DEVELOPING STORY.... Sources report an apoplectic First Ward Councilman Michael DeFusco has been pounding out texts, calling up and yelling at/threatening bar business owners who have prominently displayed banners supporting his opponent, Migdalia Pagan Milano.
It's true; the First ward's most prominent bar businesses have ditched the Empty Suit and are displaying "Vote for Migdalia Pagan Milano" signs. One of them, McSwiggans Pub, is the venue which hosted an early Micheal DeFusco for Mayor fundraiser.
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| Et tu, McSwiggans Pub? |
That McSwiggans fundraiser was where DeFusco famously told John Heinis of Hudson County View that he was honored to be a vibrant mouthpiece or a mouthpiece for vibrancy or just a mouthpiece for PACs and Unions...
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| https://hudsoncountyview.com/defusco-im-honored-to-be-the-mouthpiece-for-a-vibrant-new-hoboken/ |
Why did McSwiggans dump DeFusco?
Maybe the Ferryman on First can tell us, because they dumped him too...
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| Bar owners want change |
1st WARD BAR OWNERS DON'T TAKE KINDLY TO DEFUSCO'S BULLYING
Sources say that the bar owners are defiant; they will not be cowed by the shrieking Councilman's tantrums, threats and bullying; their "Vote for Migdalia" signs are staying up. How many other First Ward businesses will join this mutiny against Dear Leader?
WILL THE "VOTE FOR MIGDALIA" SIGNS BE VANDALIZED?
They are up for now... But will DeFusco thugs tear the signs down in the middle of the night or when no one's around?
GA calls dibs on the bars' security camera footage! (After the HPD gets it.)
This story is developing...
As we learned from the famous Jen "sign in Church Towers" signs don't vote. Especially signs on local bars.
ReplyDeleteTrying to intimidate businesses for exercising their 1st amendment rights is reprehensible.
I'm curious why bars like McSwiggens have abandoned DeFusco given that he has spent more time representing the interests of 1'st ward bars than 1'st ward residents.
He is such a jackass and has skin thinner than Trump. He is perfect for Jen and Tiff. None of them seem to realize that they serve the voters and other stakeholders, not the other way around. I don't often like some of the stunts the bar owners pull (SantaCon and LeperCon - misspelling intended), but glad they have put him on notice he is a jackass.
ReplyDeleteCity hall will be a much better place when the voters give those three a time out and force all three of them to go sit in the peanut gallery post-election like the rest of the windbags and gadflies who insist on going to CC meetings and force everyone to listen to their 5 minutes of nonsense each CC meeting.
He is having a fundraiser at 10th and Willow. It would make more sense to have it in a bar in his district. Maybe this if the reason why.
ReplyDeleteMeant is the
DeleteThat is probably being done to push for the we ain't a ticket DeFusco/ Fisher/Giattino/ Ramos ticket for replacement candidate what his name after Cunnigham had enough and bailed out.
DeleteThe biggest issue to 1st ward bars like McSwiggans has long been the cancellation of the St. Patrick's day parade, and the resulting tone down of the annual drunkfest that brought them oodles of profits at the expense of the quality of life of Hoboken and especially 1 St Ward residents and which cost all Hoboken taxpayers oodles of money in public safety and clean-up costs.
ReplyDeleteTheir anger at Mayor Zimmer for her decisions that led the Parade Committee to cancel the parade never dissipated.
Maybe these bars finally realized that DeFusco can't bring back the parade and drunkfest, so there is no longer any reason to support him.
Hopefully they have abandoned the dream. Mayor Bhalla has made publicly clear his zero tolerance for all of the drunkfests so I can't imagine they would be pinning their hopes on him and his team.
DeFusco & Co. were furious that the City Councilwoman at Large, Emily Jabbour was interviewed by TV reporters at the First Street Fair. BTW, MDF did nothing to make this year's expanded street fair happen and the bar owners know the facts.
ReplyDeleteHe claims he was the reason 1st street was paved. Another accomplishment he is wrongly taking credit.
DeleteFirst Street is a County Road and the plan to repave it was set before MDF was even in office. The actual paving was delayed for years until the infrastructure under it was compleated. MDF taking credit for other people ideas and work is very well known.
DeleteBar owners are nothing if not pragmatic. Most of them don't live in town, but the majority of their customers and staff do, and those are the people they're paying attention to. Even when they were paid to host his events, it was probably pretty clear that those in attendance came from out of town. Not the people who can help them with any of their concerns. After almost 4 years in office, the rabid chihuahua hasn't either. They know it's time to cut their losses.
ReplyDeleteSo he'll take his shriek-show on the road, and have an event in terra incognita, where he's even more despised than his own ward, if that's possible.
The runoff at the mouth election is all he's got left.
Apparently not only is MDF having a hard time getting businesses in the First Ward to put up his campaign signs but once they are up they are taken down.
ReplyDeleteA large banner was on the fence of Starbucks on the corner of Newark and Hudson this morning has been removed.
Was the banner put up without permission ?
and for those stores that do have his posters up - skip getting coffee at ROOST at 55 1st Street for now...Roost is run by folks from NYC - so maybe they don't know what they are supporting, but for now, plenty of other options for coffee in this town. The only other business I saw with a DeDumbo sign is a real estate office and that doesn't count.
ReplyDeleteMigdala is getting support from BARS! BARS! are you folks kidding me? If it was the otherw ay around you would all be saying Mike is giving away the town to pub crawls and LepreCON. The Bars are mad at him because he sponsored the ordinance against PUB CRAWLS people. There are reasons to dislike the guy, I get that. But Migdalia having bar owner support is not a favorable for her by any means.
DeleteDeFusco's apparent loss of support from First Ward bar owners is significant because he had previously relied upon them for much of his campaign funding and use of their real estate to hang his campaign signage. As we all know MDF sponsors a great many ordinances most of which mean nothing and are just self-serving political gamesmanship.
DeleteThis on top of his loss of much support from residents will be a significant factor on November 5th.
Migdalia Pagan-Milano fact checks DeFusco's claims on her Facebook page and it is devistating.
ReplyDeleteHi , I think you meant devAstating. It was all written by her consultants. Answer this, will she take a leave of absence or will she quit altogether. Like Dave Roberts, James Fitzsimmons who were cops and firemen they never quit. They took decade plus leaves and were able to collect pensions based on both jobs. One even got a no show county job while on the council. Will Migdalia PROMISE not to take a county connected job where the Mayor can still control her vote? Will Migdalia get a job in Union City? We know that's happened in the past where a real big politico's mom got a job at their BOE. And before anyone starts, we are talking big salaries not 5K stipends
DeleteAs we know MDF has farmed out all his communications to his campaign consultants. We know this because when he was called out for banning people from his Facebook page his communication consultants said so.
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