The Montclair municipal elections just got a lot uglier.
The recent controversy about the Real Progress Montclair letter that was signed by 100 “PTA Moms” has taken another turn now. The letter was criticized by the Essex County PTA president, who said it was inappropriate for the women to sign the letter as representatives of a PTA.
This morning, the Montclair Times ran an article containing a statement from the RPM slate about the topic, in which RPM said they were “stunned” that the PTA President would “attack” their mom volunteers:
Our Moms for Real Progress Montclair effort is growing rapidly. In fact, in the past week since our ad ran, more and more moms have joined our initiative. Many have joined because they are saddened to see our school volunteers suffer these political attacks. These Moms know that we did not violate any by-laws of any groups when we ran this ad.
RPM is stunned that Ms. [Catherine] Steele [president of the Essex County PTA] and the Essex County political machine she represents are attacking our mom volunteers … We also know that the Jackson slate is being run by the Essex County political machine, so we can only presume that they are behind these attacks. Voters should be asking themselves why a town outsider like Steele who has never stepped foot in Montclair or helped any of children here is bullying our moms and injecting herself into our town. These moms care so much for our schools and spend so many countless hours working on behalf of our kids.
The status quo incumbents from the Jackson/Russo/Murnick slate and the political machines that support them are desperate because they sense as we do that we are leading in this campaign. It’s sad that in their desperation they are attacking our school volunteers along the way.”
Now, just this afternoon, Montclair 2012 hit back with the following statement:
The RPM release is simply the latest in a long line of Nixonian tactics and statements from the Weintraub-led RPM slate. The win at all cost/blind ambition/bullying culture of its operatives is well known. The statement is such an amateurish effort to create a “bad guy” that it would normally be summarily dismissed.
What we do find intriguing and disturbing, however, is that whenever certain leaders like (and apparently only like) Robert Jackson and Catherine Steele disagree with Weintraub/RPM, they have to be “controlled” by someone as if they are incapable of independent, intellectual thought.
Mayoral candidate Jackson was more forthright: “I believe that this statement by RPM,” he said, “is a distasteful but inept attempt to inject race into the campaign. Ms. Steele and I are African-Americans. We have never met but somehow, perhaps telepathically over the super-secret Controlled African-American Hotline, we hatched a scheme to attack Weintraub and the powerful, prominent PTA moms. It’s preposterous! It’s offensive!
Jackson continued: “These kinds of tactics only strengthen my resolve to win this election with the Montclair 2012 team It’s clearer than ever to me that we are in a fight for the heart of this community. I for one will not surrender it without a fight to people who campaign and no doubt will govern in such a reprehensible manner.”
This is simply too sad. Who do you expect to fool?
Soon the voters will be leaving a big footprint on your a__.
What a bunch of clowns. I imagine the Susswein crew will lay low while their political opponents extinguish one another.
RPM’s attack on “the machine” was ill-advised–way nastier than it needed to be. Steele’s original letter to the PTA moms was meddlesome and irrelevant, and probably would have done little harm had it been ignored.
For what it’s worth, I had no idea Steele was African American until Jackson just told me by pulling the “race card.”
I had no idea who steele IS until this statement. Well , ‘roo, if you read some of the stuff written by brand new posters, it’s clear there are shills posting hooey and horse puckey about the RPM ladies and the PTA moms.
This is how Real Progress Montclair responds to an ad, that we all know, was a bad decision?
Did I miss something? Did Montclair 2012 ever respond to the “PTA Mom” ad? I don’t think so. So why is RPM connecting Steele and Jackson?
While I’m not sure if RPM was attempting to inject race into the campaign, here are a couple of questions about some allegations made in RPM’s statement:
What support does RPM have for its allegation that Ms. Steele represents the Essex County political machine and that the Jackson slate is being run by the Essex County political machine?
How did Ms. Steele “attack” or “bully” RPM’s mom volunteers? (I wouldn’t call Ms. Steele’s e-mail to the “PTA moms,” where she reminds them that they can’t endorse a canditate wearing their “PTA hats,” an attack or bullying.)
Even if the e-mail from Ms. Steele could be considered an “attack,” how does RPM jump to the conclusion that the Jackson slate is behind this “attack” by Ms. Steele? (Oh yeah, according to RPM, the Jackson slate must be behind Ms. Steele’s “attack” because there’s a conspiracy against RPM hatched by the “Essex County political machine,” which Ms. Steele apparently represents and which also runs the Jackson slate.)
Steel injects race into the campaign to claim that RPM was injecting race into the campaign. Well isn’t that the pot calling the kettle Nixonian.
And here come all the we screen names posting trash! The machine at work.
Typos. My phone is auto correcting. We=new. The shills will be all over this.
What a sad, desperate attempt by Turner and RPM. Their sanctimony is stunning. I hope Montclairians see through these candidates for what they really are…
Get ready for some names you’ve never seen here before to keep up the drum beat. This is almost funny.
Perhaps jerseygurl, the shill here is you, for RPM.
You can’t hyperventiate about anonymous posters when you are, ahem, anonymous.
Are you, perchance, one of the now infamous “Montclair Volunteer Moms” so venerated by Turner and RPM?
The machine at work, indeed.
Relax, I have been posting here for years. Almost daily. I have no idea who to vote for, but when I see a busload of new monikers show up, like Tallahassee and Blablabla and others, with similar posts, like a mantra, my radar goes up.
And relax, I’m not even a mom. I’m one of those people who pays absurdly high taxes to pay for public education that I don’t use, but support.
The ‘gurl is part of The Machine.
‘roo, I AM a machine.
If I was a machine, I’d be an ATM machine.
All I know is that the more I hear about/from any potential mayoral candidate, the less I’m inclined to vote for any of them. I think I’ll be writing in walleroo on my ballot.
When you have nothing to say you distract. It seems significant to me that MC2012 has essentially been silent until this “issue” appeared.
As Yogi says, it’s deja vu all over again. Google “Princeton Beats Princeton After Bitter Mayoral Campaign”, NYT, May 12, 1988. I can see why Jackson is sensitive.
PS: OK, I don’t know how to imbed a link.
Here you go, Frank…
https://www.nytimes.com/1988/05/12/nyregion/princeton-beats-princeton-after-bitter-mayoral-campaign.html
Ah, small town politics. It’s like a daytime soap opera–so bad yet so good. I can’t stop watching.
JG, I think your assumption that all posters that don’t support RPM are actually the same person is as absurd as RPM’s assertion that the 2012 slate is run by the machine.
Who gives a crap about what Steele said? I don’t get it–she told the PTA mums to keep it clean. So what, let’s move on.
I can see how Steele’s note was bullying, mainly because she used her office to insert herself into local politics where the PTA moms were clearly speaking as private citizens.
RPM’s assertions that Jackson’s slate is part of some Essex Co. machine opens up a whole new dimension (sort of like that Twilight Zone episode where the kid falls through the wall and the parents can’t see her but they can hear her wandering all through the house, which always creeped me out). The question is, what will RPM do now? Will they try to defend themselves against Jackson’s charge that they are injecting race into the race (even though Jackson obviously is the one who brought it up)? Will they try and explain what they mean about the “machine”? Or will they now cut through the woods and try and find the High Road they should have taken a week ago?
Thank you njgator.
Full disclosure: someone posted this a while back – I just throught it appropriate to re-post.
“Or will they now cut through the woods and try and find the High Road they should have taken a week ago?”
Accusing someone of being part of the establishment political machine is taking the low road? Turning this into a racial issue, which MC2012 seems desperate to do, seems more like the low road to me.
So we have a township going broke with debt. And the BOE had a six million dollar surplus.
Then we have two slates committed to the sacred-cowness of the BOE and a race-baiting slate.
(who also won’t cut a cent from the BOE).
We’re screwed.
Walleroo,
That TZ episode – “Little Girl Lost” – is one of my earliest memories – I remember having trouble sleeping after seeing it. I don’t remember how old I was, but I was very young (I was exactly 19 months old the night it first aired, so I’m guessing my memory is of a rerun).
Anyway, it’s a great episode, just not appropriate for toddlers…
Accusing someone of being part of the establishment political machine is taking the low road? Turning this into a racial issue, which MC2012 seems desperate to do, seems more like the low road to me.
Turner could have stayed out of it, but she didn’t. I agree about Jackson.
Then we have two slates committed to the sacred-cowness of the BOE and a race-baiting slate. (who also won’t cut a cent from the BOE).
Yup, four more years of the same crap, whichever way you turn.
“Mayoral candidate Jackson was more forthright: “I believe that this statement by RPM,” he said, “is a distasteful but inept attempt to inject race into the campaign.”
Bullsh*t.
I’m attempting to stay above the fray, but when I read the link https://www.nytimes.com/1988/05/12/nyregion/princeton-beats-princeton-after-bitter-mayoral-campaign.html,
I was surprised to see that Jackson was the director of Public Works for Essex County. Doesn’t Montclair 2012 have 1 Union President and another who is very involved with the Unions (Russo)? This has status quo & old network written all over it. Downgrades and bankruptcy here we come!
And really, the race card? In Montclair? In this day and age? Did the medical pot shop open and you all filled your prescriptions today? You can’t make this stuff up. Sad, really sad.
I watched the TV discussion and I came out with this brief impression:
Susswein: same old: a clone of Remsen?
Jackson: vested interests
Turner: concerned citizen
walleroo once again you’ve made an oversight of construction which in turn is just a fallacy of composition. Any person familiar with a basic venn diagram will understand that all agreements and persuasions aside there are three sets. Politically you’d need to combine two sets with a third; for instance yours. What you argue to be the intersection is in fact called the universal set whereby all mutually exclusive propositions are in fact unique, but you’ve omitted the fact that your loci is at the intersection, where any statement or proposition that you or anyone else would like to argue as valid logic is valid only in your imaginary microcosm of the definition of what an intersection is. I recall there are two brown people agreeing that government and a organization such as PTA is the where democrats, republicans, liberal, and conservative are represented through democracy. What you’ve done is declare that some personal intersection akin to communism, or hyper-partisanship be observed, fostering dysfunction, ideologues, political games, pettiness, and disengagement. The PTA isn’t a political party regardless of the size of the mutually exclusive sets, that is to say that not all families have to belong to the PTA despite any possible skewing for any political ideology to which a majority belongs. Get Real.
Tudlow, I didn’t say all. I just noticed about 5 or 6 brand new names here and on Patch all beating the same drum in the very same tone of voice using almost the same language as though they were given a template by someone and asked to post on the blogs. Much of the posts weren’t even a back and forth discussion, they just repeated the same overwrought emotionally laden message re; the PTA moms. It made me suspicious.
And then there’s this, from an earlier positing here on Baristanet:
POSTED BY bigblue042 | MARCH 28, 2012 @ 7:42 PM
Actually there are two union leaders on the Jackson-Russo slate; Spiller and Bob Russo, who runs some faculty union or other. What’s scarier to me about Jackson is that, as I learned on the Baristanet trading cards yesterday, he worked for Sharpe James and was head of the Essex County Department of Public Works for a time. It didn’t say how long. That’s not a job you get for knowing a lot about snow removal. How will this slate ever lay off any workers when they seem so tied to the County machine and unions. Those workers are votes for the county dems.
Personally, I’m glad Turner is getting dirty and fighting back. But I also worry the schools will be sacred cows to all the slates. So I’m going to the meet and greet on Sunday and I’m going to send emails to all with specific questions. And hope that someone will stand out. In addition to Mayor, I also have no idea who I should vote for as the 1st Ward representative.
I have been leaning toward the RPM slate lately with the exception of my 3rd ward councilor where I’m torn between Swenson and Jacobson.
I think the statement was a tactical error and if it was Weintraub’s decision to run this, the RPM team should reel her in.
The only winner in this exchange is the Susswein team.
Well I can tell you that statements such as “Nixonian tactics” and playing the race card have eliminated MC2012 from my consideration.
Oh Brother! How many rants can I take? Yesterday it was Mel Gibson and now Robert Jackson. It’s not even 8:30 and I already have a headache.
This race is a joke, childish is probably a better word.
Robert Jackson’s campaign has officially jumped the shark. The only acceptable analogy to our 37th President is Jackson’s Nixonian paranoia.
And if you don’t think the local democratic party machine pressured Jackson into taking Russo on his slate… I have a bridge in Essex County I would like to sell you… something Robert should know about as the former Director of Public Works for Essex County. Somehow he left that, and his work with former Newark Mayor Sharpe James off his official bio. Must have been an oversight.
I stand corrected.. Jackson’s work for Essex County is now part of his bio…must have been a recent addition. Sharpe James however remains MIA. Anyone know in what capacity Mr. Jackson worked for the former Newark Mayor?
RPM and her “PTA mom” friends are just upset that they got a slap on the hand for that dumb ad.
Jackson is rightfully angry, but he shouldn’t have mentioned race, because White people get their knickers in a twist when race is mentioned. That just gave people who wouldn’t vote for a Black mayor the “out” to not vote for him
Susswein will be smart if he stays out of this mess.
Did Jackson really work for Sharpe James?
That seems pretty important to know.
If so, is he trying to keep that secret?
Boy, this is really hard for an out-of-towner to follow. I have never supported Glen Ridge’s CCC system because it is not democratic, but it’s usually more civil. Not always, but usually.
Robert James’ bio on the campaign site says:
“He is married to the former Cheryl Stephenson, and they have four children. Cheryl is a Girl Scout troop leader and past president of the Northeast School PTA.”
Could someone, perhaps Mr. Herron, please explain how this differs from the RPM ad?
Democracy is exceedingly messy business, Kit. Authortarianism always appears more ordered and “civil” (on its face anyway.)
“Jackson is rightfully angry, but he shouldn’t have mentioned race, because White people get their knickers in a twist when race is mentioned. That just gave people who wouldn’t vote for a Black mayor the “out” to not vote for him”
As one who proudly voted for Barack Obama in 2008 and who will most certainly cast a vote for him again in 2012, all I can tell you is that Jackson’s comments were incredibly insensitive, divisive,and hurtful.
It was my impression that the RPM ad that actually ran was changed in response to the email from the Essex County PTA. In reading the email that Ms Weintraub sent to “power moms” was in violation of PTA by-laws. I don’t believe she used pta email lists to solicit for the ad but the email that was sent clearly identified her as Glenfield PTA President. I believe it was that identification and their original plan to identify their positions in a political ad that was the violation. Again, it seems the ad was changed to comply with PTA guidelines. Anyone can state what position they hold or held. What they can’t do is use that position to endorse or solicit contributions for a political candidate.
I am seriously worried about the town – if the campaign is getting this ugly, it does not bode well for having a council that can work together.
I agree, nielmtc. I fear we will have more of the same.
“I fear we will have more of the same.”
Oh, it’s going to be much worse. The deck of race cards is already been reached for.
ROC, check out Patch. Race riots. I completely and totally blame Jackson for this.
Race Riots? I would like to know who are the folks running Jackson’s campaign. These folks need to take the blame too. Does anyone know??
Interesting paine, That website is nearly identical to the M2012 website in its design and layout.
See both the IRS code and offensive letter written by Sue Weintraub, Glenfield PTA President, PR Director for Karen Turner and Attorney at Law. Approved by Karen Turner, CPA – who states in her bio on RPM that she has extensive knowledge of IRS tax code (for wealthy folks, not tax exempt orgs). It would appear that the suggestion of impropriety could be explained within the IRS site. Since the women will not address or apologize for this abuse and violation, of all of the organizations listed in the ad who have tax exempt status, not just the PTA – I find it reprehensible conduct by two women who hold themself above the common working or minority population living and voting in Montclair.
https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=154712,00.html
“Ladies,
I have attached an ad we will print in the Montclair Times. I want to get the signatures of powerful, high profile Montclair Moms on the ad. I will be listed as Sue Weintraub, Glenfield PTA President. Will you all sign on?
No title is necessary if you prefer just to list your name. But if a title is appropriate and you are comfortable with it, please let me know what title to use for you. (For instance, Northeast Board Member or MHS School Review Committee Member or MKA Board Member or Health and Wellness Committee Member, etc.).
Also, please consider sending a $10 contribution to Real progress Montclair, C/O Dede Horowicz, (address redacted) in order to offset the cost of the ad.
If you know others who would be willing to sign, please ask them to do so. I want to be careful about who we ask because I would like to keep this ad quiet until it appears in the Mtc. Times. Also, I will only add names to the ad if I have an e-mail confirmation that the person wants their name added. E-mails can be sent to me at (email address redacted) .
Please get back to me asap. Thank you all very much!
Sue”
And the other one. Henry de Koninck:
“Consulting with Thrive Montclair is up and coming Democratic strategist Henry de Koninck. Mr. de Koninck is a seasoned political advisor having served as Strategist and Field Director for Senator Nia Gill in 2007, Essex County Field Director for Senator Bob Menendez in 2006, Deputy Field Director for the Essex County 2005 Gubernatorial Election of John Corzine, and Advisor to top Democratic Strategist and County Chief of Staff Phil Alagia.”
https://www.thrivemontclair.com/index-2d.html
https://www.linkedin.com/pub/henry-de-koninck/8/b3b/322
blabla,
Robert James’ bio on the campaign site says:
“He is married to the former Cheryl Stephenson, and they have four children. Cheryl is a Girl Scout troop leader and past president of the Northeast School PTA.”
Can you please explain how this differs from the RPM ad?
Well, it’s pretty clear Montclair 2012 has professional Democrats working on their campaign. If things are dirty, these guys seem capable of doing it.
To be fair, do the other two campaigns have people like this? Would anyone offer up the names so we can do a little digging?
“Consulting with Thrive Montclair is up and coming Democratic strategist Henry de Koninck. Mr. de Koninck is a seasoned political advisor having served as Strategist and Field Director for Senator Nia Gill in 2007, Essex County Field Director for Senator Bob Menendez in 2006, Deputy Field Director for the Essex County 2005 Gubernatorial Election of John Corzine, and Advisor to top Democratic Strategist and County Chief of Staff Phil Alagia.”
This, combined with the Steele episode, the connection to Sharpe James is all I need to know. This is why Fried tried so hard to get the election moved to November. Also, according to Steele, it’s okay for the candidates to mention their PTA memberships, but not okay for their supporters to do so. She’s chastising the “moms” .
The ad paid for by solicitation of Glenfield PTA President Sue Weintraub states and implies the organizations: “We are members of Montclair’s PTAs, PTOs, PAMKA and School Action Teams” and also lists the MFEE. If any or all are tax exempt, they have violated the terms the IRS has outlined related to being tax exempt. These women have foolheartedly placed each organization in a compromised position which could cause sanctions or have the tax exempt status revoked. Karen Turner obviously had the ad scrubbed of those words after it went out in a blaze of disgrace in large font in the original Montclair Times ad.
https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=154712,00.html
This is a big deal. Those who don’t think so – don’t want to think (so)…
Has the “connection” to Sharpe James been shown yet? I haven’t seen anything except unsupported claims in the comments which are not necessarily to be believed.
so blabla,
how is it different from the website M2012 paid for? James mentions a connection to the PTA, Girlscouts and a Baptist Church, all 501c3’s. Hasn’t he then, in your words also, “placed each organization in a compromised position which could cause sanctions or have the tax exempt status revoked.” ?
I take it you don’t explain the difference because there is no difference?
JerseyGurl, a truly prominent organization would demand its officers and board members step down before they work for any candidate’s campaign. And to give appropriate size here – Sue Weintraub stands under the larger umbrella of the Essex County PTA. She is subordinate to a black woman who is obviosly more versed in the legalities of respect for being tax exempt. The response by Turner, was to insult Catherine Steele. Seriously? No one sees this as elitist and racist in a very old school discriminatory way? If anyone dare question the party of the inflated egos of these women they are racist because they can’t be racist because they allowed a black woman to sign on. Has Turner donated money or worked on campaigns for Republicans while hiding under the code word “Independant” which in Montclair means closeted Republican. OMG – don’t get me started.
Larry Kopp is campaign manager for RPM.
Jerry Kapner is For Montclair’s communications director, David Grill, treasurer
I haven’t run across a campaign manager for FM yet.
“…OMG – don’t get me started”
Good, then just stop. Your rhetoric is sickening.
RPM and the Turner slate started this mess in her desperate attempt to convince the town that she was pro-public schools by wheeling out “Montclair Power Moms” and insinuating that she was backed by the PTA.
Well, the PTA called her bluff.
RPM and Turner dug the hole deeper by insinuating that Montclair 2012 was somehow a puppet of some phantom political machine.
Well, Jackson called her bluff.
So let’s imagine how Turner would govern: with fabrications and insinuations.
Let’s call her bluff.
Bunch of babies.
I wonder how this election contest would be different if we had voted for an elected school board and to move the elections to November?
Frank, one difference would be the current council would be in office until next November. Seeing the connection between the Jackson slate and the Walensky and de Koninck team, it’s hard to not connect the dots here. I think it would be more of the same if we did this in November.
Frank, I’ve wondered the same thing except for different reasons than most that post here have (I presume). Re: elected vs. appointed school boards, there is no discernible difference as far as student achievement outcomes. But the concern abt how qualified Turner is to appoint BOE members would be a non-issue. Buuuut, would BOE elections be as politicized as this race? It’s pretty painful so far.
“Buuuut, would BOE elections be as politicized as this race? It’s pretty painful so far.”
Is this really a question for you? All the ugliness arrived at the mere mention of “PTA” in an ad for the person who would appoint BOE members. Can you imagine a BOE election? Can you imagine concerned interested parties who want to serve on the BOE withstanding such withering accusations? Can you imagine the quality of people we’d stock the BOE with then?
I am glad Mr Jackson introduced race into the election, but not the way he executed it. He perceived a racial slight and denounced it. That’s it. The total sum of his press release.
He missed a leadership opportunity to have that press release go from denunciation to making it a platform plank and leading a robust & constructive dialogue n this town. I wish he had.
But he didn’t. The question is not whether there is a firewall between the DCC and M12. To me, the question is what is each candidate going to do to best represent our local needs and issues. In this case, Mr Jackson did not shed an illumination, and therefore he simply obfuscated the racial issue.
The door is open.
I think you answered your own question Frank. I think Mr. Jackson quite clearly indicated how he will handle “local needs and issue”. In fact, I think it’s the clearest predictive indication any politician has given in this entire campaign.
This really is not a big deal. Reading the actual text of the ad it fails to meet the definition of political campaign intervention, it would take a pretty twisted interpretation of the irs code to arrive at that conclusion. But who cares, if a couple of local moms want to get amped around a particular candidate, let them. Amazing how much of an uproar this has caused. Jackson’s comments are absurd and ignorant.
Walleroo once again you’ve made an oversight of construction which in turn is just a fallacy of composition. Please look up Fallacy of Composition your bias can be interpreted as a lie because you choose not to share an opinion that is factually based. What you’ve done is declare that some personal intersection akin to communism, or hyper-partisanship be observed, fostering dysfunction, ideologues, political games, pettiness, and disengagement. The PTA isn’t a political party regardless of the size of the mutually exclusive sets, that is to say that not all families have to belong to the PTA despite any possible skewing for any political ideology to which a majority belongs. Get Real; and brown Republicans don’t vote Republican so that they can entertain criticisms, democracy should allow for an argument(The general structure of an argument in a natural language is that of premises (typically in the form of propositions, statements or sentences) in support of a claim: the conclusion.) I’ve been looking at your rhetoric and you need to stop making unfounded illogical blanket statements about positions that you do not share and the somehow ‘integrate’ that into a inaccurate dissemination of what you’ve gathered at your level of intelligence.
It’s kind of amusing to see jerseygurl posting disdainfully about more recent posters, even apparently questioning their bina fides.
That you’ve been posting for years here, jerseygurl, does not mean that you post sagely. Ever. Nor does it give you the right to sound so possessively xenophobic. By your apparent reasoning, someone who was named lasermikey (now gone from this site, alas, though I miss his madness) had bragging rights over all posting above save good ole walleroo (and what does that say about walleroo, come to think of it?). How “un-diverse” of you, jerseygurl. But also how typical.
And race was clearly “injected” into this campaign long ago. Even if just by a certain amount of cowardice by the rival slates. This is clearly indicated by the lack of opponents in her ward against Ms. Baskerville, one might plausibly suggest.
But then, I also wonder if Donald Payne’s old Congressional seat is now viewed as a “black seat” and appropriately reserved in terms of potential candidates. Local politics hardly seems race-blind, in other words.
Oh, cranky pants. I guess you don’t find it suspect when an entirely new batch of names show up one day, all with the same point of few? It’s the new form of propaganda.
If anyone would like to see how much candidates have raised and spent (and on what) you can obtain reports here:
https://www.elec.state.nj.us/ELECReport/StandardSearch.aspx
see if we can find anything suspect anywhere.
Few=view. Ilove my iPad but I hate autocorrect. Thanks, ROC. I’m on it.
i think two slates acted poorly in this fiasco. First RPM, although the ad was placed without the offending PTA titles, apparently the letter that was sent out on a fairly sizable mailing list was not as, shall we say subtle. Some that received that letter may not have appreciated being campaigned to and may in fact have their own ideas for candidates.
However that being said the attacking response to the Essex County PTA president “RPM is stunned that Ms. [Catherine] Steele [president of the Essex County PTA] and the Essex County political machine she represents are attacking our mom volunteers” without any evidence is insulting to all involved. Ms. Steele was performing her fiduciary responsibility by reminding everyone what the rules were regarding political activity and the actions by RPM show that her advise to not use the title in response to Ms. Weintraub’s email stating that she “…will be listed as Sue Weintraub, Glenfield PTA President. Will you all sign on” was the correct advise.
Further Ms. Steele did not make this letter public RPM did; to repeat Ms. Steele did her job as the president in response to what she viewed as a violation of rules that could impact the entire organizations tax-exempt status. Ms Steele’s letter per the RPM Press release was sent to “…The two women who received the email are Sue Weintraub, president of the Glenfield PTA and PR director of the Real Progress Montclair campaign, and Jane Day, a volunteer in the Northeast PTA with the addendum that all of the PTA units in Montclair would receive the same notification. No RPM instead of apologizing for their error; made the necessary correction but then doubled down and accused Robert Jackson of being part of a vast conspiracy from the evil Essex County Machine. An accusation made with no foundation or evidence only innuendo.
Mr. Jackson’s response to the add seemed immature and knee jerk, although when being personally attacked people do lash out without thinking correctly.
In closing RPM is an entity not a person; can we ever see something from the candidates that is an actual quote to often it is always just RPM says. And hey you Baristanet, can you do actual reporting or at least write the headline on any of the Press Releases written directly by the campaign, perhaps in the headline ready Press Release from Candidate X as opposed to printing everything that is sent to you as if it has been vetted, investigated, or actually reported?
Maybe someone can translate that.
…too many big words? i know that your attention span is a little short.
Yeah JG, I’m with cathar. Your “bina fides” are suspect.
Not however, your spina bifida.
A perfect example of why a civic conference committee approach to town elections would serve us so well. What if we had such a committee made up of a rep from each of the key organizations in town which in turn represent community interests of all types and levesl. Starting with the schools, the churches and synagogs, the political clubs, the ethnic orgs, the Scouts, the YMCA, the board of realtors, police and fire departments, etc. Applicants for office would all complete the same process, written and interviewed. A slate of candidates could be developed giving all of us an assurance that some vetting has taken place and removes the rancor and silly games.
“Ms. Steele was performing her fiduciary responsibility by reminding everyone what the rules were regarding political activity”
If that were all Ms. Steele were doing, I’d have no problem with it. However, she has gone quite beyond this. Consider two quotes from her in the MT:
“Everyone running for office can mention their affiliations,”
and
“Supporters can’t get up and identify themselves as a PTA member.”
This asserts that candidates are permitted to identify their experiences and affiliations but supporters are not. This is unlikely in the extreme, in either IRS or PTA rules.
Consider the implications if Ms. Steele is attempting to enforce a rule that doesn’t exist.
…Andrew
“If anyone would like to see how much candidates have raised and spent (and on what) you can obtain reports here”
There is also information on at least the largest contributors. I’ve been a bit startled by some of them (eg. oil and gas executives from other states – is there oil buried under Montclair, or some such thing *laugh*?).
…Andrew
“A slate of candidates could be developed giving all of us an assurance that some vetting has taken place and removes the rancor and silly games.”
The rancor and “silly games” are otherwise known as democracy. The messiest and most glorious political system ever invented.