It looks like Hoboken's mayoral may get a lot dirtier. This came in late yesterday:
Looks like Beth will enter the race. Her poll shows Jen peeling off enough Ravi votes to put Beth in the mix with Ravi and Romano (with Jen and DeFusco trailing the field). Expect a well financed negative shitshow over 1 million with lots of nasty TV commercials going after her opponents. Will be unpleasant for everyone. Especially for thin skinned candidates who hate being called names. With a field this size she could actually win."Beth" as in former 2nd Ward Councilwoman Beth Mason.
For the "millennials" and other assorted folks new to Hoboken politics, that may not mean anything. It does to the rest of us.
Beth Mason served on the Hoboken City Council from 2007- 2015. She also tried twice- and failed- to become Hoboken mayor in the 2009 General (she came in third place), and the 2009 Special Election, after Mayor Cammarano's arrest and resignation (she lost to Dawn Zimmer). She spent about $1M of her (husband's) vast wealth; he is a Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen ,and Katz LLP partner, and has served as Treasurer in her 2009 and 2011 campaigns (both of which received historic fines
from ELEC for campaign finance reporting violations.)
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They range from pumping cash into political committees (like the one that trashed Jen Giattino in 2015), to geysers of street money (like 2011's $52K) , to financing fact-challenged tv commercials, to massive Facebook /Youtube smear-ads buys, to employing numerous political operatives- many of whom are little more than thugs- to harass or annoy her political opponents.
Ultimately, her scorched tactics seemed more about destroying her opponents' reputations, ability to earn a living, and hurting the City as a proxy for her nemesis Dawn Zimmer, than helping the people of Hoboken- like her jihad to destroy the hospital sale, with the help of her "business partner" James Barracato.
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| Bajardi v Pincus email exhibit shows Beth Mason's back door machinations to blow up Hoboken's hospital sale |
Mason is also renowned for delegating her duties to her political operatives. GA was harrassed at 12 months of ZBA meetings; Mason's political operative would point a camera just at me (he took enough film to circle the Earth). This film was produced into a video which was displayed on 2012's notorious "Nazi Truck"- the first (and last) time swastikas were ever used in a political campaign. In 2015, MSV interviewed the Nazi Truck driver in his "Nazi Truck Interview"; where the driver blows the whistle on the Nazi truck bagmen. It is a must-read.
In 2014, GA observed that her 2011 campaign remained active long after Election Day, and appeared to be used like a laundry to wash money to political operatives.
"Cutting Edge Communications" was political operative Barry Brendel's company and Ryan Yacco is a political operative who worked for Beth Mason, and is currently working with 2017 mayoral candidate Mike DeFusco. The post-election cash tsunami came in as in-kind contributions to her own campaign. It doesn't make sense to me either.
If Mason does run, all of these questions become relevant.
And the proofs of her manifest unfitness to be Hoboken's Chief executive, her incompetency and ethical failures should be made public; If she runs, I will open up the (relevant) public documents archive, exhibits attached to Pincus' Motion for Summary Judgment, in Bajardi v Pincus.
GA will make relevant communications regarding the operations of her 2009/2011 campaigns her efforts to destroy the HUMC sale, and any other relevant public documents available to ALL campaigns and to the public, as a matter of public interest and public concern.
It is a civic obligation not to 'hoard' public information relevant to Hoboken' future as a matter of public interest and public concern, and transparency, should Beth Mason seek Hoboken's highest office. Of course, you can go to Hudson County Superior Court and get them yourself.
For those uber-newbies, who don't know what Bajardi v Pincus is, start with this:
I read the Mason Civic FB page from time to time. The entries, meant to make Beth look like the culturally literate person she's never been, are lifted word for word from Wikipedia without links or attribution. Because, you know, she "writes her own stuff." Or at least wants everyone to think so.
ReplyDeleteDespite the silliness of the whole enterprise I always find it comforting; Beth's dotage, following up a career of wanting to seem relevant through publicity stunts with a retirement of wanting to seem well-read through plagiarism. Symmetrical almost sort of.
But I guess it was too much to hope for. Someone left the crypt open and hear she comes.
Not enough popcorn in the world for this one.....
So the shit head BM wants to enter the race? Good. BM needs a good flush down the toilet. BM knows that she can’t win a legitimate race but BM thinks she can sneak by with a 25% win backed with a truckload of BM’s husband’s cash. There was a reason that BM left the political scene and its name is Bajardi v Pincus. BM OWNS that turd. Perhaps the worst aspect of a BM candidacy is that smelly, slimy, sleazy fish will be along for the ride. This is truly the crazy summer season of Hoboken politics and it is more than disappointing that reform is eating its own; if it continues to Election Day, reform will lose enormous credibility, along with City Hall. Heard from Sticks camp one reform candidates is not polling so well, like near the bottom of the heap, with just enough support to prevent the leader of the pack from winning. Perhaps it is time for she/he to reconsider her/his candidacy before she/he becomes a pariah. One can only hope. Vanity and petulance do not wear well.
ReplyDeleteHow come there isn't a proper organization of who runs for mayor .. I think the deadline should be at least 6 months before the election (not that it sounds like a good amount of time either ) with a complete Slate and everything in between .. that would show organization , commitment and would give the candidates a chance to reach as many people as possible ..
ReplyDeleteIt's funny, depending on which camp the polling data tip comes seems to determine the order of candidate preference info. If we get it from Ravi's camp, Jen is polling down at the bottom with MDF, if we get the data from Stick's camp, MDF will be polling at a distant 4th with Ravi in 3rd, if we get the data from MDF's camp....well, you get the picture.
ReplyDeleteLove the subtle message though...i.e., "...Her poll shows Jen peeling off enough Ravi votes..." Uh huh, yeah - who's peeling who's vote off?
i feel like i'm being captain obvious here but...when people speak of "peeling off votes", they pretty much universally mean the candidate with the lower polling number is taking votes from the candidate with the higher polling number. am i missing something?
Deletesure, technically, a candidate polling at 90% is "peeling" away 9/10ths of potential votes from the candidate polling at 10%, but that's kind of a silly notion and not how the term is commonly used.
The other interesting thing for me is how accurate the polls are at this point in time. I received the poll that was discussed previously here and on MSV (funny enough, twice on my cell and once on my home line). One of the first questions was something along the lines of "does a member of your household work in media". I answered yes as my wife is in tv and they thanked me for my time. Through discussions with friends whose spouses also work in media, they were also "excluded" from the poll. Not saying the poll is skewed towards one candidate or another, but in a town like Hoboken with a significant population who work in new and old media, that poll is dropping a decent percentage of the town if they answer accurately. Just food for thought. Between that and the polling taking place with a lot of people in the midst of vacation season, I am not taking anyone's polling seriously at this point -- especially a bm poll that most likely is designed to make her look better.
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DeleteIndie, nice brush off of data that doesn't tell the story you'd like to hear. The only data I have reported is Stick's, which had MDF at the bottom, and Beth's from the source anove. So please, stop making it up. I am in the process of confirming a source on the Ravi polling. When I can reach the campaign, Ill see if they confirm or deny. Until then, nothing yet on Ravi's polling.
How about this: how about your peeps doing a poll instead of trashing other peoples? A novel concept.
Indie, what does Jen's polling show?
DeleteIs this circus election why not add another ring for everyone's favorite clown?
ReplyDeleteUh-huh - sure GA - if that's the case than Stick's "data" whoever is reporting it, must be providing different data to different campaigns.
ReplyDeleteIndie, what does Jen's polling show?
DeleteOkay, Indie. Give me a couple of minutes. As for Stick giving different data to different campaigns, now you are really making it up.
DeleteFAP- not only hasn't Jen polled, but apparently the campaign is looking the other way as a certain equine advocate has been pumping out a stream of spurious attacks on Ravi. Really disappointed.
Polling is data - those who understand math understand the meaning of the data and can interpret it accordingly. Those who don't understand math either misunderstand the data or foolishly deny the validity altogether.
ReplyDeleteSome campaigns understand math. Some don't.