The bottom line according to Democratic District Rep. Pat Gilleran: the Bloomfield Democratic Committee is not supporting its own candidate, Nick Joanow.
Bloomfield Greenways blogger Geoff Gove snapped this billboard on Broad Street in Bloomfield and asks…
“What’s missing from this Democratic billboard on Broad Street?
Answer: Nick Joanow, the Democratic candidate who overwhelmingly won his primary to qualify for Line A on his party’s ticket.”
Democratic District Pat Gilleran has a theory as to why Joanow was left off the Line A advertisement:
Bloomfield environmental Town Councilor Nick Joanow is not being supported by the Bloomfield Democratic County Committee. Rumor has it that Bloomfield’s Mayor Ray McCarthy has been campaigning for the Republican candidate, Kent Weisert.
When reached for a comment in response to Gilleran’s statement, Mayor McCarthy said, “Anything from Pat Gilleran, I have no reason to answer. It means nothing. Pat Gilleran is trying to make trouble where no trouble exists.” Nick Joanow did not respond to an email request from Baristanet for a comment.
Read Geoff’s full blog post here and comment below.
That’s right Mayor McCarthy…you don’t have to answer anything that I say. I’m just one of your constituents as well as a Democratic County Committee District Leader.
You’ll have to answer to the voters when you are up for re-election as Mayor.
I noticed this too! In fact, I spent about 20 minutes after seeing this sign trying to figure out just who was supposed to be on Line A. I found articles from June saying how overwhelmingly Nick won the primary but couldn’t find anything about now. It’s one thing for the Mayor to not support someone; but this implies that Nick didn’t win a seat on ine A by winning the primary? I am assuming this sign isn’t left over from the primaries, as I don’t think I saw it until recently…it is very confusing and wrong if it is supposed to imply that this is the Democratic lineup for the upcoming election. My question is, what line is Nick on and let’s make sure his constituents know where to find him!
McCarthy absolutely does not support Joanow. They’ve been rivals since Nick was just a resident nudge who heckled the mayor during meetings. McCarthy didn’t support him three years ago, either.
But I can’t get myself in a lather about this. Isn’t party politics passe now? Shouldn’t we be cheering a politician who says, “To hell with the party. This guy isn’t my preferred candidate, so I’m cheering on the other guy”?
Who says the board is paid for by the Democratic Party? The party is not even identified on the board. Pat, have you filed an OPRA request?
You could just as easily cheer Nick for saying “To hell with my party if they don’t like me..I’m going to go on my own”.
Nick Joanow has been going door-to-door explaining he won’t get any support from his own party and he has to do this on his own. Or at least that’s what I understood from his door-to-door meeting a couple of weekends ago. So it seems odd that he wouldn’t respond to Baristanet.
As for McCarthy answering to the voters— wasn’t that the story last time too? When re-election comes up, the majority of D’s blindly vote for D’s. And there’s a lot more D’s than R’s in Bloomfield. Given Joanow’s popularity, he could unseat McCarthy if he wanted to run as an independent—but it would probably put a Republican in charge.
Can a mayor be impeached for arrogance? If so, I would advise McCarthy to póg [his] thóin goodbye. Nick will be on the ballot for the 2nd district. Please all of you in that district, come out and vote for Nick. And as Daley used to say, “Vote Early, Vote Often!”
Voting early & often tends to requires some ‘walking around money.’ In Bloomfield the jackass party has the cash.
Bebop, would you consider a third-party, post-dated, out-of-state temporary check?
When re-election comes up, the majority of D’s blindly vote for D’s.
You could argue that. Or you could argue that the Republicans keep putting up imbeciles that make people think, “I’d rather the bad guy I know than I bad guy I don’t.” In 2007 the GOP mayoral candidate argued for putting NJ Transit buses on side streets, a disastrous idea for local residents who live on those streets and a complete non-starter on NJ Transit’s end. That was pretty much his only campaign idea.
Two years later, they nominated the same guy. So, rather than calling Democratic voters dumb for voting for McCarthy, call the GOP officials dumb for putting up such weaklings to run against him.
If I can securitize it with AAA and offload it to a pension fund or US taxpayer, the movement to elect Bebop is open for deposits.
@RoC the bottom of the billboard says
‘Paid for by the Bloomfield Democratic County Committee”
The Barista cut it off – maybe she will change the photo to include it. There’s no one to file an OPRA request to – this is not a Bloomfield Township responsibility and there is no OPEN PUBLIC RECORD. Last time I looked the democratic party was not an arm of the government.
At a meeting Mr. Stromolo, the Bloomfield Democratic County Committee Chairman told me “I can do anything I want”.
@mimi Mr. Jooanow won the Democratic Primary and is running on LINE A along with the rest of the Democrats.
If you look at Geoff Gove’s blog – link at the bottom of the Barista’s thread – one of the things that I’m complaining about is the fact that the Bloomfield Democratic County Committtee is being run like a social club.
The bylaws say that all elected District Leaders must be invited to meetings and be allowed to vote. That is not happening. Peter Stromolo, The Democratic Committee Chairman has disenfranchised District Leaders and thereby their Democratic constituents.
The Democratic Party in Bloomfield isn’t very demosratic!
that should have said
The Democratic Party in Bloomfield isn’t very democratic!
I’ve met both Pat and Nick, and I trust them both.
Don’t worry, bebop — AIG has agreed to insure your contributions. Uh… maybe you should worry!
@nickcharles, Mr. Joanow never “heckled” the mayor. He has too much class to openly disrepect anyone regardless of how he might really feel about the person. Can’t say the same for Ray who has no respect for anyone, least of all the residents of Bloomfield. Worse, he’ll lie and his rubber stamps on the council will swear to it.
VOTE LINE A – NICK JOANOW FOR SECOND WARD COUNCILMAN!
That’s ok I bought a credit default swap as a hedge against the insurance. Once my contributions hit 9 figures, I’ll leverage the amount x10 and buy more insurance on the insurance. Then I’ll expose my own sex scandal, ruin political career and ability to pay back the contributors, forcing AIG to payout a claim I know they can’t cover and collect on CDS, which is backed by all the tea in China.
The Barista cut it off – maybe she will change the photo to include it.
There were teens who may have been minors in the original photo.
Thanks Pat, I was thrown off by the fact there were 3 people on the billboard – now I realize one is for freeholder. So basically they just left Nick off the billboard as if he didn’t exist; in denial that he is going to be right there on Line A along with the other two candidates.
I agree with Karen; Nick did not “heckle” the mayor – he got up and spoke at nearly every council meeting, but was always polite and said what he said respectfully, as he has done on the council itself.
Bebop, LOL! I think you’re all ready for politics!
Thanks Liz- please confirm for RoC that the bottom of the billboard does say
“Paid for by the Bloomfield Democratic County Committee”
If you click the link to original blog — you can see original photo.
@Roc could have done that early but wanted to make i seem like the billboard was not paid for by Bloomfield’s Democratic County Committee.
No need to get your panties in a bunch, Karen. I meant heckling in a positive way. I applaud anyone who heckles public officials during public meetings.
nick, no bunched panties here my man. Just not used to the word “heckled” being used in a positive way and wasn’t sure what side you were on. I agree, I always got a kick out of Nick “respectfully” telling Ray when he was wrong and correcting him. Nick’s politeness and gentlemanly demeanor made it an even stronger rebuke. We can’t lose Nick!
Finally, Bloomfield delivers some entertainment.
@roo You mean you’ve missed the videos of our town council. One of the latest has the Nick Joanow asking for a Pay-to-Play ordinance and the Mayor saying that he doesn’t want one.
Incidentally if you check the Mayor’s ELEC reports you’ll find him accepting contributions from vendors and consultants who both have contracts and are applying for contracts with the town.
Councilman Ruane talks about non-bid contracts and how the town has been accepting and condoning them.
Both the Mayor and Finance Director hedge and side-step the issue.
The Mayor then talks about “professional services contracts” being “different”. The Mayor wants no vendor or consultant to be excluded from contributing to his campaign.
Joanow “Not having an ordinance in place lacks transparency… I don’t believe contributions are appropriate… I’m troubled by the ELEC reports which show that members of this governing body have accepted contributions..I find the behavior to be unethical…”
McCarthy “Your making accusations out there time and time again. You do it. You want to say something do it now ”
Mayor “Never once has the office been up for sale”
Joanow “If that’s your opinion I respectfully disagree”
I suggest taking a good look and McCarthy’s and the Current Candidates for town council’s ELEC reports. They make excellent reading and are quite informative!
Town Council meetings are on WBMA – I’m referring to 10/11/2011 at approx 00:53 minutes in. It’s work watching the Mayor wiggle and dance.
http://www.wbmatv.com/media-center