The Friends of the New Hoboken High School spent $31,856.76 on the January 25th school referendum, going $25,501.06 into debt, according to their February 16th filing with the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission.
FNHHS Treasurer Laura Block said that although the report indicates debt, they actually have a positive balance of $2.692.57.
Labor union 32BJ SEIU donated $1,500 on Election Day, with Mayor Ravi Bhalla’s Election Fund chipping in $500 on January 12th, and Councilman-at-Large Jim Doyle donating the same amount the following day, the report says.
Councilman-at-Large Joe Quintero also put $500 towards the cause on January 12th.
Jim Kocis gave $3,000 on January 21st, with the New Jersey Education Association PAC writing a check for $5,000 on the same day.
The Connecticut-based Mission Control, which was utilized by Team Bhalla last year, was paid a total $18,193.40 for direct mail, palm cards, and campaign stickers.
Horowitz Associates, run by Rob Horowitz, who serves as a spokesman for Bhalla, received $6,000 on Election Day to perform robocalls.
Additionally, Veracity Media, a company out of Washington, D.C., also received $4,000 for internet advertising on January 18th.
Their efforts were largely for naught though, as the referendum was defeated by a roughly 2-to-1 margin.
The no effort, which included registered Democrats, independent, and Republican voters, haven’t filed any ELEC reports as of yet, though Jerome Abernathy told HCV last month that he estimated their coalition spent around $6,000.
Hoboken Republican Party Chair Joe Branco said today that their group spent about $1,500 on the election, largely going towards window signs and flyers.
Correction: An early version of this story gave provided the wrong number for expenditures.