Email to me from a long-time friend of a Giattino for Mayor co-chair, and someone well known in the Reform community.
"So here is the interesting thing I have noticed... the Jen team trying to sway undecided reform voters to vote for Jen by telling them Ravi can't win because he wears a turban and is a Sikh..that the people on the west side of Hoboken specifically will never vote for him (I guess they mean old Hoboken). Therefore undecided reform voters should not waste their vote on a candidate that is in essence (in their opinion) unelectable. I suspect I know the players who are telling people this as I have heard a similar line but with the turban/Sikh comment omitted but implied. I tried up to this point to be independent and vote for whomever I thought had the best chance of winning for Reform but this was the final straw. I am definitely voting for Ravi based on these inappropriate and Donald Trump like messaging. I prefer to be anonymous as I honestly feel the politics in Hoboken is toxic...I am just so disappointed where this has ended up."
next they will pull out their tiki torches
ReplyDeleteAt least this is a more honest approach than the previous one that Ravi really isn't "connected" to the Hoboken community like Jen is and all he really cares about is empowering Sikhs. In this narrative, Ravi is running for Mayor and will inevitably run for higher office only to advance Sikh interests.
ReplyDeleteRavi and Jen have virtually identical personal stories on the "connected to Hoboken front." They moved to Hoboken when they were single, got married, had children who attend the same charter school, served as councilpeople, etc. So what this narrative obviously means, without much subtlety, is that Ravi "isn't one of us."
This narrative mirrors the anti-Semitic narrative that was used against Jewish candidates for years concerning their supposed divided loyalty, or lack of loyalty, to the US. Sadly, and surprisingly, some of the people spreading it, presumably without any self-awareness, are Jewish
Jen is not, based on anything I have ever heard or seen, a racist. But she is exploiting the racism of others to get where she wants to go, a tactic "non-racist" Republicans have been using since the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964. Arguably, exploiting racism when you are not actually a racist yourself is even worse because it is a more calculated thing to do.
Jen is an ambitious woman who cares about her community but she is also running because she is very much seeking to advance her political career. Her path forward after becoming Mayor if she wins is very much as a Republican.
Which is why, when she discussed her strong desire to become Mayor after Dawn with a well known influential political mentor in 2015 (with others she supposedly even discussed running against Dawn this year) she ignored his advice to change her part registration to independent. That would have made it easier to be elected Mayor, but Jen's endgame is not in Hoboken, it is in the State Republican Party
The only problem is that it is a big fat lie. Nothing of the sort has come out of anyone connected to the campaign that I know of. Disgusting that anyone would even put such a falsehood in writing.
DeleteToo right! Now it can be told. Contacting that guy's employer and saying Unelectable wanted to open bars at Union Dry Dock and repeatedly noting Unelectable's failure to criticize the side getting run over as much as the side doing the running over at Charlottesville and the Sikh/seek puns and the articles we have coming up about Unelectable's "out of town" (aka "brown, turban-wearing") support were all done (or will be done by) operatives of the Deep State working on orders from Hillary Clinton and Jon Podesta and Antifa and George Soros ---- but made to look like the handiwork of the Team GiaFusco Reform Resistance!
DeleteAnd folks let's remember that not all of our Team GiaFusco Reform Resistance employees got their $1000 up front. A certain amount of frustrated posting in the middle of the night is inevitable. Put yourself in our employee's shoes. How about a little empathy?
When this election cycle started, I truly wondered if Hoboken had enough open minds to vote for someone who didn't look like them (Ravi). After watching the race unfold through June, it became clear to me that not only were there enough people who would vote for Ravi based on his merits, but there were many, many people excited about it.
ReplyDeleteThis whole "he doesn't look like you" line of thought is just ridiculous at this point.
Numberscrunher SPOT ON:
ReplyDelete"Jen is not, based on anything I have ever heard or seen, a racist. But she is exploiting the racism of others to get where she wants to go, a tactic "non-racist" Republicans have been using since the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964. Arguably, exploiting racism when you are not actually a racist yourself is even worse because it is a more calculated thing to do."
I heard it was Bernie Kenny --- are we allowed to same his name? why not? --- who encouraged Jen to change her registration. I also heard he at least convinced Brian Stack to commission a poll in the hopes of getting Brian to endorse her. When the polls results came back ---- #4th3rdPlaceJen ---- that possibility was foreclosed.
Why is Bernie working to elected a Republican, especially one who trades on racism to advance her election? Just another question in what's become an ugly election effort of Jen's.
Peter Cunningham told Jen to change her registration to Democrat as well, just as he did, to get and stay elected. To her credit, she did not. Tiffanie has said early and often that Ravi was not electable, but she would never say why as far as I know. The Republicans in Hoboken may now add hypocrite to the list of things that they have become like racist, misogynist, homophobe and climate denier, to name a few of their attributes.
DeleteActually Tiffanie has said quite the opposite and has pointed out that Ravi was elected twice. Why are you outright lying?
DeleteIn-de-coma, you were not privy to my conversations with them, and I stand by what I said they told me. I am not lying, but you are - to yourself.
DeleteSomeone is posting as yours truly in the Reporter. How bout that! But it's got a few miscues.
ReplyDeleteI never fawn over Bhalla.
I never have and never would call Giattino a bitch.
And I never call her "that Jen girl." But I know someone who does.
I guess it's better than a sex doll graphic.
Btw, is this supposed to be part of the winning undecided voters strategy?
They say imitation is the highest form of flattery.
Delete"Jen", the Republican, is running a true Republican campaign...if you can't win fair and square on your own merits, then just smear the other guy with spurious claims and veiled racist remarks. True to form, "Jen", true to form.
DeleteI have no proof here or in any other case but have strong suspicion and a personal opinion that the advent of cloning well-known handles and perverting their commentary this election cycle has been commonly perpetrated by Tony Soares.
DeleteI also believe he has a particular axe to grind with dangcatfish.
Dang Jr is cut and pasting the comments from here to HR. Weird, but probably keeps him out of trouble.
DeleteI guess the point with the first post was to make Bhalla supporters sound sycophantish, ie, "he'll make a great mayor," "he's the best." At the same time Junior wanted to work in the misogyny angle that is being peddled this week - by having faux dang calling Giattino a bitch.
But being an obvious Jen partisan he couldn't bring himself to level a real criticism at her. So he just calls her "sneaky,"which means nothing. Romano, on the other hand, gets clobbered with "womanizing pig." And Junior is way too dumb to grasp that someone who was offended by Romano's womanizing would not, in the same sentence no less, turn around and call a woman a bitch. That flew over little dang's head. Probably did this time too.
Ok, this one's ready, Junior. Copy it over.
Interesting. I wonder if this could by an Michael DeFusco (MDF) operation? Michael has run the scummiest campaign so far, though interesting, unlike Jen's campaign, not as racist. Jen's people are going around town and repeating the unelectable, wasted vote message. I have had a 3 people share that with me. MDF isn't doing of of that, instead he continues in the Mason tradition of inventing ethics charges.
DeleteI've been out of the fray for a while. Can someone please explain to me why Tony Soares continues to maliciously meddle in Hoboken elections? He's been out of formal politics for at least a decade, no? Thanks.
Delete@AH, Jen's campaign is entering the say-anything phase. They have very little money, which means their online behavior can be expected to worsen day-by-day. This morning MSV refers to "new attacks on Jen" and next thing you know someone pretending to be me calls Jen a bitch. Fancy that.
DeleteI like the expression "character is what you do when no one is looking." It's one thing to get your ducks in a row to talk on camera to John Heinis. You say the right thing the right way. But Jen told Defusco's SO to deal with her campaign's dirty work himself. That's what she did when no one was looking, when she didn't think it would matter, No John Heinis, no voters. Just a guy who's never gonna vote for you anyway. And she punked out completely. Tells you a lot about her as a leader and also tells you that she is going to let her campaign do whatever they hell they want. They'll turn the internet into an open sewer, bank on it.
The copy & pasting is really weird.
DeleteMaybe it's more than one person. As with a lot of what people do online meaning to help one person or hurt another, the logic completely evades me.
DeleteWow. Nancy, you have reached a new low. Anyone who knows Jen, knows she is not racist. Nor would she tolerate anyone around her saying racist things. And the fact that all of you Bhalla supporters are clamoring on to this to make it seem this way is reprehensible.
ReplyDeleteThis email came from your friend. As Jen would say, talk it over with him, and don't shoot the messenger.
Delete"As Jen would say, talk it over with him." zing!
DeleteCorrect, Tiffanie, she is not a racist. She's simply a politician willing to tell everyone what they want to hear without laying down any convictions or firm positions of any kind. And if someone is a racist and happens to be supporting her, and that support happens to be helpful in any way, well, who is she to tell them they have no place in her campaign.
DeleteMake no mistake - Roman Brice is an unabashed racist who barely tries to conceal it, and has used overt and covert race-baiting code in Jen's service - a service for which we now know her to be paying large sums of money.
If you don't see where the issue lies, Councilwoman, well then respectfully, you are the problem.
Honestly, the silence from Tiffanie, Peter and the rest of Jen's core group of supporters has turned me off on all of them. I thought the Suez contract crap they were shoveling was as low as that group could go and every week since then they have sunk lower.
DeleteMark my words - if anyone but Ravi wins, we will blame all you for any negative fallout from that. It will be your fault if we have an OG mayor for the next 4 years. It will be your fault if we get 40 story buildings that blot out the sun. It will be your fault if we get a bad Suez contract 4.0. If taxes go up b/c of a hiring spree, again, all your fault. We will blame you and your over-inflated egos for every last bit of the mess created by those scumbags. And let's not pretend Jen has any chance in hell. Closeted Trump supporters have no political future in this town or in New Jersey.
it's actually hard to believe we've got a sitting councilperson who would actually make claims like this, in a public forum, but behold below a recent Facebook comment by "tiff" and marvel are its...umm, i can't even think of the words to describe it:
ReplyDelete"...my opinion is Ravi doesn't want to be mayor. He doesn't want to fill potholes. He doesn't want to be crucified daily for every small decision he'll make. He doesn't want to have to worry about how to manage Washington street. And he doesn't want to have to meet residents daily, like the Mayor did, to convince them why rebuild by design makes sense. Ravi wants to be someone who helps solve world peace - and that matters and is important. I mean that seriously. I think if you look Ravi in the eye and ask him if he really wants to be Mayor, you won't get a convincing yes. That is just my view. Jen - she wants to be mayor for all of us. Warts and all as they say. And we do promote her strengths every day. It's an easy sell. She has done everything ravi says he has done and more. They were both there supporting the important issues on the mayor's agenda. Their point of divergence is Ravi's focus and interest on macro issues. And jen's focus and interest on the details around our local concerns."
?
I don't know about anyone else, but I don't give a rat's ass about "Tiff"'s opinion concerning Ravi and his desire to be Mayor "for all of us". The completely clueless and vapid duo of Giattino and Fisher may very well succeed in only one thing in this election cycle...electing Old Guard municipal grifter extraordinaire Anthony Romano as Mayor of Hoboken. If the ridiculous split in Reform they have created for no legitimate reason throws this election to Romano or Slimy DeFusco, I totally agree with Da Ojo Rojo that their political futures in this town will be dead and buried.
DeleteKeep in mind that the woman writing this drivel is the Chairwoman of the Hoboken Democratic Party.
ReplyDeleteDoes Tiffanie really think the Mayor of Hoboken can't manage the City AND speak out when its appropriate?
Tiffanie - if you are reading this - the job of Mayor is to be a manager AND a leader. It is not one or the other. Nobody should be Mayor unless they are capable of and willing to take on BOTH jobs well.
Ravi has made clear he understands this. You and Jen have made it crystal clear you do not.
Pretty sure Tiffanie does not believe the mayor should be managing or leading if that mayor is Dawn Zimmer. She and Jen seem to have wanted the mayor to check with them before dealing with Suez, making a personal choice on who to endorse, etc... I sort of got the impression their high school mentality and outrage over being snubbed is the entire reason Jen is running.
DeleteDoes "Tiff" really think Ravi wants to "solve world peace" to the exclusion of filling potholes, meeting with constituents and generally managing the operations of the City of Hoboken? Does"Tiff"really think that Ravi's a "macro" issue candidate to the exclusion of all micro issues? Maybe, just maybe, "Tiff", Ravi's a much more well-rounded candidate than"Jen" and he can support and advocate for multiple issues at the same time. Wow, maybe he can even walk and chew gum at the same time...something Republicans have proven themselves incapable of doing for several years running now.
DeleteTo Ojo's point: This is exactly why people make fun of women for being cliquey. Jen & Tiffanie have a clique that Peter is part of, and they are acting like h.s. girls fighting over who gets to be prom queen.
DeleteTo Rudy's point: Walking and chewing gum is hard, just ask the cliquey h.s. girls vying to be prom queen.
Some of the public postings of Tiffanie have lead me to believe she isn't very savvy politically, and having watched the video of the Suez contract discussion, I don't believe she's particularly competent in government finance matters.
ReplyDeleteTo her credit, Jen says nothing, therefore I can only *assume* she's a fool. She's yet to prove it with her words (her actions speak pretty loudly for themselves though).