Sharpton skipping Sharon's campaign event

Robinson-Briggs has invited popular MSNBC journalist
Rev. Al Sharpton to her illegal campaign event.

The Rev. Al Sharpton will not be making an appearance at Plainfield Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs' hastily organized, poorly publicized and illegal campaign event slated for Friday evening at Washington Community School, according to a source.

The event, which Robinson-Briggs is trying to disguise as a 'community forum' first came to public attention at last Sunday's NAACP candidate forum and was reported by Bernice.

Though Robinson-Briggs has taken great pains to make sure the event is clearly NOT city-sponsored (no use of the city seal or listing of the city as a sponsor), there are clear indications that is is a CAMPAIGN EVENT and not a true community forum.

Consider these facts --

• The title: 'Partnerships, Priorities and Progress for Plainfield' echoes Robinson-Briggs Primary Election slogan;
  
  
• The only 'hosts' are mayoral candidate Robinson-Briggs and PMUA employee Kim Montford, who is running on the same slogan as Robinson-Briggs for a Ward 1 committee seat';
  
  
• A community videographer has been denied permission to tape the meeting, though it is supposedly 'public'.

As a partisan political campaign event, the meeting would not be allowed on public school property, suggesting that Mayor Robinson-Briggs is trying to flim-flam the school district.

My source suggests that Robinson-Briggs did not inform Sharpton that this was an illegal campaign event, nor that the circumstances surrounding his prior visit at her invitation (the $20,000 WBLS matter) led to an investigation of her conduct with regard to its financing, and that the Attorney General's office has yet to exonerate her from any criminal liability in the matter.

Meanwhile, Sharpton's situation has changed greatly since 2010, when he was spent a few minutes at a true community forum (councilors and other mayors were present as participants). Sharpton has since become a popular journalist with MSNBC, which jealously guards the purity of its brand and would likely look askance at such damaged goods as Robinson-Briggs.

So, one of Robinson-Briggs' last hopes for generating any forward momentum in her re-election campaign may come to naught.

Would anyone be surprised?

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-- Dan Damon [follow]

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