Cary Chevat, a co-founder of BlueWaveNJ, today endorsed Robert Jackson for mayor. Here is his endorsement letter:

Friends,

As many of you I have not supported any slates and have not publicly endorsed any candidate for Mayor. No Longer, I am strongly endorsing Robert Jackson. This is a personal endorsement and I speak only for myself.

Robert Jackson will be able to balance the progressive spirit of Montclair with fiscal responsibility. It is time for the progressives to rally around Robert Jackson. Change must come to Montclair, but at the same time we need to protect the culture, lifestyle, diversity and the progressive values of Montclair.

Here are my specific reasons for voting supporting Jackson:

Ugly Campaign

As you know, I have been an outspoken critic of the tone of this election. The Turner campaign has twice tried to politicize the schools and then they went to the Republican playbook to create a Democratic Machine Conspiracy. Anyone that knows anything about Montclair politics knows we are independent of the County and State Democratic Party.

When Robert confronted Karen with this accusation at the NAACP debate, she could not offer one piece of evidence to support these lies. The fact is that members of the Turner Campaign including Larry Kopp, their campaign manager, admitted to me they have been exaggerating the story for political gain. I am troubled that Karen Turner is unable or unwilling to control her campaign and concerned that she will not be able to find the necessary consensus to solve the real problems of Montclair from a council elected from mixed slates

Public Schools

I had encouraged Karen Turner to run for At-Large not Mayor. Karen does not have the personal experience with our public schools required to appoint BOE members. This is not about her personal educational choices; we need the informed opinion that only comes with years of experience and the active participation that provides an understanding of the issues and culture of Montclair Schools. Robert Jackson has that experience.

Harvey Susswein

I have been a fan of Harvey and was close to endorsing him until the meltdown of his campaign this week. I know some of my friends are supporting Harvey, but I do not see a path for him to win. With even a modest turnout in the 4th Ward, Robert will have a strong advantage going into the election. I am concerned that Harvey will split the progressive vote.

For all these reasons, I will be voting for Robert Jackson for Mayor this Tuesday, May 8. I urge you all to do the same.

Cary Chevat

31 replies on “Chevat Endorses Jackson for Mayor”

  1. “Ugly Campaign”. Please tell me who I should believe – you, the poster or my lying eyes (that have read what has been put out there).

    As I recall Mr. Jackson started the ‘ugly’ and then adopted it as a campaign strategy.

  2. Ugly? All those new anonymous names out there screaming “racism”? Oh brother. Eye roll.

  3. My slate and I are not surprised by Mr. Chevat’s endorsement of Mr. Jackson. We are surprised however by the continued attempts by Mr. Chevat and Mr. Jackson to inject ugliness into the campaign and then level the charge of ugliness at us. We’d like to remind Montclair’s residents that a grassroots effort by local mothers to show their support for RPM was politicized by Mr. Jackson with particularly nasty and personal attacks against Sue Weintraub, an RPM supporter but not a candidate. It was also Mr. Jackson who injected racism into the campaign. It is troubling to us that while we attempt to focus on the serious issues of the town in our campaign our opponents continue to want to attack us.
    Let’s all try to get back to the issues facing our town and our respective
    visions for where we want to take it. We need to be inspiring all of our
    residents to vote Tuesday. We should not be turning them away with
    personal attacks and false accusations.

  4. Why does the most conservative candidate use “progress” in it’s name? Karen Turner is closer to a Tea Party candidate than a progressive.

  5. This is another desperate attempt to garner votes from the undecided. Jackson’s attacks are hysterical as are Susswein’s. Why is it that Karen Turner is the only candidate with enough class to rise above it all?

  6. “Robert Jackson will be able to balance the progressive spirit of Montclair with fiscal responsibility…

    Pleae ..tell me another fairy tale, Mr Chevat

  7. ” With even a modest turnout in the 4th Ward, Robert will have a strong advantage going into the election ”

    Could you explain that one a bit further ?

  8. I am surprised BlueWaveNJ is taking a negative approach here. I think the co-founder could have listed under his ‘specific reasons’ the positive qualities about Mr Jackson candidacy. I have seen BlueWaveNJ come before the current council over the years competing for Community Block Grant funding preferences. I think BlueWaveNJ probably should have hedged their bets.

  9. Chevat is a partisan hack. Does anyone care what he thinks? Why is Baristanet giving him this kind of exposure?

    DP

  10. the yoda has spoken. may the 4th be with you…

    btw, did you guys count how many times he used “progressive” in this “endorsement” of Jackson?

    hm, i think mr. chevat is trying to tell us something…

  12. Take a few spins around Baristanet and Patch and it’s clear that The New Wave Tea Party Brigade is winning the war of words in this election — based on the sheer numbers of posts, and they sure are idiotic. This election is not going to be won in the echo chamber that you have successfully created here and inside your warped brains, or over at the Patch. Local elections are won when candidates and their supporters talk to real people. You people ought to get out more often.

  13. ” With even a modest turnout in the 4th Ward, Robert will have a strong advantage going into the election ”

    For what it’s worth, he said the exact same thing about Renee Baskerville.

  14. It reads pretty clearly to me that Cary’s endorsement is very much his own opinion after thoughtful deliberation. He makes that pretty clear. And anyone who knows Cary knows he is incredibly independent minded. In fact, maybe the uber conservative shills who echo back to each other on town blogs would have shut up if they had seen Cay’s other email to friends endorsing other Council candidates, including one of their (RPM) own.

    When you’ve got a candidate (Zorich) who had 10 years at Fox/o’Reilly/Hannity and a far right wing campaign manager (Byrne), those with progressive values in town have every reason to be concerned. Even those of us who favor fiscal constraint and open government.

    I was seriously considering voting for some on the Turner slate myself until I started to peel back the onion. I’d still like to see one or two of them on the Council as I think their perspective deserves a voice and there are one or two of them are very smart and thoughtful.

  15. This election is not going to be won in the echo chamber that you have successfully created here and inside your warped brains, or over at the Patch.

    Yes, it is.

    Talk about echo chamber. Is there any doubt that mountiebred and thinking4myself are the same person? Or at least reading from the same talking points.

    Soon the election will be over and these carpetbaggers will go home.

  16. “I was seriously considering voting for some on the Turner slate myself until I started to peel back the onion. I’d still like to see one or two of them on the Council as I think their perspective deserves a voice and there are one or two of them are very smart and thoughtful.”

    this is the difference between a progressive and the opposition. a progressive will advocate inclusiveness, diversity of thought. the opposition — reflected here over and over — will stoop to calling people hacks and carpetbaggers and then express bewilderment when people levy charges of negativism. For those who have not made up their minds, take a hard look at these folks. Do you really want Montclair to end up in their hands?

  17. Lol. I am me and only me, having broken my longstanding policy of not commenting on baristanet given the uncivility of much of the discourse here and the unbalanced representation of public opinion (like the time I once a story abo girls beeing accosted while walking in town and you guys even turned THAT into a diatribe on taxes).

    Glad if other people have decided to speak out too.

  18. Waaahhh, uncivility, Waaahhh, unbalanced… Waaahhh…. discourse…

    Comments like this, and the folks who make them, like those who bemoan “negative” ads have no knowledge of American history and what elections, discourse and Americans “just talking” have looked like since our founding.

    I remember this from a while ago as a primer.

    https://articles.cnn.com/2008-08-22/living/mf.campaign.slurs.slogans_1_jefferson-family-sally-hemings-vice-president-jefferson?_s=PM:LIVING

    And here in New Jersey, let’s not remember our favorite duel in Weehawken.

    So a little comment on b-net, patch or via email is really, nothing at all.

    Oh, and your momma dresses you funny!

  19. Leeann,

    Revisionist history is RPM’s primary tactic. let’s review:

    It was your slate that accused Jackson of being part of a “machine” with absolutely no evidence. That’s dirty.

    It was your slate that shoved “100 Montclair Power Moms” down the throats of the electorate. That’s craven.

    It was your slate that used children in our schools as campaign volunteers. That’s just pathetic.

    RPM attacked their opponents first and now cry foul when they are called to the mat. Sorry, Leeann, you can’t have it both ways.

    RPM and Turner are committed to one thing; dismantling everything that makes Montclair a great place to live. They have promised to dismantle Pre-K, they will appoint Republicans to the BOE to undercut our public schools, they have come out in support of vouchers, and they have indicated they will cut libraries and other services with little regard for what people in town truly want.

    Take a drive through town. Where are RPM’s lawn signs? Note the size of the house and the elevation up the mountain.

    RPM employs a radical right wing campaign manager and one of its candidates is a FOX News and Hannity producer.

    The voters are paying attention Leeann. You can’t hide behind simplistic solutions any longer.

  20. “RPM and Turner are committed to one thing; dismantling everything that makes Montclair a great place to live. They have promised to dismantle Pre-K, they will appoint Republicans to the BOE to undercut our public schools, they have come out in support of vouchers, and they have indicated they will cut libraries and other services with little regard for what people in town truly want.”

    This is an impressive list of fabrications. I find myself wondering what the point of this attack is if it cannot be made with truthful disagreement. For example, I don’t agree with Mr. Jackson’s belief that we can develop our way out of our financial problem; there isn’t enough property available to develop given our property tax rates. Mr. Russo’s desire to become a service provider to our neighboring towns is also doomed to fail given our inability to control costs – or even know the costs – and what that means when we’ve even a single competitor for a contract.

    Those are honest attacks. They address policies and issues. They’re based upon statements by the candidates.

    There’s no need to be dishonest, is there? Surely, if you don’t approve of a candidate it is because of some policy or policies he or she promotes?

    …Andrew

  22. Would it be SO bad if Montclair had one library? School vouchers are something I would like to hear more about too. Pool badges should be on sale soon, how about making them (the pools) and the skating rink self sustaining through user fees. If we are serious about saving money lets talk about doing away with local Police and Fire depts. and have the County take over these services. The County could use our existing facilities. Privatize our garbage collection or at least merge ours with surrounding towns.

    Or we could just raise property taxes.

  23. In Mitt Romney fashion I have 10k that says Jackson loses. Takers? The racism comments of several weeks ago can be likened to the wild screams of a crazed Dean 8 yrs ago. Nail in the coffin.

  24. It was your slate that accused Jackson of being part of a “machine” with absolutely no evidence. That’s dirty.

    Wasn’t Jackson just endorsed by BlueWave?

  25. “I was seriously considering voting for some on the Turner slate myself until I started to peel back the onion….”

    The same could be said for the Montclair 2012 Slate. Try peeling back the onion on several of their candidate’s past records of so called “fiscal achievement” – I guarantee it’ll make you weep a helluva lot more than an onion.

  26. “It was your slate that accused Jackson of being part of a “machine” with absolutely no evidence.”

    Have you read the list of donors? The evidence might lead one to an incorrect conclusion (“evidence” is not “proof”), but there is certainly some interesting evidence. There’s $1000 from “PASSAIC COUNTY EDUCATION ASSOCIATIONS/PAC”, for example. Not even Essex, mind you! $1000 from “Election Fund of Brendan Gill”. Not Mr. Gill personally, but the “election fund”. $500 from an employee of the NJEA.

    Ms. Turner has also described the comments spoken to her by Mr Jackson regarding having to accept Mr. Russo or getting help from “The Dems”.

    There’s also money from a couple of people in the oil and gas extraction business, BTW, which puzzles me. Is there oil or gas here?

    …Andrew

  27. @Jerseygurl — Cary Chevat as an individual endorsed Jackson, he made that clear. But he’s with Bluewave, yes.

  28. Cary Chevet also belongs the Montclair Pool Club, so I guess the Pool Club just endorse Jackson as well

  29. Cary Chevat, who cares?? He’s another part to the problem… he’s about as worthy as an endorsement as Jerry Fried. I am sure he sits on in the meetings at the diner in Bloomfield with Joey D, Gill & Jackson. Maybe they promised him a job too – ooops, I mentioned Jackson is being pushed by the Essex County machine, oh yeah, Jackson admitted (because he go caught) he does meet at the diner in Bloomfield with those folks to discuss how the county can work with Montclair, hahahahahahahahahahaha.

  30. Good morning Lee Ann Carlson,

    Here’s what I read on Baristanet: “Carlson revealed that she has not voted for a Montclair office in municipal elections during the 10 years that she has lived in town…”

    Now that kind of record, one would think, is a political career limiting move. How could you even dream of running for public office with that kind of non-participation in your own town? The geniuses in your campaign “brain” trust deserve some of the credit. Or didn’t you reveal to them, either? Weren’t you or they aware those kinds of blemishes are public record?

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