Hoboken Councilman Ravi Bhalla responded yesterday to claims made by Paul Swibinski, campaign consultant for Beth Mason. Swibinski alleged that Bhalla was asked to “pre-notarize” parts of a Acting Mayor Dawn Zimmer’s campaign petitions, before they were completed, but Bhalla said that claim is “100 percent false; it’s a complete lie.”
“I’m disappointed that the Mason campaign would stoop to this level,” he said. “I notarized whatever petitions were requested for me to notarize.”
Bhalla declined to comment about who brought the petitions to him to be notarized, whether Zimmer was present, and why he couldn’t or didn’t notarize all portions of the filing.
“I’m not going to answer questions that may be [litigated],” he said.
Sam Briggs, campaign manager for Zimmer, said in an e-mail: “Yet another series of false charges from Beth Mason’s hand-picked hatchet man.The only person who should be put under oath is Paul Swibinski and he should be asked what he knew about the cash contributions funneled into the Cammarano campaign [allegedly] in return for development approvals.”
Frank Monte Magno, the City Clerk’s Office employee who notarized the last portion of Zimmer’s filing, said yesterday that he also notarized another mayoral candidate’s petitions, Sal DeMeo, and that he would have provided the service to any candidate who would have asked.
He said the nominal fee he charged Zimmer, $1, was not even paid to him yet.