Spun out on the Hoboken committee vote
by Al Sullivan
Reporter staff writer
Reporter staff writer
This column got spun hard last week by Hoboken political insiders with an interest in the upcoming battle for Hoboken’s 4th Ward council seat. There appears to be a coalition of various groups who want to make incumbent Councilman Michael Lenz look weaker than he might actually be. Thus, their accounts of the June 14 Hoboken Democratic Committee meeting – a non-public meeting in which Ravi Bhalla was elected chairman of the local party – were skewed.
Several sources said the first vote for the chair was a tie between Bhalla and his chief challenger, Ines Garcia Keim, who is a strong ally of Councilwoman Beth Mason. The sources said that the outgoing chairman, Assemblyman Ruben Ramos Jr., failed to break the tie, requiring the second vote to be held in public – and thus leaving some city employees open to possible intimidation from Mayor Dawn Zimmer’s administration if they failed to support Bhalla.
Bhalla, Lenz, and others said that this account was simply not true.
“The first vote was to determine whether there was going to be a hand vote or secret ballot for chairmanship,” Bhalla said. “That was a tie.”
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Some of the confusion arose because two votes were taken for the chairmanship. This happened not because of the tie, but because the original vote came out 38 for Bhalla and 28 for Keim. Thus, “We obviously miscounted because we knew there were 65 people in the room,” Bhalla said. “We took a more careful count the second time and this came out 38 to 27.”
This vote, Bhalla argued,shows that the reformers who supported him have grown stronger over the last year, not weaker.
“Last year our numbers were in the 20s,” he said. “But we played by the rules. We used a phone bank, palm cards, and knocked on doors. We made no deals and we ran a clean and fair campaign.”
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To read the rest click on the link to the right: Spun out on the Hoboken committee vote
Original Post 6/21/2010: Al Sullivan had this laughably erroneous column in this weekend's online edition of the Hoboken Reporter. For whatever reason (possibly accuracy) it did not make the weekend's print edition. Here is the link to his entire article:
Chaos-among-Hoboken-Democrats? From Al Sullivan Hoboken Reporter
Below are the excerpts from Al Sullivan's Column and my rebuttal and factual corrections......
Al Sullivan: Politics hasn’t changed as much over the last century as people like to pretend - and the selection of a new chairman of the Hoboken Democratic Organization this past Monday showed that almost nothing has changed.
While cigar-smoking political bosses now have to go outside to puff, the same old threats and intimidation appear to have taken place, as factions from an almost evenly split Democratic party struggled to find a new chairperson.
Hoboken Journal: Actually the margin of the vote was 38-27 in favor of Ravi Bhalla or a 58% to 42% split up of the vote. Not exactly an even close tally. And what intimidation? The only city employee that was on the column B slate was Ann Holtzman who was already on board with whatever selection the leadership of Column B had decided.
Al Sullivan: A group calling themselves Real Democrats of Hoboken pushed to get Ines Garcia Keim (a close ally of 2nd Ward Councilwoman Beth Mason) named to the powerful top post, while in the end – after some yelling, some foul language, and other threats – Councilman Ravi Bhalla (a close ally of Mayor Dawn Zimmer) was named chairman.
Hoboken Journal: The foul language and verbal threats did not come from the Column B faction supporting Ravi Bhalla. They came from Column C supporting the Russo/Garcia Keim/Mason faction. Lane Bajardi said to a committee person who voted for Ravi and his slate on the way out "Fuck you, Fuck you you piece of shit". There was also Michele Russo leading the walkout during the vote for the honorary chair vote for Dawn Zimmer. Simply bad form and a lack of class though this was not applicable to everyone on the Column C ticket. I was in attendance at the event and saw no evidence of anyone in column B starting something verbally with anyone.
Al Sullivan: Bhalla was less a victory for Mayor Zimmer than a fumble by outgoing chairman and State Assemblyman Ruben Ramos Jr.
The committee members called for a second vote on the original ballot because it came out a tie. But instead of serving as the tie-breaking vote to decide the chairmanship, Ramos called for a pubic new vote, putting a few of the city workers on the spot: if they voted openly for Keim, they risked the wrath of Zimmer, who was backing Bhalla.
Despite the fumble on the goal line, and despite the fact that neither candidate for the top spot was a born-and-raised Hobokenite, Old Hoboken can take comfort in the fact that they still have a significant amount of clout in town.
Hoboken Journal: The recount on the close vote was on whether or not to have a secret ballot. That was decided by one vote after a recount. What intimidation? The only city employee that was on the column B slate was Ann Holtzman and she was confirmed as a supporter before the vote. The margin for Ravi vs. Ines for chair was 38-27 and was not close (58% to 42%). Ines nominated herself for treasurer and that vote went 39-26 vs. Gary Holtzman, an even larger margin of (60% to 40%).
Al Sullivan: This could bode badly for Councilman Michael Lenz, who is running against Tim Occhipinti in a special election in November for the 4th Ward seat. Lenz is not well-loved by Old Hoboken, who would rather pin their hopes on Occhipinti than support Lenz, who they do not see representing their interests.
HobokenJournal: Al Sullivan is entitled to his opinion here.
Al Sullivan: “The [split] committee vote shows that Old Hoboken is getting its act together,” one source said. But it also shows the Bhalla can expect a rough ride during his tenure as chairman. While he may be able to help steer Democratic resources to favored candidates, and determine who will get ballot positions in partisan races, Bhalla may get a lot of grief as a result. But he also may be able to broker this into higher office – perhaps even a future run for mayor.
HobokenJournal: Whatever source Al Sullivan was using was definitely trying to some spin on a decisive loss. Ravi Bhalla was very organized and got all but two confirmed members of the column B group out for the vote that night (38 out of 40). His hard work and dedication were evident in the margin of victory. Since the entire executive committee consists of like minded reformers from column B there should not be "a lot of grief as a result" as Al Sullivan has spun it. This vote was significant since this is the first time a reform minded slate has held a majority on the Democratic Committee in recent memory.
Conclusion: In conclusion, I am not telling Al Sullivan what conclusions to draw since his is an opinion piece, but there should be some basis of fact checking when publishing articles of this sort. His statements are simply an inaccurate reflection of what happened in terms of both facts and analysis. Share your thoughts below..... ◦
