Hoboken mayor’s ‘robocalls’ for school board did not use city resources

HOBOKEN – Many Hoboken residents received a “robocall” from Mayor Dawn Zimmer on Nov. 6 with her endorsing the school board slate Forward Together. Apparently, her City Hall number showed up as the identifying phone number, rather than a campaign office number. The company who handled the calls, Global Marketing Research Systems (GMRS), said the identifying number was a mistake, the call was paid for by Zimmer’s campaign fund, and no City Hall resources were used. The call was neither recorded at nor sent from City Hall, they said.
A paid campaign consultant for Zimmer, Rob Horowitz, said in a press release sent out via email that it was merely a mistake.
The release quoted Chris Stella, a senior research project director for GMRS, as saying, “We mistakenly secured the phone number through a Google Search, confusing the Mayoral Facebook page for a Campaign Facebook page. We are sorry for any confusion we created.”
The polls are open Tuesday from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.

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