City for sale: an insider view of Hoboken vote buying in the 4th ward
Hoboken’s 4th ward
and its western edge is a historically notorious arena for rampant vote
buying as a way of life during election season with monied political
interests descending on the most economically deprived area of town like
vultures. A not so old refrain says the 4th ward
is where reform goes to die. More often than not, it’s proven to be
exactly that. This investigative report provides insight from the
perspective of two paid 4th ward voters. Their story is not unique.
They are part of an invisible army of hundreds.
Even as it’s undetermined what result if any will come from the NJ
Attorney General on numerous problems forwarded by the Hudson County
Prosecutor Office in the 4th ward special election last November, the
operations to buy votes, in both paper ballots and at the polls
continues since in the April BoE election and May council race.
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| Hoboken Housing Authority on lower Jackson St. |
The culture of corruption is alive and well, there's been no abating the vote rigging as it's breathing its sustenance deep in the 4-4, where Housing Authority residents expect being exploited and cynically will take money from anyone who pays for the votes.
Meet Mr. X. Wearing a baseball hat and a football jersey with black
sneakers, he's another African American who easily blends into the
surroundings of the Housing Authority. In his early 40s, having lived
in Hoboken all his life, he spoke matter of factly about vote buying,
including his own participation.
It didn't take MSV long to find Mr. X. He literally found us as we made
our way through lower Jackson Street in less than 10 minutes,
attempting to look as obvious and out of place as possible with a camera
visibly hung out for view. "Are you here for the elections," Mr. X
asked. "Yes but not this one," I replied indicating it wasn't the
Tuesday Assembly primary race election in mind. (Some may believe this
is exaggerated, but in fact it's completely accurate.)
As we spoke standing outside the main gated area forbidding trespassing,
Mr. X made his analysis of who he was dealing with and MSV explained
our bonafides and gave him a card without even asking his name. This
was about establishing our credibility not his. It didn't take five
minutes before Mr. X laid out the whole ball of wax, detailing the vote
buying that occurs in every Hoboken election down in the hinter areas of
the 4th ward.
"People are tired of the bullshit," Mr. X began. “They (politicians and
their people) only come in election time. They say they’ll give you
$75 to vote but then only give you $40, $50 bucks. Then they make you
wait one or two days to get paid for the scam of working” Mr. X said,
describing the paid voters depiction as “campaign workers.”
“They all come down here,” Mr. X casually remarked on the "money men"
looking to "the captains" who get paid $200 to recruit people to get
others to vote, handing out flyers two weeks leading into a typical
election. The captains as Mr. X described them are the ground troops
who recruit others and also enlist people to vote absentee (Vote by
Mail), although as Mr. X describes the process, no one mails in their
ballot.
“They push the absentee ballots hard,” Mr. X said confirming the
typical vote fraud saying the ballots were filled out and collected
without being put in envelopes. “They want to see who you vote for.
You just fill it out and check where they tell you and they take it
away.” Although most of the vote by mail paper ballots will arrive at
the County by mail, it's a massive dump by the people doing the
collections.
Mr. X detailed the process for paid people voting at the polls. People
who go in and vote for the money, they tell them “ask for the number,
that’s the scam” to get people to believe they can tell if you voted.
Reports of people openly asking for their “number” at the polling
station is common, with one challenger in the 4-3 at the Council
elections overhearing a voter ask for his number and where did he need
to go get paid. The answer we're told: Beth Mason’s campaign HQ on 12th and Washington Street.
Told the number is of no actual value in assessing who the person votes
for Mr. X said, “They run that game on people all the time.” But
sometimes he said getting paid isn’t so easy. They will argue and hold
out on some people, “You didn’t vote for our guy and you didn’t go out
and campaign, so you’re not getting paid. They don’t do that to those
people uptown." He would later explain this was a reference to Church Towers, home of Councilman Mike Russo and his voting block of subsidized housing neighbors.
Comparing the way paid voters are treated “uptown” like at Church Towers
and Applied Housing, Mr. X said, “They treat them good and pay them
right away, same day. Those people don’t have to wait in lines to get
paid days later like here. You don’t see those people waiting in
lines,” as he pointed across the street to an imaginary spot where the
payoffs go down. Mr. X spoke about the disrespect he felt from the
monied men descending on the community, “They think we’re stupid and
uneducated and we are easy to take advantage of. But we don’t give a
shit and just take the money. You know sometimes I’ll vote for whoever I
want. Because they don’t always know how when we vote," he said adding
a rebellious note.
Even as it was MSV’s first time meeting Mr. X, he seemed comfortable
discussing all the details about the operation. About the comments with
Beth Mason attacking MSV for using the word plantation in a story
depicting politicians like herself and their exploitation of the
community, Mr. X said, “That a good assessment. That’s it exactly. The
masters don’t come down much, they don’t need to but they keep the
plantation going. That’s exactly how they (politicians) treat us.”
Asked about the recent April BoE election, Mr. X didn’t show much
knowledge about the factions, lumping in both sides as he would
throughout the conversation. Yeah, they all buy the votes. Told Kids
First doesn’t have money and doesn’t get absentee ballots out of the 4th ward,
he said, “Well that’s true but we don’t care. If they come down and pay
us, we just take their money. If the next guy comes and offers the
same or more, we'll take that too.”
When it came to names, a few were mentioned. Mr. X spoke well of Chris
Campos, the former Councilman who he knew well. "We could always go to
Chris." Without asking, he detailed the legendary war between Campos
and Dawn Zimmer. "They turned these building against each other, it was
a war," he recalled. He would also complain the mayor no longer came
down to watch or participate in kick ball games since her election.
Returning back to the present, a few names came up, among them Freddie
Frazier. "He doesn’t’ hand out the money. He just works for the money
men." And when it came to the bankrolling entity, the response was
casual, flippant and almost hostile. "Frank has millions, right? What
does he do for the children here? Does he even take them for a summer
outing?" Mr. X's eyes were focused and clear as he stated bluntly,
"Frank doesn't do shit down here."
Asked if he knew who the 4th ward
Councilman Tim Occhipinti is and if he would recognize him, Mr. X said,
“Well he was hanging around here a month or two before the election
trying to drum up interest.” Asked whether he filled out an absentee
(VBM) ballot for him, at first he denied it but quickly changed his mind
in mid-sentence saying, “No, I didn’t do that…Yeah alright but I’m not
putting it in the envelope, I’m not signing nuthin.” The signature
comment may have been a reference to the cover up where VBM voters sign
up on a "contract to campaign" walking around in t-shirts and "talking
up the candidate" as Jersey City based Occhipinti spokesman David Cruz was quoted as saying.
Before we parted, Mr. X said a TV reporter had been down earlier for the
Corner Cars program launch there and he asked this story to be
forwarded to that person adding, “I talked to her a little about the
corruption.”
Mr. X saw no contradiction with trying to expose the corruption he has
participated in and maybe at his age, he no longer saw it as he did
previously. He must know that if it gets exposed and the “moneymen” go
away the the cash will too. But he seemed completely at ease with it.
In the end, he was encouraging MSV to add more fuel to the fire.
Before parting, MSV promised to do so. Or perhaps readers will forward
this story to the NJ Attorney General’s office. You have permission to
do so.
Next in Part II: A view of a paid 4th ward voter who is intimate with the Old Guard. We call him Mr. Q
"City for Sale" was originally released early summer 2011 for MSV Premium Content members.
It's now being released for the very first time to the public.
