HOBOKEN CITIZENS ORGANIZATION

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Hoboken Citizens Organization
Forum for Candidates
in June 10, 2003 Ward Council Run-Off Elections

Fellow Citizens of Hoboken:

The Hoboken Citizens Organization (HCO) is sponsoring a Forum for Candidates who are running in the June 10, 2003 Ward Council Run-Off Elections.

In a letter to the May 25, 2003 Hoboken Reporter entitled "How to Level the Playing Field", we suggested a simple procedure for insuring that all the voters received information about all candidates: we recommended that along with the sample ballot, the City of Hoboken mail a “candidates’ statements” document to each voter containing a statement from each candidate running in the election.  This would insure that each and every candidate could communicate information to each and every voter, so that voters could make an informed choice on election day.  This was our suggestion to level the playing field and minimize the enormous money advantage that some candidates enjoy in order to permit a fair election.

In our May 21, 2003 statement to the Hoboken City Council, we proposed that they implement this “level playing field” procedure in the June 10, 2003 runoff election.  None of them showed any interest in pursuing it.

Since the Mayor and Council are not prepared to distribute candidates’ statements, the HCO is providing a neutral “Candidates' Forum” here on our website.  We have invited each run-off candidate to participate in this forum by emailing his/her candidate statement of up to 1500 words to us here at symbitar@aol.com.

Each candidate's statement that we receive will be posted unedited and without commentary.  We are encouraging candidates to include contact information and website links so that the citizens of Hoboken can access additional information on their candidacy.

We feel that this public and impartial Candidates' Forum conveys an enormous benefit to both the candidates and the voting public, since it provides, for the first time, a universally accessible place for all candidates to communicate with all voters.  The impartiality and neutrality implicit in providing this forum necessitates that the HCO will not endorse any candidate in the June 10th runoff election.

Voters and other interested persons may access the HCO Candidates' Forum through the following link:

Those who wish to access the HCO Main Web Page, which contains our platform, discussions of the issues, and HCO candidates' biographical information, may do so here:

If you are interested in finding out more about the HCO, please contact us.

Thank you for visiting our website.

Cheryl Fallick
Alice C. Misiewicz
Daniel Tumpson

Hoboken Citizens Organization

contact:
phone:  201-217-3456
e-mail:  symbitar@aol.com