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BACK IN THE DAY - 10/12/2008
(by Bryan La Placa - Web Editor and Argus Managing Editor - October 15, 2008)
Campaign stunts, gun rights, and voter fraud
NORTH JERSEY – Here’s a look at what was published in Suburban Trends in early October over the years.
Oct. 10, 1963 – On the record, literally
Remember in 1988 when McDonald’s launched an ad campaign where it put 80 million little square vinyl records in newspapers for people to listen to at home to find out if they’d won $1 million?
No? Well anyway, a Wayne political candidate was ahead of his time when he used similar strategy about 25 years beforehand in 1963 to promote his campaign.
A 45-RPM record, entitled “Walt Hoffmann Goes On Record,” was being mailed out to every registered voter in Wayne’s second ward by the namesake Ward 2 Democratic candidate for council.
“According to the record, this novelty in the history of political campaigning was made to help the voters decide how to vote in the coming election. Hoffman says, ‘If I am elected, you will also be able to play this record again to verify the fact that I am a candidate who carries out his commitments,’” it was reported.
On the record, Hoffmann discussed the major issues in the political campaign.
The B-side of the record was entitled “The Other Side of Walt Hoffmann – as seen by Charles Seifried and Lorraine Clark.”
Clark was Hoffmann’s campaign manager and Seifried was president of the Second Ward Democratic Club.
Hoffmann’s campaign was ultimately successful and he served on the council until 1971.
By the way, no one reportedly ever won that McDonald’s record contest, and I apparently scoured Dumpsters for records and wore out the needle on my Mickey Mouse record player for nothing.
Oct. 10, 1963 – Guns n’ more guns
Kids were using a big anti-tank gun at the Cherry Ridge Rifle Range in the Highland Lakes section of Vernon Township, and it had police concerned.
State police came to the shooting range around 9:30 on a Saturday night to investigate a complaint “of a suspicious weapon being used.”
Officials said they questioned three youths from Teaneck at the rifle range that is just over the border from West Milford Township. The youths reportedly had “a small arsenal in weapons and ammunition.”
Involved were Robert A. Young Jr., 21; his brother Warren B., 17; and Richard C. Breunich, 21, who was a senior at Fairleigh Dickinson University.
According to Trooper Ernest Seremi, the young men were firing a Lahti L-39 20 mm Anti-Tank Cannon (misreported as a LAKTI 20 in the source article). This big gun is a Finnish anti-tank rifle used during the Second World War (the Fins gave the Russians a helluva fight back then). The gun is more than 7 feet long.
Seremi said the boys also had German war helmets “and other items of battle dress.”
Their other guns included rifles and revolvers from all over the world that I won’t repeat because Suburban Trends has been known to get the names and specifications of guns wrong in these old articles, and my gun enthusiast dad calls me out when I repeat the mistakes.
The boys also had homemade pipe bombs and an assortment of fireworks.
Even though the big Finnish gun was intimidating, the boys apparently owned it legally, having paid $90 (about $600 in today’s money) to buy it at a Bergen County gun show.
It was suspected that the boys and their big guns were behind a prior act of destruction at the range while it was closed when a powerful weapon fired a bullet that passed through a building and into the engine of a bulldozer.
State police were conducting tests to see if the big Finnish gun was the culprit.
The boys, all members of the National Rifle Association, were reportedly on the range without the owner’s knowledge.
Authorities said that the boys’ familiarity with the weapons was remarkable, but they impounded the Lahti and the explosives. None of the youths were charged with anything at the time, but police continued their investigation.
Oct. 10, 1963 – Dr. Awesome
After crashing his ambulance, a doctor directed two good Samaritans on how to render him first aid.
Dr. Arthur Zampella, a 46-year-old West Milford physician, suffered a broken left leg and multiple cuts and bruises when his Idylease Convalescent Home ambulance crashed around 1 on a Tuesday morning on Route 23.
Dr. Zampella was returning to West Milford from his private practice in Jersey City when the ambulance ran off the highway and plunged into a ditch.
He directed the emergency splinting of his broken leg by two unidentified passersby. He was taken to Pequannock’s Chilton Memorial Hospital by a Butler First Aid Squad ambulance.
Oct. 10, 1973 – Porno for publicity
The Wayne Township Council was considering an ordinance to ban pornographic publications and movies within the municipality.
The ordinance was introduced successfully with only Councilman Leonard Pine voting against it.
Violators of the ordinance faced a $500 fine and/or 90 days in jail. The proposed law was sought by members of Operation Groundswell, a community group that opposed the showing of X-rated movies in Wayne.
Mayor Newton Miller said that it was about time that such an ordinance was introduced, but owed the timing to the upcoming election.
I am not sure how this particular ordinance fared, but proposed laws like this one almost always get shot down eventually. Wayne currently does not have a pornography ban law on the books.
Oct. 8, 1978 – Vote early, and vote often
These days, the ailing John McCain presidential campaign is throwing wild haymakers in a desperate attempt to avoid an embarrassing loss next month. One of these last-ditch efforts among McCain supporters is criticizing ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) – an international advocacy organization for poor people – that has been accused of committing voter registration fraud to favor Barack Obama.
This sort of thing is nothing new. Indeed, the phrase “Vote early, and vote often” is attributed to either Chicago gangster Al Capone or Chicago mayors Richard J. Daley and William Hale Thompson decades ago.
In 1978, we took a look at just how easy it was to commit voter registration fraud as the state considered making the process even easier.
Following the June primaries, two Montville Township High School students, ages 15 and 16, conducted a test of the proposed “instant” voter registration process. Both students visited the township clerk in charge of registration and asked to register to vote.
They came with identification, but were not asked to provide any by the clerk. Birth certificates, Social Security cards, and driver’s licenses were not required as proof of age or residence.
The students, who requested to remain unnamed, said they were shocked at the ease with which they were able to register. Their intention was to test the registration procedure and find out what type of identification was needed.
They wanted to find if proof of age and address were required to register to vote in the November elections. They thought the clerk would question them about their ages and subsequently find out that they were teenagers, but no such inquiries were made.
The students felt the real proof of the failed system came when they both received voter registration cards in the mail from the Morris County Board of Elections.
The students made it clear in talking to us that it was not their intention to use the registration cards to vote in November, nor to use the cards for any other purpose. They tried to prove this by mailing their voter registration cards back to the Board of Elections via certified mail.
They said their only aim was to test the process of registration and to find out if there was adequate prevention against fraudulent voter registration.
Clerks in neighboring towns all denied that registering to vote would be so easy in their jurisdictions.
There were mixed reviews among local politicians about the proposal to make registering to vote easier in New Jersey.
Congresswoman Rosemarie Totaro (D-23) said she was “basically in favor of the bill of having more people participate, and if this is going to be a vehicle, then it’s fine with me.
“If you’re in the political arena or very active in politics, you are aware an election is coming. If you are John Doe living in a community, involved in your own complex life, it doesn’t dawn until perhaps 10 days before there is an election,” said Totaro. “That’s when they become aware of it and that’s when they want to vote. And that is the need for a vehicle such as this.”
Totaro said, “Maybe we are making things complicated for individuals to exercise their voting power. (This proposed bill) is an attempt to make things simpler for people so they can vote.”
Then came a magical quote from Totaro: “As far as fraudulent voting is concerned, I don’t look at politics as a vehicle for corruption.”
When the easier registration bill first reached the Senate, Sen. James P. Vreeland (R-24) stated that he had voted against the bill.
There is “a great deal of chance for fraud. I didn’t like the bill,” he said.
He felt there was some question of fraud and there was the possibility of someone registering to vote more than once by traveling from district to district.
“Why is it necessary to do these things? If a person wants to vote, why is it such a difficult thing to register?” Vreeland asked. “It’s a privilege to vote. I see no reason why we have to keep on trying to entice people to vote and to register. Isn’t it enough that we have to make all these little concessions? Isn’t it something that we ought to cherish? It’s a privilege that we have — some countries don’t have it.
“If people don’t want to take an interest in government, have no desire to do it and feel they don’t want to vote, that’s too bad. I feel sorry for those people,” Vreeland commented. “I just can’t understand why it is so imperative that we make it so easy for people to vote. They have plenty of time to do it.”
Congressman Dean Gallo (R-24) stood just as firmly against the bill and labeled it “instant fraud.” He said there were “ample avenues and opportunities” to register without instant voter registration.
He stressed that he felt there was “every opportunity made to simplify the registration” already, and that the proposed bill would promote a “tremendous amount of fraud.”
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