"Non-partisan town." Man, that's funny. You should stop in somewhere on open-mic night Chris. (And from what I remember about your whacky baseball e-mails, you'd probably get a lot of laughs.)

RPM had me from the get go. I actually personally know and like 2 candidates on the slate. However, it was RPM's campaign- first, the powerful pta mom thing. A) that's divisive. It makes it (as cs says above, moms against whomever). Rpm never acknowledged how divisive that was. Then, assuming jackson was in cahoots with the essex pta president- why? No, I don't think that its because they are black, as jackson later said....but just say- wow! Didn't know titles were against the rules. Attacking jackson and calling them part of any "machine" is nasty. In addition, RPM seemed to promise way more than they could deliver, with the caveat that "everything is on the table" to easily get out of anything. I voted for others. And, when I got the email from RPM insinuating that the voting machine for the wildwood area may have gone down for a reason other than mechanical (I don't have the email on my bb to reference the words exactly)- well, insinuating that your neighbors who may have different political views may have tampered with an election essentially? I was glad I did. That takes b--ls.

I should add, the whole victim thing turned me off too. First - people were bullying the pta moms. Really? And the ny times article, well- WHO spoke to them? Its not a paid advertisement, so you really don't know what they will say. RPM took a gamble.....and lost. The victim mentality again- poor us, they called us tea partiers. Sorry it didn't work out to be the free publicity you thought it would be. Live and learn...but don't whine. And the nj transit thing? I thought that was genius- too bad turner said she didn't say it, though she did say it, and it was in writing, and its a good idea. Stick with it. Then, despite rpm's own negative ads- they state that they took the high road.
No you didn't. Susswein did.

Chris is spot on. I'm not as hopeful as he is, I can't imagine favors are not owed.

Jackson ran a professional campaign and his use of the robo calls were effective. Of course its disappointing that the turn out is so low again.
Montclair defintely got what it deserved.

ROC, I hope you are wrong, but suspect you are not. Thanks for the behind the scenes view Chris.

Sometimes elections don't turn out the way they should, John Kerry - George W. Unfortunately, we'll all suffer through this mistake and after things really fall apart, we'll elect the right person. Shame on you, Kate Zirnike - NYTimes. According to her reputation, retractions are often necessary. She likes to put words in peoples mouths and draw her own conclusions. Just ask John Kerry... Challenging the status quo, does not make one a tea partier. I thought "full disclosure" was a tenet of good reporting. Ms. Zirnike please learn from this mistake. Karen Turner did not deserve your misguided conclusions.

Unfortunately, Kate Zernike will not learn from this mistake, just as she has not from prior misguided, misquoted and misdirected reports she has written. Her arrogance and self righteousness will not allow it.

In a nutshell, when you started with the ''moms'' yet again, you have no idea how many people in this town were, and still are, completly turned off. There are many ''moms,'' my wife included, who volunteered in the schools, on the soccer fields, etc etc who whole heartedly supported other slates. Rpm did not have a monopoly on Montclair moms. Secondly, with regard to "dirty" campaigning, RPM was certainly not above the fray. Lastly, and in my opinion most importantly, most people i know vote in a municipal election with their hearts. what i mean by that, is that they vote for the likeability factor. Sean Spiller is case in point. Unfortunately for Chris Swenson, he was the one candidate who people commented to me that they had negative experiences with. In the end, in a small town, it is not whether you are right of center or left of center, but rather how you treat people when you are not running for office.

SE: You buried the lead.

"Third, the county machine is more effective than I thought."

RPM kept making these accusations and never provided any proof, but to suggest the new council is owes favors and is doing something illegal is just sour grapes

"They had a professional campaign run by seasoned political operatives who know what they are doing."

Larry Kopp and Michael burns are both seasoned political operatives who know what they are doing., does that mean RPM was run by the Republican Machine? of course not just as Jackson was not run by the Essex County Machine

Chris sorry to inform you but you did not make the traveling team, I have been waiting years to tell you that

"who has worked on Democratic campaigns for the US Senate, Congressional seats as well NJ Senate and Assembly races—"

Doesn't this make Chris a seasoned political operative?

I agree with Chris on one point: The Times should not have assigned a reporter from in town to do the story. It creates at the very least the scent of bias.
The rest of his post is filled with the usual misdirections from the Roger Ailes school of "Fair and Balanced" sloganism. Say it enough times and enough people will believe it.

Geez, OMG, enough with the sore-winner attitude! Can't you take the high road now that it's over and your team won?

I thought the healing was supposed to have begun by now. Swenson was gracious in defeat; everyone could give it a try.

Excellent answers, Chris. I hope you run again. You are a good man.

Gracious in defeat but blaming 90% of his Slate's loss on underhanded tactics by the other side. Yep, gracious.

RPM never quite grasped how many people in town have dealt with them personally for many years and just don't like them. A hard pill to swallow, much less acknowledge.

The Times may lean liberal but Fox is an outright smear machine

The Times brought down a liberal NY governor and carried Cheney's water on Iraq. name 1 time Fox ever deviated from the right-wing agenda

Really? How could you call this gracious? Blaming a "political machine", the ny times, negative campaigns (that imo were started by rpm), a dubbed robo call (which karen turner said was not dubbed- but "out of context").
Also- I am on the rpm email list. They sent out no less than 7 emails day or election. How many "thank you for your support" and congrats to the winners? None that I got.
Gracious? My a--.

If i remember correctly, Chris swenson was alligned with Jackson at the very begining. i remember quotes in the Montclair Times where he was extolling the virtues of jackson as someone who can lead our town. Next thing you know, jackson does not show up for a scheduled meeting, doesn't inform them about it and the insults begin to fly. Sounds like jackson dumped them. As far as kate Zernike is concerned, she has a stellar reputation. Actually, better than a stellar reputation. She writes for one of the most prestigous papers in the world and is being criticized by someone who ran some weekly paper in south Jersey! As far as giving ''excellent answers'' as one poster noted, he isn't answering anything, he is in full damage control.

"Moms against the machine'' [crock of s_ _ t ] As i said before, it is insulting to all the mom's that did not support your slate and.... who, what and where is this ''machine'' that you keep referencing? ''Grass roots effort'' what local campaign is not a grass roots effort? I'm sure you had no more or less unpaid volunteers than either of the other two slates. ''There is no reason to go back over the details, it would just be sour grapes.'' [ NY Times article] Your entire, well thought out, very calculated question and answer session, with whomever from the patch, is one large sour grape

Jay, I didn't detect sour grapes in this article. Simply a recount of the history. But since you brought it up, you are naive at best if you think the hired hands from Newark were part of a grass roots effort. Check out the donations that each slate took in. The facts are the facts. Time will tell how beholden the Jackson slate is to the machine.

Adam:

Whine, whine whine. You are so defensive, bordering on irrational. Do yourself and the town a favor and move on.

Adam, I might be naive [ I doubt it] but i do know this, Swenson has lived in this town for 20 years and acts as if he is the most connected, respected and well liked person in town. He got his ass kicked by a guy who is almost half his age and has lived here a third of the time. He got his ass kicked for one reason, the likability factor. It had nothing to do, and i mean NOTHING, with the ''machine'' or ''operatives'' or ''negative campaigning.'' Throw that crap out the window. The third ward voted for a guy that knowbody knew because they liked and trusted him more than their neighbor and activist for the last 20 years. How do you like them apples!

no the 3rd ward voted for a slate and the other slates were incorrectly labeled as tea partiers and entrenched status quo. I hope 2012 does a good job and that i am wrong, but i think the voters in Montclair are idiots for voting in a developer and 2 public employee union presidents. Time will tell who is right and i sincerely hope i am wrong.

Jay Sheehan, "He got his ass kicked for one reason, the likability factor. It had nothing to do, and i mean NOTHING, with the ''machine'' or ''operatives'' or ''negative campaigning.''
hmmm, 500 new voters in the 3rd ward, all in the apartment buidlings where few have ever voted before. Is this a "likability" factor or an organized Get Out The Vote campaign?

Chris lost, and others won, because of a professional, aggressive, campaign that included "get out the vote." It was run very well.

This was not a "battle of ideas" or "how we want the town to be run in the future."
I'm not sure that any election is be it local or state.

A significant number of people vote emotionally. If one hasn't voted, ever, and someone personally approaches you, helps you register, or helps you get to the polls, that's another vote.

Campaigns need to pay attention. They have always needed to pay attention but often didn't.

Montclair 2012 paid attention.

Which is not to discount the like-ability factor. I was having lunch with one of the candidates and at least three people came up to him and said "I don't know much about what your campaign is, or what you stand for, but I know you and/or your family and I like you so I'll vote for you."

A woman turned to me when I was on line to vote and said "I feel so embarrassed. I know nothing about these people."

continued,

All of which is not to deny the huge "shoe leather" component -- actually getting out and talking to as many people as possible.

MP,

I have NO idea what you're saying ...

MP, what are you saying?

Sorry, MP, I just don't agree with you.

And if you'll notice, I just asked for clarification because, quite frankly, I couldn't figure out what you were saying.

That you chose to attack me personally, is not the way I go about my life.

"Montclair has spoken?" What about all the people who didn't vote the party line? What about all the people who didn't vote, period?

Enough.

P.S. You did notice that I answered with my real name. Now that the election is over perhaps you can too?

Montclair dad,
way to make assertions about the NY Times in relation to other media and then be unable to back them up.
And to all the folks so resentful of those "who never voted before," isn't that what most here have been complaining about, an indifferent voting population. oh, wait, new voters came out but didn't vote for the slate we supported. never mind.

and mere apartment dwellers in the third ward, no less. what is this town coming to when the richest people can't get their way?

I watch all the, or most of the council meetings and Cary was never afraid to voice his opinion and never seemed to be concerned as to what other people on the council thought of him. He was an advocate for the town of Montclair even though i squirmed at some of the behavior. Putting that aside, I do agree, that the ''like-ability factor is a very under rated force behind all local or municipal elections. I was pushing hard for the Jackson slate [ although, i also voted for Katheryn Demming for at large] because of the lack of it from the RPM slate. I found the ''Montclair Moms'' to be one of the most offensive ads I had ever seen and it really turned so many people in town off. In fact, The RPM message did not matter to me or so many others after that ad. Their message may have been spot on, but nobody liked the messengers. To me, that is why they got trounced. I never saw or heard from or felt the ''essex county machine'' and neither did anyone else i know. But, we all heard, saw and felt the arrogance and obtuseness [spelling?] of RPM

OMG, just read that Jerry Brown is going to make further budget cuts. Please alert Ms. Zirnike at the NYT and let her know that we have another tea partier to go after. Sometimes the electorate makes mistakes, think 2004 - John Kerry, hopefully things won't get too bad and Montclair will figure it out next time.

Laura,
Boo hoo. Your team lost. Move, on with your life.

Cary,

The majority of people who voted for Jackson were white residents of town who (a) never heard of Jackson before the election and (b) sure as heck didn't know him. The reason he won was because he was a positive, extraordinarily optimistic guy who, while acknowledging the problems we had, didn't play to the lowest common demoninator of fear and economic self interest and didn't act like our town is a failure and doomed. He didn't send crap like this out at 5 pm on election day.

Montclair is at a crossroads.
In the last 12 years, our taxes have DOUBLED and our debt has TRIPLED. What will you do if your taxes double again in the next 12 years? Will you be able to afford to stay in Montclair?

With Real Progress Montclair, you won't have to make that decision.

People see through fear mongering.

Please comment if you'd like. Had nothing to do with robo-calls. Incidentally, I never received a single one from the winning slate,

I was hoping that the election being over was going stop all of this....le sigh.

RPM may have been looking at the finances more conservatively than others running, but to say they were anti-magnet school, tea partying, Christie supporting types?

Umm, not really.

Seriously, folks-can we move on now ?
Keep the focus on what's important, getting the town back on track, solving the $$ debt issues that we have. Keep the schools strong, keep the library open, etc, etc

We're all neighbors, to quote another comment earlier on in the election-if one of our kids acted out this way on the playground, we'd all be stepping in here redirecting the behavior.

Bob Russo agreed not to run against Brendan Gill for Freeholder last year. Gill won, therefore owed him so he called Jackson to put Russo on the ticket. It's not that big a deal. It does not mean, as RPM was trying to insinuate, that Jackson is controlled by the evil Essex County Democratic Machine. It's just the type of personal favor that happens every day, everywhere in NJ. It's not a big deal. It's politics 101.
The NY Times article didn't cause the race to be a runaway. The 4th ward did. The total from Wards 1,2 and 3 had Turner 240 votes behind Jackson. The 4th Ward actually had a lower percentage turnout than in the last few municipal elections. However the vote total was so lopsided for Jackson (1249 to 140 for Turner) that the race wasn't close. That type of plurality has not happened in a while. Perhaps if either Turner or Susswein had an African American in an at large slot, as has happened in almost every election, the 4th Ward vote would not have been as monolithic.
The one thing Swenson may be right about is what happens next. Joe D's son just got his insurance license with a firm in Belleville that services municipalities and other public entities. The calls are already being made to introduce him to local school boards and townships.
One prediction: Jackson will end up with a key county appointment within the year. No one is making money in residential real estate these days and with this election Jackson should become an important player in the county.

Yes, let's move on. Let's get to work reducing the debt, improving the schools, repairing the roads, reinstating full library funding, restoring PreK funding, insuring aides, supporting our teachers, bettering the police force and fire department, speeding up code inspections for businesses, developing the town with tax abatements and lowering our taxes.

Well, I did get the "robo call" with the out of context statements Karen made years ago when "everything was on the table."

But I agree with ROC and am moving on. Today looks to be a great day for working on the roses, and they can't wait.

Thanks, Steve, for your comments.

Cary

I voted against Transparency in 2008. I voted against Vision in 2012. I don't know what it will be in 2016, but I'm voting against it.

MG

I don't believe ANYONE has suggested dismantling the magnet school system and busing.

The only busing discussions I've heard of is whether we should limit how far out a child must be for them to be qualified. That's a discussion that's being going on for years, and is not about the magnet system.

2016 vote against common sense

2016 votes against fear mongering and scare tactics.

I love when people spend hundreds of thousands of dollars remodelling their million dollar + home yet stand up in front of a room full of people with a straight face and say "If my taxes go up again I'm afraid I'm going to have to move. . . . ." Good stuff.

People can spend their money anyway they see fit ROC. Just spare me the crocodile tears from the podium you decided to run for office the day your spouse came in and announced that you'd have to move if the taxes go up another $1,000, when everyone knows its bs.

I want to point out that Russo received over 3400 votes, the second highest in recent Montclair History, Jackson being the most popular, so this myth that Jackson was doing a favor for the machine is just silly. It was just smart politics

Bottom line is I want to know what this slate is about. "investing in Montclair" is a code for more government spending. We don't need to invest, we need to budget. If they are talking about attracting businesses to come to Montclair, maybe offering more liquor licenses, that sort of thing, I'm all for that. But don't use taxpayer dollars to "invest" -- let it come from the private sector to generate more tax revenue. Wasn't Jackson our mayor before? What was his record then? I really don't know much about his past performance. Bob Russo was a nightmare -- the debit doubled under him 2000-2004. Hopefully these people get it - we HAVE to get the run away taxes under control.

18 years ago my wife and I found a great home here in Montclair. After putting over 20% down we still had to take out a fairly sizeable mortgage. Over the years we also invested a few hundred thousand in updating kitchens, baths,heating & electrical systems etc. Now I am looking at a tax bill that far exceeds the original mortgage payments. Believe me, these tax bilss are not BS but a real and growing problem.

OMG, just for the sake of accuracy, the following candidates received an equal or higher % of their At-Large vote as Russo.
1996: Jenkins, Schnarr (2 out of 5 candidates)
2000: Demming, Michaelson, Jenkins, O'Connell (4 out of 4 candidates)
2006: Michaelson (1 out of 5 candidates)
2008: Terry (1 out of 6 candidates)

This slate will "invest" in Montclair, and our tax bills will go up. It's inevitable. I just hope that Jackson, who is keen on development (he's real estate developer after all) will have some common sense when it comes to planning. Right now, we are spending money to beautify a street that is about to be flanked by an assisted living facility and there's a big new Salvation Army building around the corner. Not the kinds of things that attract the kinds of retailers and businesses willing to pay high rents.

Hall of fame BS Karen Turner said, and i Quote ''My husband turned to me and said, if our taxes go up any more, we can't stay'' We can't stay? Two kids at MKA a family membership at Bradford swim club and a membership at Montclair Golf club.How do you say those things during a campaign with a straight face?

Why is this thread is still going?

Since it is:

"Not having a full, more diverse slate hurt us."

Absolutely correct. This was an obvious flaw when RPM's slate, or mini-slate, was first announced. In particular, not running a candidate in the 2nd Ward, Montclair's largest ward, was a mistake. And to state the obvious: no Jewish or African-American candidates on the slate.

"They had a professional campaign run by seasoned political operatives who know what they are doing."

Echoing what others have written here, RPM's campaign manager, Larry Kopp, is himself a seasoned political operative. On Kopp's company's website, past clients are listed as including Eliot Spitzer. As such, I don't think this point rings true.

"Maybe Fried is right and we should move the election to November."

Please, no. These supposedly non-partisan elections are politically charged as it is -- in May.

If you want to move the election to November to generate higher voter turnout, you might as well make it Democrats v. Republicans. Some would say we just saw that anyway.

Someone needs to do an interview with Jackson & the rest of the new council and get it straight from their mouths - what is the plan now? How do they plan to get the tax problem under control? I knew were RPM stood & liked their approach. "Investing in Montclair" is NOT an approach to getting taxes under control.

Am hoping to do just that Chris..

Frank,

You make a good point about percentages, but what I really was trying to point out that this argument that Jackson had to take Russo as a favor, as if he was damaged goods does not make sense. Whether you base it on the actual number of votes or percentage of each election, Russo has delivered the votes. BTW, I did not vote for the guy

The Turners do not belong to Bradford. Please stop with the insults. The woman and her slate sought to improve life here....not destroy it. Whether you agree with their ideology or their proposals, you must acknowledge that they truly care about our shared community. Let's focus on the bigger debate...Presidential election coming up.

wow, three consequences that 19th century politicians could have warned you about

"The woman and her slate sought to improve life here"

Is this a theme? I was last night at an event for the local BigBrothers/BigSisters organization. There I ran into someone that I learned was a member of "Junior League". I remembered some of the attacks against the Turner slate mentioning this, so I asked about it; I'd never heard of this league before.

It turns out that this is - from my recollection - a group of volunteers that acts to serve the community in several ways. What struck me about this is its similarity with the PTA. That in turn begs a question: How is it that groups like this can be part of a negative campaign? How did participation in groups like this become a negative, to be treated with scorn?

Active in the community? Volunteering time to help people? Well, that clearly makes someone unfit for public office.

How can that possibly make sense?

...Andrew

The PTA, Jr League and any other volunteer organization in Montclair (made up of people who are "givers" of time, knowledge and money) are wonderful to all the "takers" until people invovled in such groups come out and support something that make the takers in any way fearful of losing things they have grown to feel entitled to. Then the takers point fingers about the givers and their organizations and call them "elitist" and out to destroy the town.

It's a bunch of garbage but that was the M2012 playbook and it was executed well. Moms who volunteer for the PTA or are part of the Junior League were painted as awful human beings who only care for themselves and are out to force black and lower income people out of Montclair and make the town the sole possession of the country club elite.

I don;t think that the voting public bought too much of that rhetoric (most town people aren't on these sites), but the posters on here who vocally outraged by the PTA ad or by Turners memebership in the Jr League fit that mold.

"It's a bunch of garbage but that was the M2012 playbook and it was executed well."

There's an interesting piece on "hit politics" in today's NYTimes: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/20/opinion/sunday/bruni-of-bile-and-billionaires.html

It doesn't specifically address attacks on people with the audacity to volunteer within the community, but it does address interested parties and partisans willing to put aside truth for "hyperbole". I wonder if the attacks on volunteers is more specific to Montclair somehow.

"I don;t think that the voting public bought too much of that rhetoric"

Given how references to the PTA and such morphed into "country clubs" and "tea parties", I'm not so sure of this. Let's not forget the "tea party" comment in the NYTimes article the day before the election, where either Cary Chevat had a quote used out of context or he was repeating the "tea party" lie (it's not clear which of these occurred).

The article ends on a positive note: "But there are clearly voters out there who are interested in turning down the heat on our political discourse." It's too bad that Montclair appears to be moving in the opposite direction.

...Andrew

I can't read it as I have chosen to give up on reading anything from the NY Times. There are too many better sources for unbiased information.