MIKE LENZ: TIM OCCHIPINTI CONTINUES THE CAMMARANO LEGACY
Today, former Mayor and convicted felon Peter Cammarano is going to jail. It ends another sad corrupt chapter in Hoboken’s recent history but under the Zimmer Administration, with the support of the city council majority, we are finally moving Hoboken in the right direction.
In an earlier press release, Tim Occhipinti said it’s unfair to bring attention to his association with Peter Cammarano because many residents of our great city voted for Mr. Cammarano in 2009. While it is true that many good people with great intentions supported Cammarano, only 1 of those 6000 voters, Tim Occhipinti, has made the decision to surround himself with the same core Cammarano campaign team who somehow didn’t notice that their boss was willing to sell out our city’s future for envelopes full of cash.
Only Tim has brought back together that same Cammarano inner circle (Maurice Fitzgibbons, Michael Novak, Michael Goldberg, Perry Belfiore, Frank Raia, Matt Callichio, Nick Callichio, Ryan Yacco, and many others) to run his so-called “Independent” campaign.
Despite saying in his own press release that “without proper checks and balances, [candidates] feel no need to work in the public interest,” Only Tim has refused to sign a Clean Campaign Pledge and run a race that doesn’t pay for votes or disrespect the voters and residents of the 4th Ward.
The night before Peter Cammarano was arrested by the FBI for selling zoning variances, Tim Occhipinti was one of a handful of people in front of the city council fighting to give Peter absolute power over….zoning variances.
Many former Cammarano supporters have learned from Peter’s despicable attempts to sell our city to developers, but Tim is not one of them. Peter Cammarano going to jail may end a sad chapter in Hoboken’s history, but Tim Occhipinti is trying to write the sequel.
ELEC filings are due today and the Mike Lenz Campaign has submitted complete forms and posted them on our website (http://lenzforcouncil.com/pdf/29%20Day%20ELEC%20-%20Mike%20Lenz.pdf). On the other hand, Tim Occhipinti has yet to call out Michael Novak, a high-ranking member of the Occhipinti/Cammarano Campaign Team, for not filing his legally required ELEC forms from his council run in 2009.
With all of the problems that Team Cammarano had, including accepting bribes, not filing ELEC forms, and leaving themselves open to charges of vote buying for their massive use of “vote by mail” ballots by paid workers, we once again call on Tim to respect the voters of the 4th Ward and sign the Clean Campaign Pledge.
The Mike Lenz Campaign is getting out in the community to talk about Mike’s plans to lower taxes, support balanced development, improve our quality of life, end flooding, and finally bring a southwest park. Just as important though, past campaigns have raised serious questions about the integrity of our election process. We are running a campaign that respects the voters, the integrity of the process and the law. We call on Tim Occhipinti to disavow the unsavory tactics that have been used in the past and do the same. ◦
