Press Release 8/7/03

For Immediate Release Contact: Rich Falco
Date: August 7, 2003 rich@ringdems.org

Holt Admits Local GOP Conducted Poll
“I DIDN’T KNOW” SAID MAYOR HOLT

(Ringwood)—At first, Mayor Jerry Holt denied local Republicans were behind a recent telephone poll conducted in the Borough of Ringwood last week. The poll created much concern among residents due to the nature of the questions and the secretive nature of the poll’s origin. But as revealed by Holt in a recent Record article, the poll was conducted by fellow Ringwood Republican Councilman Scott Heck.

The very first question in the poll asked Ringwood residents their opinion of Skylands CLEAN, an environmental group based in town. A Democratic candidate for council, Joanne Atlas, is an active member of the group. Atlas commented: “I think there is something weird about calling your neighbors and posing as a professional polling organization. Several people were caught off guard because the callers identified themselves as National Voter Research in Trenton. This shows the Republican Council candidates plan a negative attack on CLEAN during the campaign and want to make sure it won’t backfire. It’s a smart move politically if this was a national election. But this is a local election and deceiving your neighbors is a pretty nasty thing to do.”

“What I don’t understand is why they couldn’t identify themselves while they were conducting the poll and why they didn’t own up to it right away. Why did they hide behind a veil of deception? What were they trying to conceal?” asked Rich Falco, President of the Ringwood Democratic Organization.

“It is also very odd that Mayor Holt, who is leading their ticket, didn’t know about it. How can he run Ringwood when he doesn’t even know what’s going on in his own campaign? And who is really making the decisions over there? If the supposed head of the Republican ticket doesn’t even know about a major campaign operation, he must be following orders from someone”, said Falco. “Does this mean someone tells him how to vote on council decisions as well?”

The poll also asked whom the voter was supporting in both the local and county races. “That’s another disturbing issue”, said Falco. “The county Republicans denied knowing anything about the poll. Then we find out that the local Republican party was asking questions about the county races, and we’re expected to believe that there was no communication between the two. Something is fishy about this whole thing.”

“If they would have come to me, I could have saved them a lot of money. I would have told them that most people in town have a favorable opinion of Skylands CLEAN and that most people care about open space, quality of life, and fiscal responsibility,” Falco added. “If Mayor Holt and the Republican candidates were really in touch with Ringwood residents, they wouldn’t need to conduct a poll to know that.”

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