If a debate (featuring all six Hoboken mayoral candidates) falls in Bayonne and no one's there to hear it, did it make a sound?
NO!
However, this one is coming to YouTube!
Yes! The 2017 Hudson Reporter Hoboken mayoral debate will NOT be buried on their website like pirate's booty, never to be seen nor heard from again. Yesterday's debate will be uploaded on YouTube (welcome to the 21st century) available to disseminate everywhere! Which means you will see it, hear it, in full or clips, here and all over social media!
According to a half-dozen sources for this story, this debate is a four-bagger (on the popcorn-scale).
Yep. GA was told that the first half of the debate was "boring" but in the second all hell breaks loose.
That's why GA calls it the Grate Mayoral Debate: candidate Mike DeFusco grated on everyone's nerves. If there's one thing the candidates could agree on, it's that Mike DeFusco was thoroughly obnoxious.
He attacked all candidates except Ron Bautista, and his attacks were "relentless."
He attacked all candidates except Ron Bautista, and his attacks were "relentless."
One source: "Everyone behaved like gentlemen and gentlewomen- except Mike DeFusco. He went negative for the entire debate, every answer was an attack."
Another source: "He is not going to look good on film."
Another source: "Mike DeFusco was angry and pretentious."
How bad did it get?
DeFusco was drilling down so hard on Anthony 'Stick' Romano, that Stick asked the moderator to "go off the record" with his rebuttal! Off the record, Stick "ripped him [DeFusco] to pieces." GA hears that Stick slammed DeFusco's prolific internet operative "crony" known online as Propeller McVictim.
Sorry folks, unless Romano changes his mind, all of that will end up on the cutting room floor.
(GA note: I have a fundamental disagreement with Stick: his rebuttal should be on the record, just like the attacks)
Sounds to me like the big LOSER in this debate was Mike DeFusco.
Was there a WINNER?
Let The People decide!
Sources agree that except for Mike DeFusco, all other candidates comported themselves in a dignified manner, treating one another with civility and respect, and did not attack each other.
Sources also agree that except for the hostile demeanor of Mike DeFusco, "no one else screwed up."
Random notes...
Karen Nason, a businesswoman and professional singer, sang. Yep-- Janis Joplin! Sources concur she was very lively, and handled Mike DeFusco's relentless nastiness "like a pro."
Jen Giattino "looked nervous", another: "Jen was Jen" Giattino spoke about being recruited to run by a roomful of 65 or 70 people.
Also "Jen and Romano took a big swipe at Leo Pelligrini" suggesting his that department should be split.
Ravi Bhalla was criticized for being "too polite" and "calm" under relentless DeFusco attacks. Could he be deaf? (kidding)
Bhalla said he will open an "Office of Constituent Services"- a department to address quality of life complaints. Bhalla was the only candidate (so far) to pick up the gauntlet thrown down by Ron Bautista for Hoboken to be declared a "welcoming city'; Bhalla said that he would designate Hoboken a "welcoming city."
Ron Bautista, according to sources, was impressive in his debut on the Hoboken political stage.
As for Romano... reviews were not stellar. Let The People decide!
The People will decide whenever Al Sullivan gets the video uploaded on You Tube.
In the meantime, GA got results from another poll taken last week. Not the Bhalla poll.
I'll give you a hint: someone moved up, someone moved down.
Stay tuned!
If you check the Team GiaFusco Reform Resistance Corporate Website, you'll see that we have very consistently stated that polls in which our candidates do well are properly conducted and valid. All the other ones are shit. This one sounds like shit.
ReplyDeleteAnd as a side note, our non-operative Propeller has brought nothing but daylight to the campaign with his insistence that we talk about issues rather than focusing on personal attacks. That has been the hallmark of his non-service to us for whom he has never worked.