The “Sires Team for West New York” reported raising $91,500 with no expenditures to date in their April 18th filing with the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
The report says that $5,500 came from small donations of $300 or less and the rest, $85,950, were donations over the $300 threshold.
Black Bear Asset Management, based out of New York, New York, donated $3,000 on January 19th, with South Hackensack-based Boswell Engineering contributing $1,000 on January 24th.
County Commissioner Caridad Rodriguez, a longtime political ally of Sires, donated a total of $2,000, while state Senator Joe Cryan (D-20) wrote a check for $1,000, as did Hudson County Democratic Organization Chair Anthony Vainieri (from his campaign account).
Hudson County Sheriff Frank Schillari chipped in $500, as did Board of Education Trustee Marielka Diaz, one of Sires’ running mates, and the Hudson County Republican Party.
GOP Chair Jose Arango and Sires, who unsuccessfully ran for Congress as a Republican in 1986, have been friends for decades.
The largest contributor to the five-person slate was the Weehawken and You Action Committee, who gave $5,000 on March 10th. This was pretty expected, given that Weehawken Mayor Richard Turner is largely regarded as Sires’ right hand.
Right behind them is RSC Architects, out of Hackensack, who doled out $4,500 to the team, while the owners of Overlook Terrace South put in $4,000 to the cause.
Manny Diaz, a municipal employee and informal advisor to former Mayor Felix Roque, donated $1,000.
While Sires has fundraised for the West New York Democratic Committee, they don’t have any reports available on the NJ ELEC website as of this writing.
Additionally, the fact that there are no expenditures listed has to be an error, given that the Sires team has a campaign staff and has sent out several mailers indicating they were paid for by the slate.
Their opponents in the non-partisan May 9th race, “West New York Forward,” led by Public Affairs Commissioner Cosmo Cirillo, reported raising $96,075 with $53,105.28 cash on hand in their April 10th ELEC report.
