You made the call
PBA GETS OUT THE VOTE
From Atlantic County to Woodbridge to Bergen County,
these accounts of NJ State PBA members’ efforts made on Election Day
showed how they were true Political Action heroes.
■ STORIES BY MITCHELL KRUGEL AND JOSHUA SIGMUND
■ PHOTOS BY JOHN HULSE AND ED CARATTINI JR.
A political action-packed Election Day actually accelerated
the night before when NJ State PBA President Pat Colligan wondered if the 70 devices reserved for the phone bank at The Forge
in Edison would be enough. So around 7 p.m., he called Executive
Vice-President, and Election Day Commander, Marc Kovar to see
about getting more.
“I was just thinking the same thing,” Kovar told Colligan. By 10
p.m. Kovar had another 40 units.
This was but one piece of overpowering evidence that the PBA
answered its call to political action on Election Day 2015 loud and
clear and full of impact and influence. From north to south and
everywhere in between, the PBA got out the vote and experienced
overwhelming success, not the least of which were victories by its
endorsed candidates in the tightly-contested 1st, 2nd and 38th
Legislative Districts.
“We can all hold our heads a little bit higher,” an exhausted but
exhilarated Kovar praised at the end of the 15-hour day. “Last year,
half of the legislators didn’t even know who we were. Now, everybody knows who we are.”
Indeed, the indicators that the PBA PAC Attack is in full force
abounded on Election Day.
In Egg Harbor Township, the Atlantic County Conference mustered an all-day phone bank to get out the vote that helped 2nd
District incumbent and PBA candidate Chris Brown get reelected.
At the State PBA Office, Retired Local 600 members packed the
conference room to make calls on behalf of Vince Mazzeo and
help him retain his 2nd District seat.
At The Forge in Woodbridge, where the PBA set up its central
phone bank to support efforts in key districts, all 110 phones were
deployed by 10:30 a.m. More than 250 members came from across
the state to lend a hand. Some members brought their kids. Woodbridge Local 38 had 92 of its members show up throughout the
day. Local 38 State Delegate Bruce Chester and Mercer County
Sheriff’s Local 187 State Delegate Pasquale Papero came even
though they had surgery the day before. And East Orange Local 16
State Delegate Elaine Settle came down on crutches.
As Democratic Party volunteer and Phone Bank consultant
Francisco Maldonado pointed out, “If we end up getting the
results we want, it will be in large part due to the men and women
in blue.”
In Paramus, the Bergen County Political Action Committee
brought more than 150 members to an Election Day rally that hit
the streets to get out the vote. Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto
was one of several elected officials who came to the rally and
addressed the members with his vote of confidence.
“We put a big footprint on the process today,” President Colligan observed. “When you have Prieto and other candidates showing up at an event, that’s being on the map.”
Colligan assessed that more than 30 Locals were represented
in all of the political action activities. As the day proceeded, Kovar
revealed that the Bergen County rally was the lead story at 6 p.m.
on the website PolitickerNJ.com. Just before 11 p.m., Colligan sent
out a text that PBA-endorsed candidates swept all their races.
“This was a groundbreaking event, history in the making,”
Kovar proclaimed. “It’s a whole new era, and if we keep this up, we
can become one of the most powerful groups in the state.” d
FOR DETAILS ON THE PBA’S ELECTION DAY ACTIONS, SEE PAGES 30-34
www.njcopsmagazine.com
■
NOVEMBER 2015
29