Candidate and Consultant Feud, Police Called
View Story On One Page
Print This Story
Share This Story
Not so much post-election etiquette on the South Shore of Staten Island, reports Tom Wrobleski:
Democrat Janine Materna’s campaign is considering suing its consulting firm, the Advance Group, for $1 million, and claimed that consultant Scott Levenson’s position with the controversial ACORN group was among the reasons Ms. Materna lost the South Shore City Council race.“It’s because of him that Janine lost the election,” said Jodi Materna, her sister’s campaign manager.
She said the campaign did not know of Levenson’s ACORN affiliation and if it had, “we never would have hired him.”
[skip]
Levenson said the campaign on Thursday paid him about $35,000, with $5,000 still owed. But Jodi Materna said Levenson is due nothing else and that some campaign costs are still “in dispute.”
The two sides had a heated meeting in Levenson’s Manhattan office on Thursday, with police eventually being called in. No arrests were made.
Said Levenson, “The lies and erratic behavior of the Materna family are nothing more than a scam to avoid paying their bills. It is an extreme case of sore loser.”
- More:
- Politics |
- Janin Materna |
- Janin Materna |
- Scott Levenson |
- Scott Levenson |
- Tom Wrobleski |
- Tom Wrobleski
Minus School Cuts, a Deal on the Deficit? 
Going to a Specialist 
New BusinessWeek Hires Old Broadcaster 
The Week in DVR: Ron Howard's Best, a Heavenly Father Goes Bad and Chefs Head to Napa! 
Box Office Breakdown: New Moon Narrowly Avoids Blind Side Hit 
Midtown, Schmidtown! Currency Trader FXDD Subleases 40K Feet in 7 WTC 
Jérôme Dreyfuss Seizes Great Recession With First U.S. Boutique 
Coach Savior Reed Krakoff to Debut Eponymous Line at 31 Madison 
Materna; Advanced Group Acorn Affiliation
All political insiders know which of these consultant groups are associated with ACORN. Ms. Materna would like us all to believe that she and her campaign efforts for City Council were victims of an ACORN affiliated consulting group? Be for real.
The fact is that just by sheer numbers, the incumbent won the City Council seat by landslide numbers. Look at the numbers and how unrealistic your efforts were in a clearly conservative borough. Why are we conservative? Because we don't believe in left-wing socialist behavior.
Not even Obama won this borough in 2008. Your numers and now your backpaddling, and hippocrisy brings you loss. Cut the crap you were in bed with the devil, pay the group and stop playing coy victims
What did you expect?
Did you see Materna and her sibs campaign across the island? C'mon, was it any wonder she got slaughtered? Levenson may have his issues as a consultant but Jesus himself couldn't have helped this flip-flopping, vacuous blonde as she tripped over her heels and her words wherever she went.
Ya lost. Suck it up, and move on. Run for Assembly or Senate or Congress next year and don't hire Scott.
Too Easy to Pass the Buck
These charges by Ms. Materna against Mr. Levenson are spurious. I know Mr. Levenson personally and have found him to be of the highest levels of integrity and political acumen after having done business with him several times. However, putting that aside, statistically there was NO WAY for Ms. Materna to win this election on the South Shore of Staten Island - one of the last true bastions of Republican ideology in the New York City area. Clearly, she is grasping at straws unsure of whom to blame for this loss.
It is outrageous that Ms. Materna claims she had no knowledge of Mr. Levenson's relationship with ACORN. Ms. Materna's lack of knowing that Mr. Levenson is affiliated with ACORN shows her poor understanding of NYC politics. And, if you understand politics that poorly, how can you even expect to win a race in a district where you are a huge underdog?
It's easy to blame others for your loss. However, I think Ms. Materna needs to understand the odds were stacked against her, she had a brilliant consultant who did the best he could and she should be grateful.