A Washington, D.C.-based super PAC has come out against Bayonne Mayor Jimmy Davis with a new website and attack ad referring to him as “Dirty Davis.”
“Mayor Dirty Jimmy Davis is Failing the Citizens of Bayonne. Increased crime. Higher taxes. Skyrocketing water bills. Dirty streets. Poor leadership,” the website says.
“Dirty Davis’ administration has been fraught with scandal and failure since the beginning. From abuse allegations to sweetheart deals with big developers, Dirty Davis is steering Bayonne down a dark, dirty road. And he’s taking us with him.”
The 30-second digital ad, which is the only video uploaded to the Mockingbird Strategies YouTube page, says that Davis’ administration has allowed and/or caused dirty streets, behavior, and politics.
The chief elected executive of the Peninsula City, who took office in 2014 after unseating Mark Smith, is criticized for the city sanitation contract being granted to a donor (though the city said the donation was later rescinded), as well as for lawsuits alleging gender discrimination and sexting a subordinate.
“Tell Jimmy Davis to stop making Bayonne dirty,” the video concluded, urging constituents to call his office at 201-858-6010.
The ad was paid for by the Citizens for Strength & Security Fund, which was registered out of DC in 2011 and had been dormant since 2013. No one answered an office line linked to their address back in 2011 on Monday.
“The organization’s mission is to promote social welfare that will lead to a fiscally responsible government, economic development, and job creation in the United States,” their original mission statement from a decade ago says.
When Mockingbird Strategies was reached over the phone, they said that “we were just contracted out from them” and had no additional information to provide.
Adding further intrigue to the matter is the fact that a video truck drove around the parking lot of the Homecoming high school football game, playing the aforementioned video on a loop.
Davis spokesman Phil Swibinski said that Bayonne residents should be “disturbed and outraged” that a dark money PAC is perpetuating falsehoods about the mayor and the city.
“Every Bayonne resident should be disturbed and outraged by this dark money, Washington DC-based super PAC that is swooping in to Bayonne to lie about Mayor Davis and trash the city’s reputation,” he said in a statement.
” … The truth is that under Mayor Davis’ leadership Bayonne is thriving with an incredibly successful revitalization plan and the city is poised to emerge from the pandemic in a stronger position than ever before. Bayonne residents see the progress happening in their city every day and the leadership that Mayor Davis continues to show and they will not be swayed by these dishonest attacks from a dark money, power hungry, out of town group that clearly knows nothing about their city.”
Peter Franco, a longtime political adversary of the Davis administration who says that he helped produce the digital ad and coordinate getting the video truck to the homecoming game, questioned what lies were being spread.
“It’s doesn’t matter how the mayor’s out-of-town political firm spins it, Bayonne residents aren’t blind. They can see dirty streets, dirty behavior and dirty politics. It is a fact that Mayor Davis gave a political donor a multi-million dollar garbage contract,” he told HCV.
“It is a fact, that the mayor Is facing multiple lawsuits for sexual harassment and sexting. What’s the mayor upset about? That someone is pointing out truths about our city?”
Davis is seeking a third term in the non-partisan municipal elections in May 2022.
At the moment, he has no declared challengers, though many are expecting him to face off with Council President Sharon Nadrowski – who successfully ran with Davis in 2014 and 2018.
Even without announcing his ticket, the retired Bayonne police captain has already secured a couple high-profile labor endorsements.
Furthermore, while the election is still eight months away, Davis is evidently already getting a team together.
Vision Media (Swibinski’s firm), who are currently working on Mayor Steven Fulop’s re-election bid, appears poised to serve as his campaign spokesman, while “bipartisan political consulting firm” Scorpion Consulting is doing his fundraising.
