Would it surprise you to know that Fourth Ward Councilman Ruben Ramos has already spent $34,598.64 on his 2019 Ward council race?
RAMOS FOR COUNCIL- ELECTION DAY NOVEMBER 2, 2019
It surprised me. This is Ramos for Council's January 15, 2019 report, submitted late.
Ruben Ramos' campaign has spent $34, 598.64 ten months before the election.
Take a look at a comparable Ramos ELEC report- when he ran for Mayor of Hoboken. Election day was November 7, 2013. Seven months before the election, Ramos had spent $1,052.75. For a MAYORAL CAMPAIGN.
VISION FOR HOBOKEN- ELECTION DAY NOVEMBER 7, 2013
Moreover, in April 2013, Ruben reported a paltry $9,166.99 in total receipts.
In January 2019 Ramos' total receipts reported were $38.850.99. More than DeFusco reported last month ($31, 920.99).
What does this tell you?
Since 2013, Ruben's got juice. He's tapped the North Hudson development community, and big money interests who one assumes would like to make money here. A lot of money. Frankly, when it comes to 2021, GA believes the real behind-the-scenes power brokers will pick one: Ramos or DeFusco. Both are clients of Nick Sacco's PR firm; both are feeding from the same donor pool.
GA believes the power--brokers are watching this 2019 race closely to assess the electablity of each in a 2021 general election. Based on how each performs in their respective wards, they will choose just one: Ramos or DeFusco.
DeFusco did well in 2017, but (4th Place) Giattino siphoned off enough Reform votes to nearly tip it to him. Without Giattino in the race, Bhalla would have clobbered DeFusco.
Ramos did well in 2013, but Occhipinti/Raia split the 'old Hoboken' vote. Occhipinti only got 17% in the general election but that was enough for Ramos to call him a spoiler.
So, head-to-head, who will be the better candidate?
DeFusco did well in 2017, but (4th Place) Giattino siphoned off enough Reform votes to nearly tip it to him. Without Giattino in the race, Bhalla would have clobbered DeFusco.
Ramos did well in 2013, but Occhipinti/Raia split the 'old Hoboken' vote. Occhipinti only got 17% in the general election but that was enough for Ramos to call him a spoiler.
So, head-to-head, who will be the better candidate?
In 2021, GA speculates the power brokers will pick a Reform spoiler, with the promise of a County gig or even an Assembly seat. Who might that traitorous snake be?
See below who Ruben Ramos' Schedule A donors are. Underlined aggregates show total contributions which exceed Hoboken's Pay-to-Play ordinance. Ramos has enough time to cure any violations to comply with Hoboken's ordinance. If he chooses.
See below who Ruben Ramos' Schedule A donors are. Underlined aggregates show total contributions which exceed Hoboken's Pay-to-Play ordinance. Ramos has enough time to cure any violations to comply with Hoboken's ordinance. If he chooses.
RAMOS FOR COUNCIL-SCHEDULE A DONORS
January 15, 2019
In 2002 Rene Abreu, developer, mortgage broker, Democratic fund raiser. Mr Abreu was charger with a 43 count inditement for extorting payoffs from gambling operations , check-kiting, money laundering, bribing bank officials schemes to defraud financial institutions, using several companies that he and his wife own in Gutenberg, West New York went to prison on federal fraud charges
ReplyDeleteThen "after having served his debt to society, Abreu is out of prison but recently had ran afoul of the law again. according to The Auditor column in the Star Ledger. I September according to court records, Abreu was arrested in Hoboken being accused of assaulting his daughter, who ended up in the street with a bloody nose, The Auditor reports.
Abreu and his high-powered attorney. Gerald Krovatin, denied the assault. "She fell and had to be taken to the hospital by the police." Abreu told cops according to court records."
"He hasn't been involved in any politics since he has been out, and he hasn't any plans to" Krovatin said of the once politically-popular Abreu." Until now.
Interesting. Can you please post the link? A few years back, I'd heard his name connected with Carmelo Garcia's Vision 20/20. Unverified (and unverifiable since Vision 20/20 went south) was that Carmelo was going to sell a piece of the site for private development.
DeleteAbreu, Cammarano, Campos.
ReplyDeleteOne convicted felon could be an incident, two's a coincidence, three is a pattern.
Nice to still have ONE site that covers these facts.
ReplyDelete"NRCC Non-Partisan Political Education Committee" gave an aggregate $10,700.
ReplyDelete"NRCC Non-Partisan" sounds like an oxymoron. Unless that acronym stands for a group I'm not aware of, NRCC is the National Republican Congressional Committee. Their "non-partisan political education committee" must, presumably, be dedicated to aiding their cause in ostensibly non-partisan races, such as for Hoboken's City government.
I'm not sure why the NRCC would want to advance Ruben Ramos's career, but I can't think of any good reasons. Either they like him personally, or, more likely, they're being used to launder contributions from someone else, presumably taking a cut along the way.
Yeah, that acronym is easy to confuse with the National Republican Congressional Committee.
DeleteThe NRCC Non-Partisan Education Committee is a PAC run by the Northeast Regional Council of Carpenters (NRCC) .
They also donated heavily to DeFusco in 2017, something I'd noted in a post called Special interest money (in Hoboken) for DUMMIES. Yep, $34.6K is a lot of money to wash through a campaign 9 months ahead of an election. For all intents and purposes the 2017 campaign never ended, Ramos and DeFusco have been focused on the next election, not governing. The alleged "Reformers" have provided political cover for these special interest expenditures to attack the Bhalla administration. Just lovely.
Ramos and DeFusco are the money gatherers and it is their money that will help fund Cunningham, Fisher and Gianttino in November. One real estate deal could reimburse these out of town donors several fold. To make that scheme work the "alleged" reformers need to set up Hoboken's boards to pay out for their friends. no one understood that dynamic better then former mayor and convicted felon Peter Cammarano. DeFusco has already gone out of his way to show he will show up to help a developer get a Fourth Ward adjacent, massive project approved even if it is against the best interest of Hoboken's residents and hie wing man Ramos kept silent. Not a peep publicly from Cunninigham, Fisher and Gianttino.
DeleteDeFusco who touts every move he thinks will help him on his restricted Facebook page, did not post a single word about him going in front of the Jersey City Zoning Board and advocating for the thirteen story residential building to be built on the Hoboken Business Center parking lot on Harrison Street. Even a self-promoting marketing man like DeFusco, understands that could make him look as if he was being unethical and perhaps even for sale.
If Cunningham, Fisher and Giattino take their money or sign on to their slates, they will have completely turned their backs on everything they once stood for. It will also probably be the only time all three have ever been honest with voters ahead of an election on what they really stood for - which is themselves.
DeleteSo is Gerry Krovatin, close friend of Bhalla, who shilled for him at his mayoral fundraisers, husband of former Hoboken resident, author Anna Quindlen, now the Alan Dershowitz of corrupt Jersey Democratic politics?
ReplyDeleteKinda surprised to hear Krovatin took this one. But I wouldn't call him the "Alan Dershowitz of NJ corrupt Dem politics" by a long shot. Alan D. is a sell-out hack. Krovatin seems like a gadfly to me, and doesn't care about offending the status quo which would include taking an occasional scumbag client. Why the hell did he take this one? Dunno.
DeleteIn the public drama that is New Jersey law and politics, Krovatin is one of the lead actors. When Republicans were accused of paying off black ministers to suppress voter turnout in 1993, Krovatin was there pushing the Democratic cause.
When Democratic Gov. Corzine was forcing Attorney General Zulima Farber out of her job in a 2006 ethics flap, Krovatin was at Farber’s side, arguing she was being railroaded because of the governor’s own prior ethics lapses.
And for much of the last eight years, Krovatin has been the uncommon voice railing against Christie — now the governor, but U.S. attorney for most of that time — accusing him of misusing his powerful office to further his own political ambition.
The political cases are not Krovatin’s bread and butter, and they’re certainly not the majority of the work at his “boutique” litigation. firm, Krovatin Klingeman in Newark. But they are the cases that make the front page and, most clearly, pit Krovatin against the powerful, the prominent and the politicians.
Though defense lawyers are loath to admit it out loud, they frequently decline to criticize the state’s top dogs for fear it might hurt their chances of getting new clients or upset their politically connected partners. Not so for Krovatin.
“He never lets his views of the facts be colored by outside considerations,” says renowned trial lawyer Ted Wells, who earned his stripes with Krovatin at Lowenstein Sandler. And that, Wells says, places Krovatin in the mold of one of the attorney’s idols, the late civil-rights lawyer Raymond A. Brown.
The most frequent target of Krovatin’s anti-authority criticism is Christie.
Ramos has friends in low places.
DeleteEven with a really good lawyer Rene Abreu got seven years in prison and huge fine for his crimes. Knowing that this guy is funding Ruben Ramos should make anyone who doesn't get paid to be his election day worker wretch.
So Nancy, when you say you question the electability of a gay councilman and a Latino councilman, does that make you a homophobic and a racist? Oh the irony. And yes, there are screenshots!
DeleteGo to Hell, Anon. Screenshot away. I don't like threats and intimidation against my constitutional right of free speech. I can screenshot too, douchebag. I see who you are:
DeleteDigital Ocean (159.203.26.128) Think you can threaten my right to free and fair political speech, do you.
You know, I love my gay brothers and sisters, and Latinas and Latinos. I don't love bullying douchebags like you. Get lost.
We are still trying to find “compliments” beyond gay and Latino for Defusco and Ramos, but so far that’s it. It tends to make it sound like WE don’t support them either when we can’t point to any actual accomplishments as public servants and continually focus on orientation and ethnicity instead. But the good news is that our following really don’t care. That’s the beauty of a hurt butt. All they gotta know is “on our team” or “not in our team” and bitterness does the rest.
DeleteDeFuckop being gay is the most interesting thing about him. And no one gives a shit. So there you go.
Delete