With the mayoral election only three months away, the mud is flying fast and furious. Last week, anonymous forces were out in earnest casting aspersions on mayoral and council candidates through fliers and a telephone poll.
Residents said last week that a phone survey they received was filled with prickly questions intending to make mayoral candidate David Roberts, who will oppose Mayor Anthony Russo, look bad. And Monday night, anonymous flyers signed by an until-last-week unheard of group calling itself “HHA Tenants for Real Change” were slipped under doors of residents at the Hoboken Housing Authority projects. That flier took potshots at Roberts and allies Lynda Walker, an HHA tenant, and City Councilman Ruben Ramos Jr.
Given all the vitriol that has been spewed in their direction, the Roberts camp accused the Russo forces of orchestrating both events last week. Russo, a hard-charging politician, along with a spokesperson for a campaign firm he has retained, Sheinkopf Communication, swore he had nothing to do with either event.
Privately, several Russo-allied politicos said that they thought it was possible Roberts and his allies had orchestrated the events themselves in an effort to generate sympathy.
Such an allegation drew nothing but a wry chuckle from the Roberts forces.
“Yeah, I also like to set myself on fire and whip myself with a stick,” said City Councilman Tony Soares, a staunch supporter of Roberts and one of Russo’s most vocal critics.
Poll gets nasty
According to residents who said they were contacted by the polling firm last Sunday and Monday, the questioning seemed to start off the way any market research might. But it quickly turned nasty.
At first residents were asked simply if they had heard of a number of local politicos, including the mayor, Roberts and others. They then were asked whom they would vote for if the mayor were matched up in a race with Roberts or with Soares or with State Senator Bernie Kenny.
Next, residents were asked if they would be more likely to vote for the mayor if they knew that he was responsible for a slew of positive contributions to the city, including increasing parking options and lowering taxes. Finally they were asked if they would be more likely to vote against City Councilman Dave Roberts if they knew that he had been arrested for election fraud and that he had voted against building a garage “for the aged and infirm” next to St. Mary Hospital.
While Roberts was charged with election fraud in the 1980s, the indictment was eventually dropped. And while Roberts voted against the garage, there is a larger context: he said that he supports the idea of building more parking structures, but he that he is concerned about the way that the Hoboken Parking Authority has handled other projects in town.
A number of residents who took the phone poll said that they believed that it was a “push poll” – a survey not really designed to gauge opinion as much as to stealthily plant negative information about a candidate.
“I don’t think it was a poll so much as it was a vilification of Dave Roberts,” said Steve Cappiello, a former mayor who said he was contacted by the pollster.
Elizabeth Markevitch, an Internet pollster who has lived in town for 12 years, agreed. “I can see doing market research to get the mood of the people in town,” she said, “but this was nothing more than a sneaky way to try make one guy look good and smear his competition.”
Cappiello did say that polling of this nature was commonplace when he served as the city’s chief executive in the ’70s and ’80s. “They did that from time to time when they wanted to get some dirt out on somebody,” he said. Of course, the views of Markevitch and Cappiello have to be taken in context. Neither made a secret of the fact that they would be pleased to see someone other than Russo marshalling the troops at City Hall.
Untrue housing charges
The anonymous flyer that was shoved under the doors of housing authority tenants last Monday night aroused similarly strong feelings.
It said that vocal housing authority resident Lynda Walker and City Councilman Ruben Ramos Jr. are “hypocrites” for allegedly changing the way they felt about whether or not E. Troy Washington, the executive director of the housing authority, ought to be fired.
For months, Walker and others charged that Washington was not accessible enough to the residents. Officials who are against the Russo administration, like Ramos, publicly agreed with Walker. Then, the mayor’s allies also came out against Washington. But at a housing meeting two weeks ago, Walker, Roberts-ally Michael Lenz, and some original anti-Washington forces appeared to have suddenly softened their stance. They said that they didn’t like the way Washington’s impending dismissal was being handled, and that at least he’s capable of standing up to politicians like Russo.
The fliers passed out last week contain screaming headlines and claim that Walker, Ramos and others first urged that Washington be fired, then turned around and urged the board not to fire him at its most recent meeting. A quote that appears to be attributed to Ramos says that Washington should “not be fired because he’s doing a great job,” although Ramos never said anything like that at the board’s most recent meeting. In fact, he spent only a short time at the microphone asking the board about elevator maintenance issues and section 8 vouchers. The flier is signed by a group calling itself HHA Tenants For A Real Change. No phone number is attached to it. And nobody seems to know who the group might be.
Walker and Ramos said Tuesday that they have not changed their position on the executive director. They said they still have serious doubts about whether he can do the job. But they said they do not want to see him fired for political reasons.
(Washington, for his part, appears to want to stay on. Last week he told HHA Commissioners that he was willing to “change” and that he wanted to help improve life for the residents of the housing authority. He also released an independent audit showing that the HHA had made improvements under his watch.)
What really angers Walker and Ramos about the fliers is that they are unsigned, they said.
The Roberts forces blamed Russo for the fliers and said that he had the most to gain from circulating a letter like this. But in typical fashion, they went further than that. Like a mantra, various member of their political alliance said that the flier was printed on blue paper just like they use in City Hall.
“They even use this paper when they put out their positive stuff,” said one member of the team.
Other than denying the charges, Russo said his best guess was that the flyer was printed by an HHA resident. “I think the fliers were probably legitimate,” he said. “I think the change of positions [by Ramos and others] probably outraged a significant number of residents.”
“But I have to say that is not my M.O.,” Russo added Thursday morning. “Anything I do, I do with my signature and my name.”
This is not the first time Ruben Ramos has been targeted by anonymous literature. When he first ran for council in 1999, someone sent out unsigned mailings decrying the work of Ramos’ father, a housing authority manager. This was also not the first time anonymous fliers were slipped under doors. Fliers accusing various candidates of attempting to hike rents or take away housing subsidies apparently are the most popular in that genre, having appeared in subsidized housing during various elections in the past. They generally have targeted anti-Russo candidates.
“We call ’em midnight fliers,” said Lynda Walker, a housing authority resident singled out by the missive. “They come by and slip ’em under your door while you sleep, and the next day, there it is.”
City Business Administrator George Crimmins made the point last week that it was feasible to think that some third party could be involved. As evidence, he pointed to a brouhaha in town over the half-built parking garage at 916 Garden St. He pointed out that a local activist has taken an active role in getting public information out about the garage. Crimmins noted that unsigned fliers were sent out last week encouraging residents to send an e-mail to hobokenparking@aol.com to learn more about the details surrounding the garage. Therefore, Crimmins noted, there are other people in town who will put information out anonymously about issues.
“Are we to believe that in something even more complex like the mayoral election that there are only two sides?” Crimmins said. “Right away the other side jumps out and portrays Anthony Russo like he is some sort of villain. But there is no reason to do that.”