Hoboken 3rd Ward Councilman Mike Russo is calling out a 2nd Ward Councilwoman Tiffanie Fisher campaign staffer for a vandalism and potential mail theft incident that was caught on surveillance video yesterday, prompting her to fire him.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
“Since launching my candidacy for Mayor back in February, I’ve run a campaign of relentless positivity as promised. Unfortunately, sometimes you still have to address negative behavior,” Russo said in a statement.
“Yesterday afternoon, my campaign received security footage of criminality in Hoboken by someone apparently involved with one of my opponent’s campaigns.”
Russo explained that a man with a “Tiffanie Fisher for mayor” t-shirt ripped down a Russo for mayor sign on a building on Washington Street yesterday afternoon, as the surveillance video, embedded above, shows.
The man then opens a mailbox and removes what appeared to be campaign literature before putting it back and leaving abruptly as another man enters the vestibule.
” … Vandalism is a crime. Attempted mail theft is a felony. This conduct is disturbing. The property owner has filed a report with the Hoboken Police and will be notifying the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office and the US Postal Inspection Service,” Russo added.
“This is the consequence of petty, dirty campaigning: when your candidate does nothing but spew vitriol at others, it’s no surprise that someone would find lawbreaking acceptable to achieve their desired result.”
The Hudson County Prosector’s Office said they were not investigating the matter, while the Hoboken Police Department said the alleged victim filed a report in the matter, with city spokeswoman Marilyn Baer largely confirming the details that Russo released today.
She added that the incident occurred at approximately 1 p.m. on the 200 block of Washington Street yesterday and the Hoboken PD has an active investigation.
Anyone with information regarding this incident or the identity of the person of interest is asked to contact Officer Anthony Ingraffia of the Hoboken Police Department’s Detective Bureau at (201) 420-2100 ext. 3182 or via email at IngraffiaA@hobokenpdnj.gov.
Fisher offered Russo an apology and said that is not the type of campaign she has been running since March, and since she has zero tolerance for this sort of conduct, the staffer has been let go.
“I want to personally apologize to Councilman Russo and his campaign. What occurred was unacceptable and does not reflect the standards of my campaign. From day one, we’ve made it clear to every staff member and volunteer that we must treat every opponent and their supporters with respect,” she stated.
“There is zero tolerance for this kind of conduct. Our campaign is built on integrity, respect, and fair play, and we expect everyone representing us to uphold these values at all times. The individual involved has been removed from his role with the campaign.”
Neither the Russo or Fisher campaign commented on the identity of the man in the surveillance video, though he bears a resemblance to Al Benninghoff, who had been serving as Fisher’s campaign manager.
The two council members are among six candidates seeking to succeed Mayor Ravi Bhalla, now a Democratic nominee for the state Assembly in the 32nd Legislative District, in the non-partisan November 4th election.
But Ravi spread the racist fliers attributed them to Mike DeFusco and not only wasn’t prosecuted, but was elected mayor unceremoniously twice.
This is what you get in Hobken.
Law enforcement only uncovered that activity in Edison that year. But the players are connected.
Also, Russo walked away miraculously from all his deeds even seen on FBI video. http:russocorruption.com
Big Developers not named Solomon Dwek are behind Russo.
No one is actually buying this apology, are they? Councilwoman Fisher is the only candidate that is personally attacking individual candidates a la her newsletter about Councilman Russo and the mailer that we all just received that was a head to head with Councilwoman Jabbour. She’s intellectually dishonest in all of her campaign literature and she really needs to fact checked.
Not to mention the disgusting way she’s been using Jen Giattino’s name to gain favor in the 6th. Integrity, Respect and Fair Play are certainly not words that deserve to be associated with Tiffanie Fisher.
She’s right about one thing: Hoboken deserves better. But it certainly isn’t her.
Have a mailer from the Ruben Ramos campaign. He whacked every one of his council mayoral opponents who voted for the automated parking automation pilot study.
Ravi took it and changed it to ticketing against the public. That’s Ravi being Ravi. Ramos used it as a political tool even though no one voted for the pilot study in how Ravi abused it. That’s politics.
So much for your “attack” rant.
Nice try. Pointing out a candidate’s voting record isn’t a personal attack. Tiffanie also isn’t above personally attacking residents, that keyboard warrior is the Regina George of Hoboken. She has zero care for how the falsehoods she slings can impact someone’s reputation. It’s the reason a lot of good people stay on the sidelines. Their professional reputations are too important. But she wouldn’t understand. She’s unemployed.
I say tomato, you say tomatoe, such crybabies. When Tiffanie shows a contrast between her record vs. another’s, it’s the end of the world. When your candidate does it, hooray. You’re lame.
And whenever anyone calls Tiffanie out on her garbage it’s dismissed. Not a crybaby, just pointing out facts. Tiffanie spews lies and rarely gets called out. The irony of it, no one does for two reasons. She’s not worth giving more oxygen to and no one takes her seriously. #FourthPlaceTiff.
What disloyalty.
Taking down an opponent’s political ad posted on PRIVATE PROPERTY is the staffer’s JOB. What right did Russo have to plaster it on a multi-tenant building? Who gave Russo permission to put it there? The landlord? The tenants? Did anyone even ask them?
Fisher should have shown loyalty to her own campaign employee, she should have berated Russo for defacing private property without permission! Instead she threw her own person under the bus.
Fisher knows how the game is played in Hoboken. If she wanted to appear innocent, she could have reprimanded the guy instead of firing him. Now she has damaged his reputation for no particular reason and this has not helped her campaign . She could have made lemonade from lemons by kicking Russo, but instead she’s shown herself to be a disloyal boss.
Anyone old enough to remember Mikey’s father’s crew beating down a worker from an opposing campain on also Washington Street ?
That is Fisher’s campaign manager, Al Benninghoff. Given that she purposefully did not reveal this fact, she is not as honest as she projects herself to be. She should say the truth, but won’t, and that’s what Hoboken voters can expect from her.
Typical politician. The long written apology is theater.
He wasn’t indicted or filed for bankruptcy
Tiffanie thinks she can outsmart everyone into believing she’s honest. Her campaign fliers claim she founded the Community Panty and the HBA, she didn’t. She was a founding member (with others) at best. That’s intellectual dishonesty.
Of all the candidates, she’s the ONLY one who has NEVER served as Council President. That is VERY telling. She can’t get people to mobilize around her because she can’t be trusted. Don’t even get me started on her pick of Dave Mello – most pathetic at large candidate on the ballot. Let’s remember Ravi didn’t want him in 2017 and he came in 14th place running on Stick’s ticket. Tiffanie thought he was a good pick? Shows a real lapse in her judgement.
P.S. And if you think that apology was long for Tiffanie, you clearly don’t know her (or her newsletters). If she was a person of true moral character, she’d put out her apology statement on her social platforms addressing this. But she has no integrity and this proves it.
Tiff can’t play nice with others, she feigns friendship then threatens. Heard she threatened Mike DeFusco after he spoke and endorsed Ramos and his slate.
Minutes later Tiffany texted him and POOF! DeFusco fled the country?
You heard? LOL!
Not very good judgement for a big exec CFO
To be clear, “FORMER CFO”. She’s been unemployed for over a decade. She’ll need the Mayor’s salary unlike Dini, who has significant financial experience and won’t be taking a salary.
Ha, positive campaign? Very funny. Russo has a huge (financial) benefactor who threatened people at the OLG debate. Is Russo going to return the money and cut the guy loose?
What is it about that ward that creates so many power hungry EX executives with a blood thirst for Mayor?
The smears, vicious mailers , self funding and malicious sign tera downs by Legendary evil Ms Mason and now Ms Tiff?
The Parallels are uncanny
All (or most) campaigns remove each other’s lit- from windshield wipers, door knobs, utility poles, bus shelters, etc. IMO, it serves the public good because campaigns never pick up or take down their crap after election day. These materials pollute our streets, lobbies, walls & parks.
The difference here is one got caught– a seasoned operative like AB should have known better as most lobbies have security cams. IMO, this is unfortunate for him, and Fisher, and she has to cut him off. The pearl-clutching is silly, but that’s Hoboken!
Team Tiff’d are safe removing fliers from car windows that is not illegal, but Removing signs from inside a private residence is theft as well as trespassing, looking in private mailboxes and touching or sifting through a persona mailbox , open or not is a crime.
Just because the keys are in the car doesn’t mean you’re entitled to take the car…
If this happened to team Tiff’d she would be losing her mind and calling the FBI.
Looks like campaign crap dumped in an open mailbox. Removing crap dumped in a mailbox that is not actually mail, is not “tampering with mail”- it’s removing litter before it falls all over the floor and get left there for posterity.
I’d love to see Tiff’s rabbit mailer. I love animals.
Several threads to reconcile here.
1) Fisher says the responsible party has been “removed from his role.”
2) It’s stated that he looks like her campaign manager.
3) It’s stated that HPD is looking for information.
If 2 is correct, does this mean Fisher fired her campaign manager? That seems newsworthy.
If 1 is correct, Fisher knows the perp. Why are the police looking for him?
Well Tiffanie is a liar so let’s not assume #1 is true.
This all seems petty compared to when Mayor Zimmer posted video of Councilman Michael Russo’s infamous Big Sting lunch with Solomon Dweck were Russo and his henchman laid out the amount and details how they wanted to paid.
If I remember correctly the henchman was convicted and somehow Russo walked away. Many wondered how that happened.
The video has to be around on the net.
http://www.TiffanieFisher.com
Tiffanie Fisher is a typical narcissist. She wants the authority of a tyrant but the accountability of an infant. Life always cuts people like her down to size.