Last week, incumbent 4th Ward Councilman Christopher Campos dropped a bombshell into the Dawn Zimmer camp by presenting a signed certification from a Hoboken senior citizen who alleges that while she was a patient at the Hoboken University Medical Center (HUMC), she was allegedly intimidated by Zimmer's campaign manager Doug Snyder while filling out her absentee ballot. Campos has written a letter to U.S. District Attorney Christopher Christie about the certification.
Snyder denied that allegation last week, calling it "untrue."
The week before, Zimmer and several of her associates began to raise concerns over the fact that Campos, who is a lawyer, did not file the required campaign finance reports - showing all of his donors - with the state until just a week ago. Since Campos has now turned in the forms, the Zimmer campaign pointed out that Campos received donations from various developers and contractors in town and asked if these exceeded the legal limits as set by New Jersey election law.
The state Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC) forms are required to be turned in at various intervals before and during a campaign. They can be looked at online at www.elec.state.nj.us/index.html.
Other two quiet
The elections for six of the nine council seats were actually held on May 8, but there was a runoff in three wards that will be held Tuesday June 12.
The other two City Council ward runoffs, which will be held in the 5th and 6th wards, have been relatively tame in comparison.
While 5th Ward candidate Perry Belfiore tossed a few barbs at opponent Peter Cunningham last week. Both are running to fill the seat of outgoing Councilman Michael Cricco.
The 6th Ward has been quiet. Both 6th Ward incumbent Councilman A. Nino Giacchi and challenger Thomas Foley described their race as a "gentleman's race."
They said they have been knocking on doors and meeting their neighbors in the street to raise interest in the election, which had the lowest turnout in all of the wards last month with only 778 votes being cast.
ELEC Report concerns
Zimmer recently pointed out her opponent's failure to file his ELEC reports until weeks after they were due, preventing voters in the first election from seeing where his financial support was coming from.
"I do believe if people had known that developers were financing his campaign, maybe we wouldn't be in a runoff right now," said Zimmer. "He pushed a developer-friendly plan with 1,200 condo units being built [in the Southwest Redevelopment Zone], which most residents are against. Voters should have been informed of whom he's tied to."
Although the reports have since been filed by Campos, many are missing required information such as the contributor's employer, the contributor's address, or their occupation.
In response to his tardiness in filing the reports and failing to provide the required information, Campos said his campaign treasurer, who had a death in the family around the same time the ELEC reports were due, made the error. Campos added that there was never any attempt to hide any information to the voters and that if certain required fields were missed in filing the reports, he would correct the situation as instructed by ELEC. Another issue that was raised by the Zimmer camp involved a May 7 contribution of $4,600 to Campos from what appeared to be a single individual.
According to Executive Director of the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission Frederick Herrmann, a Limited Liability Company, as an entity, cannot make a donation to a candidate nor can any one individual contribute more than $2,600 to a single candidate. However, several partners from a firm can present a check in the company's name that exceeds the $2,600 limit as long as there are instructions with the check that the donation is coming from more than one source.
As presented in the ELEC report, President of Applied Property Management Michael Barry appears to have contributed the entire lump sum to Campos. But according to Barry, the contribution came from all three partners of Applied Housing who said that Campos had been made aware of that fact prior to accepting the contribution. Barry could not confirm that instructions were provided with the check because he did not hand-deliver it himself.
Campos confirmed Barry's statement and said that, again, this was a case of a clerical error made by his treasury. If however, an investigation concludes that a violation was committed, penalties could come in the form of a $6,000 fine for an initial offense and a $12,000 fine for the second or subsequent offenses, according to an ELEC official.
Snyder also raised concerns over who paid for certain Campos' signs, which have printed "Paid for by A Voice for All Hoboken," but the organization is not listed as a contributor in his ELEC Reports. That "paid for" announcement was in several pieces of literature Snyder presented to the Reporter.
Campos, who presented a check he had given to his printer for the signs, said that it was a misprint and that he had personally paid for the literature, signs, and all other forms of campaign advertising with the "paid for" phrase.
Campos added that he did not have the funds to reprint the literature to correct the error.
Campos goes after Zimmer and Frazier on alleged voting fraud
In a letter addressed to Christie postmarked May 30, Campos, via his attorneys John Carbone and Ralph Faase, outlined what they considered to be several examples of voting fraud committed by the Zimmer campaign as well as another former 4th Ward candidate, Freddie Frazier.
Even though Frazier got only 108 votes, his percentage of the electoral pie was enough to force a runoff between Zimmer and Campos. Campos only had 47 percent of the overall vote, and thus, it was not enough to win. Out of Frazier's 108 votes, 52 were absentee ballots.
Beginning with Frazier, Campos' attorneys allege the possible forgeries of seven absentee voters' signatures, and 26 cases in which they believe the handwriting does not appear to be that of the voter. This information is in a letter that Campos' attorney mailed on May 30 to Christie as well as New Jersey Attorney General Stuart Rabner, Hudson County prosecutor Edward DeFazio, and Superintendent of Elections for Hudson County Marie Borace. "He can make all the allegations he wants, that's up to the Board of Elections to determine," said Frazier on Thursday. "I did absolutely nothing wrong."
Frazier said that he has not yet decided whom he is endorsing in the 4th Ward race, rebutting other claims made by Campos in the letter to Christie that Frazier was supporting Zimmer and had been working with her all along. In regards to Zimmer, Campos' attorneys alleged that there were two cases in which the appearance of handwriting on absentee ballots did not appear to be that of the voter. This is also in the letter to Christie.
The letter refers to the elderly woman who was admitted to the HUMC on May 7 and was allegedly approached by Snyder in her room. According to a signed certificate by the senior, while she completed her absentee ballot, "Snyder stood over me watching me. I felt intimidated and pressured by Mr. Snyder. After completing my absentee ballot, Snyder [allegedly] instructed me to not seal my absentee ballot in its envelope."
Campos said that the woman did not reach out to him; rather, her family made the initial call to inform the councilman of the alleged incident.
Last week, Snyder denied the accusations contained in the letter, saying, "Mr. Campos is now in a runoff, forced in part by voters who exercised their right to vote by absentee. In response, he and others have engaged in a whispering campaign designed to suppress voter turnout by implying massive wrongdoing in our campaign." Snyder continued by claiming never to have stood over the woman as she filled out her ballot, and said that he received a sealed ballot from her.
According to Snyder, he had become aware of the woman's situation and her interest in voting from discussions with other seniors who live in the woman's building, which is located across the street from Zimmer Headquarters.
The campaign manager added, "For this to be presented to the press at this late date, and not to be brought to court or presented to me, is simply a desperate attempt to sully my good name, and through me Dawn Zimmer for council, and to intimidate us and others away from using a legal and practical tool that the law allows."
Zimmer added to Snyder's comment by saying, "I think this is all about the fact that Chris Campos can't accept that I got in a runoff with him."
Zimmer added, "I believe this woman was intimidated into making this statement."
Campos replied, "There's no intimidation here. There's courage on the part of the woman for standing up against Zimmer, and I'm sure she's not the only senior citizen who has been subjected to this type of harassment. It's disgusting."
Both sides also responded to each other's claims by saying that their supporters in the 4th Ward had been intimidated by the other camp's supporters.
Michael Mullins can be reached at mmullins@hudsonreporter.com.
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