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| Government witness, Matt Calicchio, appears once as a ballot-bearer in Hoboken's 2015 election for a 5th Ward Fox Hills resident. |
First, credit goes to John Heinis of Hudson County View whose excellent reporting from inside the court room is the source material for this post. Read his article for the blow-by-blow.
CALICCHIO TESTIFIES
It is the jury who will judge the credibility of witnesses; the jury is the trier of fact. That said, if the government's first witness, Matt Calicchio, is to be believed, wow. Because yesterday Calicchio lifted the veil on Hoboken's open secret: city-wide VBM harvesting for cash.
Yes, for many election cycles, we all observed a wildly inflated proportion of VBMs that were always in the same Hoboken neighborhoods.
We all observed shady ELEC reports: dozens to hundreds of paid workers- corresponding to those same Hoboken neighborhoods; clues to who was allegedly involved. We all knew that something about our elections stank. But, we didn't have behind-the-scenes access to what it really was: a tightly-controlled election rigging operation with a command structure, captains, soldiers, procedure, rules. We didn't know how it all allegedly worked until yesterday's bombshell testimony of Matt Calicchio.
On the witness stand, Calicchio alleged:
- Designated "captains" brought open vote-by-mail ballots to "The Raia Club," at 520 Jefferson Street.
- Vote-by-mail ballots had to be open- not sealed- or the voter would not be paid.
- Raia was present when "this was all taking place."
- Raia gave the orders, but Dio Braxton and Freddie Frazier primarily oversaw the unsealed ballots.
- Raia targeted low-income residents because they needed the money, didn't want them to vote on machines.
- Braxton and Frazier would write on open ballots (adding votes) to void them in cases where the voter did not "yes" on the rent control referendum.
- Vote-voiding to skew election outcome was a tactic designed by Raia.
- Lizaida Camis, would routinely bring "bags full of ballots" only filled out with the voter's signature.
Wow. Calicchio's testimony will resume today, and once that wraps, Raia's criminal defense attorney, Alan Zegas, may cross-examine him. After that, prosecutors Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sean Farrell and Rahul Agarwal can (try to) rehabilitate damage done to the credibility of the witness on re-direct.
Rumored to be on-deck next: government witness Mike Holmes. Oh, yeah.
DISHY NUGGET FOR HOBOKEN POLITICAL JUNKIES
Yesterday, Matt Calicchio proffered an un-related but juicy allegation: that Raia's 2013 third mayoral ticket was intended to derail the Ruben Ramos mayoral campaign. Heinis wrote:
Tim didn't enter to stop Ramos; Tim entered to win. He quit his job to campaign. Yes, he did. GA saw Occhipinti around Hoboken, alone during the day, approaching folks on the street. He wanted the job, gave up his 9 to 5 to get it. The whole slate ran to win. Pupie was an At-Large candidate and spent six-figures, as did Beth Mason.
Yep, this blog wrote all about how Ruben mounted a sabotage-offensive against Tim by planting a mole in his campaign. Others ("Finboy") double crossed him. Sure, Raia's third ticket wrecked Ramos, but Ramos' sabotage wrecked Tim: two dozen boxes of undistributed campaign lit and boxes of dog biscuits, no GOTV ground game, leaked campaign intel. Occhipinti came in a distant 3rd place at 17% and Raia a distant 7th place among council candidates.
CALICCHIO POINTS FINGER AT 2015 WARD CANDIDATE
This bit of testimony may foretell where the U.S. Attorneys Office is headed next:
So... who will Matt Calicchio alleged directed him in the vote bribery scheme in 2015? GA has scoured 2015 ELEC reports for the various campaigns to see which candidate Calicchio worked for. Found nothing.
The only clue we have to Calicchio's activities in Hoboken's 2015 ward elections is his name listed once as a ballot-bearer in Hoboken's General Election VBM report. As a bearer, Calicchio assisted a of Fox Hill Gardens in the 5th Ward.
Calicchio may have reported work in the 5th ward, but did he only work there? Did he work in other wards? 2015's 5th ward candidate was Eduardo Gonzalez, but was Gonzalez really directing the GOTV ground game?
Who was 5th ward GOTV coordinator? Was it someone with ties to any other Hoboken campaigns? Let's see!
Interesting choice of 5th Ward GOTV coordinator. Lizaida Camis knows this GOTV coordinator quite well. Well, in spite of presumed interest in the outcome of the 2015 4th Ward election, Eduardo's 5th ward GOTV coordinator is not at issue, and has not implicated in any wrong-doing.
CONCLUSION
So, yesterday was a feast for Hoboken political junkies. And Calicchio sure has more to tell. But the government won't allow him to-- yet.
Stay tuned.
And thanks again to John Heinis, whose excellent courtroom reporting was sourced for this article.
Rumored to be on-deck next: government witness Mike Holmes. Oh, yeah.
DISHY NUGGET FOR HOBOKEN POLITICAL JUNKIES
Yesterday, Matt Calicchio proffered an un-related but juicy allegation: that Raia's 2013 third mayoral ticket was intended to derail the Ruben Ramos mayoral campaign. Heinis wrote:
Juicy! But not entirely believable.
Tim didn't enter to stop Ramos; Tim entered to win. He quit his job to campaign. Yes, he did. GA saw Occhipinti around Hoboken, alone during the day, approaching folks on the street. He wanted the job, gave up his 9 to 5 to get it. The whole slate ran to win. Pupie was an At-Large candidate and spent six-figures, as did Beth Mason.
Yep, this blog wrote all about how Ruben mounted a sabotage-offensive against Tim by planting a mole in his campaign. Others ("Finboy") double crossed him. Sure, Raia's third ticket wrecked Ramos, but Ramos' sabotage wrecked Tim: two dozen boxes of undistributed campaign lit and boxes of dog biscuits, no GOTV ground game, leaked campaign intel. Occhipinti came in a distant 3rd place at 17% and Raia a distant 7th place among council candidates.
CALICCHIO POINTS FINGER AT 2015 WARD CANDIDATE
This bit of testimony may foretell where the U.S. Attorneys Office is headed next:
"He [Calicchio] said that he worked at Raia’s direction in 2013 and that a different candidate for office directed him in 2015, but the government moved the line of questioning along before he could state who that was."The government clearly doesn't want that alleged candidate's name out. Guess why.
So... who will Matt Calicchio alleged directed him in the vote bribery scheme in 2015? GA has scoured 2015 ELEC reports for the various campaigns to see which candidate Calicchio worked for. Found nothing.
The only clue we have to Calicchio's activities in Hoboken's 2015 ward elections is his name listed once as a ballot-bearer in Hoboken's General Election VBM report. As a bearer, Calicchio assisted a of Fox Hill Gardens in the 5th Ward.
Calicchio may have reported work in the 5th ward, but did he only work there? Did he work in other wards? 2015's 5th ward candidate was Eduardo Gonzalez, but was Gonzalez really directing the GOTV ground game?
Who was 5th ward GOTV coordinator? Was it someone with ties to any other Hoboken campaigns? Let's see!
GONZALEZ FOR COUNCIL- 20-DAY POST ELECTION REPORT
Interesting choice of 5th Ward GOTV coordinator. Lizaida Camis knows this GOTV coordinator quite well. Well, in spite of presumed interest in the outcome of the 2015 4th Ward election, Eduardo's 5th ward GOTV coordinator is not at issue, and has not implicated in any wrong-doing.
CONCLUSION
So, yesterday was a feast for Hoboken political junkies. And Calicchio sure has more to tell. But the government won't allow him to-- yet.
Stay tuned.
And thanks again to John Heinis, whose excellent courtroom reporting was sourced for this article.
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