As reported first by a local website and then picked up by a daily news site, the oblique Washington, D.C.-based political action committees that sent out vicious attack ads against the Hoboken mayoral candidates in May apparently got funding from a statewide carpenter’s union and a local developer.
The PACs called themselves “Citizens for the Future” and the “Building America Committee.” They sent out mailers and left phone messages attacking certain candidates in the spring election.
HobokenNow writes: “They were sent out by a pair of political action committees (PACs) — Citizens for the Future and the Building America Committee. IRS filings released late last month show that Hoboken developer Tarragon/URSA and New Jersey unions contributed nearly $175,000 to the two PACs.”
Last spring, all three Hoboken mayoral candidates denied knowing where the attack ads came from. Some of the ads linked Dawn Zimmer to the policies of predecessor David Roberts. Phone messages even included sound effects of a bomb and a screeching car.
The news site quoted URSA developer Michael Sciarra as saying, “People are tuning this into something that’s evil. But in the history of America you want people elected who share your views of the future. It’s not about greedy developers. It’s about building things in Hoboken that make the place better.”
He said that Zimmer was not seen as particularly developer friendly.
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