign. Stick Romano, Jen Giattino, Angelo Valente and Patricia Waiters have not filed a D-1 to open their campaign.)
Petitions to run for mayor are due on September 5. A candidate/committee may withdraw on or before September 15.
Conclusion: Reform will never have an apples-to-apples insight into the two Reform campaigns- like who is "good in math"- UNTIL IT'S TOO LATE for the Reform coalition to have a VOICE in this election.
"More voices are better"
GA PROPOSAL
GA is one of those folks in the Reform coalition that (1) want to see the strongest candidate whose campaign has gotten the most traction succeed (2) don't want to hand the election to the Dark Side.
On or about June 22, GA had conversations with folks who would become the Giattino campaign. A driver in the formation of the 2nd Reform campaign was that they (Jen, Tiffanie, Peter) had not been included in the discussion between the Mayor and Ravi.
GA was assured, "don't worry.... we won't let DeFusco or Romano be elected... after a few weeks we'll see which campaign's got traction... which campaign is stronger... there won't be two Reformers on the ballot... "
Okay then... August 15 is a good time for "us" (all Reform and not a select few) to look inside both campaigns.
The public has a right to a "voice" based on objective analysis of each campaign's financial operation, priorities (where they are allocating monies), contributions, in-kind donations, fundraising ability, cash reserves on-hand for the general election, and even the ELEC document as a work product ( is one campaign really "better in math"? Is one candidate a "bad administrator"? )
ELECs tell a lot more about a candidate than the bottom line.
Let the public have a VOICE because...
"More voices are better."
GA proposes that BOTH Reform campaigns voluntarily file an R-1 report on August 15.
(Candidates, please talk this over.)
This is a fair proposal and btw also in alignment with having one data point necessary to make good on Tiffanie and Peter's promise that Reform will have one candidate in the Fall (repeated, I'm told by others when justifying the time and energy being spent on Jen's candidacy). It's certainly not a good look for Jen to be in the same boat as Anthony. Transparency is a core tenet of Reform in addition to merit and honesty. My guess is that Jen is not trying to hide anything at all but instead is just embarrassed or a bit sheepish about what she's raised so far. In that case, I'd expect her to say, "Hey, I tend not to fundraise until election time and I've only raised money for my 2 relatively small 6th ward council races in the past. I am capable though of raising money to run a Mayoral campaign. Once I entered the race here's how much I have raised. Hope to raise more soon."
ReplyDeleteThat's a Reformer message. Hiding behind a rule that Anthony is hiding behind, which is what this looks like if she's not forthcoming, is not. Anyone on Ravi's email list (I am on Ravi's, Peter's, Tiffanie's) knows he's the only Council candidate who is always raising money regardless of whether an election is coming up or not. It does not look like any other Council member within Reform does so at all unless it's around election time. Of course Ravi would have a lead there (maybe that's one reason the Mayor had confidence in him? -- he works hard, won't be caught flat footed), why not just be transparent and honest about it? If Jen or others don't like fundraising or are uncomfortable with it, be honest and say it and then say why you still think you will be competitive.
I would at least hope Jen come clean soon. The lack of transparency by Jen if she does not, even if embarrassing, would be disturbing. The excuse that she has not had enough time to build a campaign wears thin with each passing day. I'd really appreciate it if Jen shared her fundraising whatever it maybe. No need to stray from principle there.