Clean Elections, Dirty Politics

by: carolh

Sat Oct 06, 2007 at 05:18:14 PM EDT

LD37 Incumbents, Senator Loretta Weinberg and her running mates, Assemblyman Gordon Johnson and Assemblywoman Valerie Huttle qualify for more Clean Elections campaign funds. And once again, Ms. Nibot from Bergenfield and her running mates do not.

You could almost pity poor Ms. Nibot according to this Stiles column in the Record. Tsk. Tsk. Actually bribing elderly ladies with the promise of a free dinner if they would be her 400th contributor. Sad. So sad.

However, hold your pity for a moment. Bergenfield does wierd things to folks lately........

Without the slightest sense of even understanding the irony of it all, Nibot has asked the ELEC to look into how Loretta Weinberg is spending her Clean Elections money. After campaigning as the Clean Elections candidate up until the bitter end, while actually never being certified an OFFICIAL NJ Clean Elections candidate (talk about misleading packaging), Ms, Nibot has the raw unadulterated chutzpah to challenge Senator Weinberg about how she spends her newly acquired campaign funds. I feel like Jon Stewart when he rubs his eyes furiously with his palms, shakes his head, looks up wide eyed and says Whaaaaaaa?

Come again, Ms. Nibot? If anyone is a Clean Candidate it is Senator Weinberg. It is certainly not you. According to ELEC, I have the proof. You didn't QUALIFY. You will just have to accept funds from folks like Joe Ferriero, Councilman Mulligan, or whoever else is funding your misleading campaign against our incumbent Senator.

As for Ms. Nibot's indignation that Senator Weinberg is looking into how our public utilities are run, whether for ideas on how to improve them or to root out corruption, what the heck is wrong with that? As a voter in NJ, I'd be happy to know that our Senator is looking after our interests everywhere - especially in expensive places and under rocks we often don't think to look. I hate to tell Ms. Nibot,"It ain't all about you, sweetheart." Just because you don't think a candidate should do any research except to learn all about your failings, doesn't mean Senator Weinberg is doing anything illegal or even unethical. It just tells me, you have more issues than a newstand. I don't know if I care to figure out what they all are before November 6 and I don't know if the voters have the time or inclination either.

See below for more links and articles explaining the real ways campaign money corrupts the political process. After reading them, tell me how a desperate Republican like Ms. Nibot can attack a popular honest Democratic State Senator like Loretta Weinberg who has just persuaded over 800 District 37 voters to give her 10$ each. Tell me that Niibot is the clean candidate when she can't even stay above the kind of nasty smears and innuendos that characterize the dirtiest of politics.

Ms. Nibot, it is you who needs to "come clean" and stop advertising yourself as the Clean Candidate when you are NOT.

carolh :: Clean Elections, Dirty Politics

From the ASBURY PARK PRESS....Oct. 5, 2007:

PACs and party bosses
Most of the ideological PAC activity seems linked to the areas lorded over by the Democrats' most powerful power brokers: George Norcross in South Jersey, and Bergen County Democratic Party chairman Joseph Ferriero.
Four Bergen County-based committees are associated with Wilfredo J. Ortiz II, a Democratic fund-raiser who declined to answer questions about how his committees deal with pay-to-play restrictions.
"I'm a lifelong Democrat; that's the only answer I have for you," Ortiz said of his committees.
Combined, four PACs that list Ortiz as a representative have taken $220,830 from state vendors since pay-to-play limits were enacted and sent $256,550 to the county committee.
Contributors contacted by Gannett New Jersey were equally elusive.
Ronald Schmidt, of the Englewood-based engineering firm Ronald Schmidt & Associates, said he gives politically or charitably to good causes, but couldn't recall the virtues that prompted him to contribute $14,400 to two of Ortiz's PACs in 2005.
"I have people advise me who I go to and I'll say, 'I want a candidate,' and they'll say, 'Contribute to this party, or this particular thing,' " Schmidt said. "I can't say any more because it's not anything more than that."

Funny little story about Wilfredo J. Ortiz II. Seems his firm Ortiz, Paster and Campos just so happens to be the Planning Board Attorneys for Union City, and the firm of Ortiz and Paster are the Borough attorneys for Dumont. Another funny little coincidence........The firm of Ortiz and Paster is listed as having an address at 58 Main Street in Hackensack. I'm afraid Mr. Ortiz and our Boss Joe Ferriero may be a little TOO close. (BCDO HQ is at 50 Main street.) Anyway - talk amongst yourselves - discuss.......