OPINION

Mysterious Candidates

"And liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people ... of the characters and conduct of their rulers."

John Adams (1765)

It is an outrage in our democracy that there are not stricter regulations for candidates for public office. How are voters supposed to make an educated decision about candidates, if we do not have laws to enforce full disclosure? All candidates should fully disclose their financials, credit status, and personal and professional history. If they are naturalized citizens they should also disclose their INS records, alien number, when they became a citizen, and how they entered this country – legally or illegally? Voters should know if they entered the country on a tourist visa or an employment visa? And if they have more than one social security number, how were they used and why? Were they used to get a job? Or to get a credit card? Or both?

The Press and the media are restricted from these records, which is preposterous in our blessed country where secrecy should not exist for political candidates, who voluntarily choose to enter a public life. The Social Security Administration does not release any information to the Press about candidates, nor do the credit agencies Equifax, Experian (formerly TRW) or Trans Union.

As a small example of the weak laws stated above, the voters of Englewood’s first ward are facing the unknown: an enigmatic independent candidate. Independent from what? Dependant on whom? Because of the lack of regulations in this area, the majority of the voters in the first ward will not know much about this mysterious candidate as they go to the polls – except what he chooses to reveal. I wonder how many other voters across the nation are in the same position. How unfortunate for all of us.

All the majority of voters will know about this candidate is that he is an auto mechanic who lives on West Hamilton Ave. between Engle St. and Tenafly Road and that he has a judgment entered against him by the Englewood Hospital and Medical Center, which is located in the first ward, the same ward where he is running for City Council. This is a part of this candidate’s public record, as well as a judgment entered by BCL Automotive against him and his business, Englewood Precision Auto, which appears to have been located at his residential address.

Little else is known about this mysterious candidate. Voters do not know his educational background: Where did he go to school? Where did he go to college? Where and when was he born? Why did he leave his country? Some people say he is from the island of Trinidad. Others think he is from Tobago or some other place in the Caribbean.

There is a famous phrase Trust but Verify. How? When? Where? From the very little that is known about this mysterious candidate, more questions arise. How is it possible that a candidate that cannot manage his own finances could have a capability to make crucial financial decisions with millions of taxpayers’ dollars? How is it possible that this mysterious candidate had the funds to pay for many hours of time of a well-known attorney in Hackensack, who usually bills his services at $200 an hour? If this enigmatic candidate had the funds to pay this attorney’s fees, why didn’t he pay his debt to Englewood Hospital? Unless someone else paid his lawyer’s fees as a defendant in a long case that Councilman Doug Bern brought against him, questioning how he obtained fifty-four signatures on his petition and having the wrong form. In the court records of those proceedings, which are public records, we learned that this mysterious candidate has an expensive campaign manager by the name of David Seville. How can he afford him?

At the end, it is the voters who are left in the dark. Who could vote for such a mysterious candidate? Perhaps those with a political agenda to destroy the first ward? Or those naïve enough to believe that by voting for this mystery candidate they can change the city government for the better?

Of course our city government could change, but most likely for the worst. Why? Because we are dealing with the unknown. I wish that the laws on disclosure for political candidates would change. I am a firm believer that the public has a right to know who they are voting for, from the President and U.S. Senators, all the way down to the very first step of the ladder.

Is it better to live with what we know than to play chemist and discover a deadly formula that explodes in your hands? Is this what we want in these dangerous times?

This time, as a voter, the choice is yours. I hope that you will make a sound and wise decision. I made mine: Doug Bern.

Eugenia Vogel

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