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A lot of you have inboxed me in the last 24 hours about what�s going on with this Ward E race recent developments and involvement by a super PAC in the city council race. Some of you may know, this sort of thing really bothers me, but what gets me more angry than anything is the phony outrage that accompanies this when it happens.
Let�s look at the facts and the reality.
Super PACs exist. We hate them, and I especially don�t like their influence in our school board elections in Jersey City. But if you�re upset with the crane workers that are supporting Rebecca - Where was the outrage when in 2013 Ellen Simon and others were supported by B4K money on behalf of the candidates they supported in the BOE races? Or, most recently during the November 7th JCBOE elections?
Wall Street is flat out trying to influence the elections effecting our schools through their super PAC, but we�re going to be mad about a PRO LABOR Pac supporting a candidate?
Okay - so is it the problem that this super PAC is for a labor group that benefits from the development of Jersey City? If you stand for social justice and equity, then you should be in support of organizations like unions and their PACs because they�re what stands in between low wages and unsafe work environments.
You can�t be for social justice and earning a living wage and then think these working men and women are in the pockets of developers. It just doesn�t work that way. I don�t buy the argument that a labor union PAC that wants higher wages, safer work environments, and more unionized labor is in the pocket of developers that actually benefit from the opposite.
I�ll even take it a step further - where�s the outrage from Team Matsikoudis when the police union spent money against their opponents and demanded people elect an independent council? Essentially, anyone EXCEPT Team Fulop.
That police union money, B4K money, and this labor union supporting Rebecca are all in the same pot. They�re all Super PACS and they all make expenditures on behalf of candidates or against others.
SO is Solomon really upset because the money isn�t going his way? Or is he upset because a Super PAC is actually balancing out the playing field in an election where he�s spending a hefty sum of his own wealth?
Let�s look at another fact��
According to the most recent ELEC, James Solomon has raised $188,000 for this Council election. Almost $50000 of it comes from his own pocket. And his donors are all outsiders, with almost little to no publicly disclosed contributions from Jersey City residents. Again, kudos to Solomon for having a wealthy network that he can draw from - but let�s not pretend that everyone has that ability. This is almost bullying money when your opponents are all vastly underfunded and don�t have equal access to donors like this.
Rebecca looks like she raised almost $90,000 - just about half of what Solomon has raised! Rebecca has been outspent almost 2:1 according to reporting from the Jersey Journal, and I see a ton of Jersey City residents and businesses listed on her ELEC reports.
Whatever your feelings are between these two candidates - one thing is clear to me. Rebecca has spent time making Jersey City residents voices heard, and involved them publicly as contributors. Why hasn�t Solomon assimilated to our community in the same way or why doesn�t he have contributors publicly giving him money?
There�s nothing wrong with being independently wealthy, however, Rebecca says she wants to take money out of politics and empower those with less money to have more of say locally and seems to have proven so in her ELEC report. When someone is independently wealthy, it�s not unreasonable to assume they don�t care about my $25 check.
I�ve watched both these candidates campaign, and they both have strong views, I believe they�re both principled and would be good for the City Council and for Jersey City.
But I don�t buy that independence and the phony outrage when things don�t go your way.
So I�ll say this - James - why don�t you call out Hillary Clinton for the dark money that supported her? If you cared this much about �dark money�, why did you organize for her in JC? Will you call out Matt Schapiro and Jersey City United for taking money from B4K and the Wall Street money that supports them?
Let me stop there because I may just have to expose the sexism that is also going unreported in this campaign. Ward E supporters I expected better from you all in "Make It Yours City".
