Raia getting played AGAIN?

As we await the candidates' July 15 ELEC reports with baited breath, GA has learned of some trouble in DeFusco (fundraising) paradise!

It has to do with his major financial backer
Frank 'Pupie' Raia.

It's known in Hudson County political circles that Raia and Vision Media's Paul Swibinski are not on good terms; GA forgot what the dispute is about.  Anybody know?

Well... it appears that "you can't teach an old Pupie new tricks" because after Raia got fleeced in the 2013 mayoral race, history is repeating itself in 2017!

It appears no one on the DeFusco campaign told Pupie that Defusco had hired his nemesis, Vision Media.

GA hears that when Raia learned that his campaign contributions were ostensibly paying for the service of his nemesis, he had a major melt-down.

Why wasn't the DeFusco campaign honest with Frank? Especially after what happened to him in 2013. 

In 2013, Raia and Beth Mason were the primary contributors to the Occhipinti mayoral campaign; Raia was on the ticket for At-Large City Council.

Raia's ticket, a late entry to the 2013 mayoral, effectively ended Ramos' mayoral hopes; Ramos' campaign otherwise had a chance to beat Zimmer's Reform ticket .  Ramos and his backers were furious. One of them, a rotten, double-crossing fish, insinuated himself into the Occhipinti campaign on mission to sabotage Occhipinti.

Guess what?

The saboteur-salmon was appointed Raia's de facto campaign manager.  

So, how did the Occhipinti-Raia campaign fare on election day?  Badly. Occhipinti got 17% of the vote, Raia came in 7th place.  In the post mortem of the Raia campaign's failure, all fingers pointed at the traitorous trout.  GA documented some, as told to me by campaign insiders in "Chaos and Betrayal at Tim's HQ". 

The wasting of Raia's money was legend: on boxes of dog biscuits, boxes of campaign literature never unpacked, expensive computer equipment never used...  According to a campaign insider, the rotten fish  "got NO street workers either prior to election day or on election day.  ZERO.  According to the source, some weeks ago, the campaign was offered street workers, but the fibbing fish refused the offer of street help, saying the campaign would take care of it.   But he didn't. "

The source told GA that the perfidious perch "threw money away on everything"  Expensive palm cards allegedly ordered in greater number than the population of Hoboken, but with no workers to hand them out they were never distributed.

In one incredibly brazen act of duplicity, the tuna hired Swibinski's creative director for a Raia campaign commercial... you can read the whole story here.  

What was the saddest of all? 

Frank's friends had tried to warn him his campaign was being driven into the ground by those charged with running it, but Raia "wouldn't hear it". 

Frank, do not let yourself get played again.