Bayonne mayoral candidates Sharon Ashe-Nadrowski and Loyad Booker are trading shots over local developer donations with the non-partisan race just one week away.
By Dan Israel/Hudson County View
In a video posted to social media on April 28, Booker, a councilman at-large, says that despite claiming to be the only mayoral candidate who rejects developer donations, she took a $500 donation from Gary DeBode, of ANMF Associates LLC and Gallium Real Estate, on February 10th.
“Sharon says she’s the only candidate rejecting developer donations. Well you didn’t reject this one. Another lie. Bayonne deserves honesty, not campaign slogans,” Booker said in the video.
Booker’s video then showed footage from the recent and only mayoral debate hosted by HCV where Ashe-Nadrowski stated that: “I have not taken any money from developers. I do not. I will not, because I only work for the residents of Bayonne.”
In her own social media post the next day, Ashe-Nadrowski said that when DeBode gave her campaign $500, she returned it once he was flagged for being a developer.
“When I talk about developer influence in our politics, I’m serious,” Ashe-Nadrowski noted.
Ashe-Nadrowski’s May 1st report filed with New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission (NJ ELEC) shows she refunded DeBode the $500 on April 21st.
Meanwhile, she said Booker and his council candidates including Council President Gary LaPelusa have taken over $27,575 from Bayonne developers, including DeBode, who have been awarded a combined over 100 years of tax abatements from the city.
This includes developers of project across Bayonne, she said, with a graphic from her campaign citing: $7,200 total from Jeffrey Fuller and Lance Hill, developers of Harbor Pointe; $3,500 from Shai Benhamid of The Standard; $2,600 from John Beskaly of 455-461 Avenue C; $2,600 from the Gamal Group Corporation, of the CasChem redevelopment; and $698 from Leonard Tartamella, David Gardner and DeBode of Bayview – among others.
Those are all accurate, according to Team Booker’s ELEC reports.
Ashe-Nadrowski highlighted how Booker voted to approve a 25-year payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) agreement for one of those developer donors, the Gamal Group, for their plans to construct luxury apartments at the base of the Bayonne Bridge.
“In fact, just last week Booker voted to give the Gamal Group a 25-year tax break after their $2,600 check to his mayoral campaign cleared. You and I and every Bayonne taxpayer will be picking up the tab for that corruption,” she said in the video.
Additionally, she again hit Booker over his initial support – in December of last year, while on the Bayonne Planning Board – and approval of a zoning amendment to allow data centers as a permitted use at the former Delta Self-Storage site at 71 New Hook Road.
Booker and the rest of the Bayonne City Council approved two resolutions banning data centers in the city, studying if they could revoke the zoning, and working to codify the resolution as an ordinance.
However, Ashe-Nadrowski has noted that resolutions are non-binding and that the zoning uses are difficult to revoke once a permitted use is outlined.
At the debate, she also recalled how similar moves in the past regarding the Zoning Board denial of the Bayonne mosque and community center led to a lawsuit and the court subsequently overruling their denial.
She also called this recent attack on DeBode’s now-returned contribution a distraction from the data center issue at hand.
“Unfortunately, this is a pattern: from his data center vote to trading developer donations for abatements, Councilman Booker loves distracting us from his record of failing our City and can’t get his facts straight,” she said, prior to the May 1st ELEC filings going public.
“When the next ELEC filing is released on May 1, we’ll see how much more developer cash Booker raked in and everyone can compare notes.”
In a statement provided to HCV, Booker said that Bayonne residents “deserve honest and transparent leaders,” again claiming Ashe-Nadrowski doesn’t reject money from developers.
“Sharon Nadrowski claims she rejects developer money and promotes greater transparency, but her campaign filings show she has received and continues to receive contributions tied to developers and development-related interests while taking a different position in her public messaging,” he said in a statement.
He added that he has been transparent about both his campaign and his contributions.
“I have a broad base of support that includes developers, along with many others,” he said.
“But I am not beholden to any contributor. I will hold all developers accountable to do what is right for the City of Bayonne and its residents. With me, what you see is what you get: no flip-flopping, no shell games, no convenient shifting of positions. That’s the kind of steady, accountable leadership I will bring to the city I care deeply about.”
The May 12th mayoral race also features city Business Administrator/Board of Education President Mary Jane Desmond, who has not opened an ELEC account, stating at the debate that any funds utilized by her and her three running mates will be from her own funds.
MJ had a fundraiser in March $1000 suggested donation… did no one show up??
Doesn’t matter if you’re using your own money it still has to be reported……….ELEC fine now!!
Did anyone go to this fundraiser.? And you must report this.