I was not involved in Carol Marsh's campaign for Mayor back in 2005, other than voting for her and making a small contribution to her campaign. Therefore, I am in no position to evaluate whether Jake Stuiver was right or wrong when he asserted last week that Michael Lenz made mistakes in managing Carol's campaign. Based on my personal experiences with Michael, however, there is no doubt in my mind that his decisions were at all times motivated entirely by his strong and sincere desire to help Carol become Hoboken's next mayor.
I was elected to the Council with the invaluable help of many concerned Hoboken residents, including Michael Lenz and Jake Stuiver. Michael had no formal role in my campaign, and was not a "decision maker", but nonetheless gave me the benefit of his knowledge.
Sometimes I followed his advice, sometimes I didn't, but his motivation was always to help me get elected. Michael's two older sons are my children's favorite sitters, and I am proud to call Michael a friend.
Two weeks before my first election, a group of my volunteers affiliated with an organization called Vote Hoboken quit my campaign, because I accepted Michael's help as well as theirs.
Apparently, their support was not based, as I had thought, on our shared vision of Hoboken's future. Instead it was predicated on the desire of those few individuals to control the decisions made by my campaign.
Last Monday, Hoboken 411 published an editorial, clothed as an "article," entitled "Deconstructing Michael Lenz." This editorial did not deal at all with Michael's freely offered and widely reported opinions, but focused instead on presenting a distorted and misleading rendition of his political history. This created a platform for various political operatives to anonymously "bash" Michael and in some cases me, presumably because these individuals object to the fact that he is my friend.
A poster using the "handle" Jolly Roger went so far as to make the following false statement about my campaign, implying that my campaign committee committed criminal acts which plain and simple did not occur and for which there exists no evidence whatsoever:
I understand the Internet is a rough place, but flat out lies, personal attacks, and other such nonsense, still have no place. The real issues facing our city are too important for our political process to be distorted in this way. I know Michael spoke out of frustration, and he regrets the tone of his "dress" comment. He is not running for mayor, and no election will be won based on calling him names. There are enormous issues facing Hoboken today, and we all need to stop this name calling and get back to work on solving the issues impacting our town.
Thank you.
Dawn Zimmer
4th Ward City Councilwoman
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