Verizon campaign raises questions

Verizon campaign raises questions
Tuesday, January 24, 2006

By JEFF PILLETS
TRENTON BUREAU

Edward J. McKenna Jr., mayor of Red Bank for the past 16 years, thought he had seen just about everything.

But that was before the unsigned letters started pouring into his office last fall.

"All unsigned, all from the same fax machine, all supporting more competition in cable television," McKenna said. "It was very suspicious, so I decided to check them out.''

McKenna found out that more than 100 of some 200 letters he received were sent from non-existent Red Bank addresses. When he called about a dozen people whose names were on the letters, about half told him they had never heard of the campaign for cable choice and had never sent him a letter.

"I was stunned,'' McKenna said. "Who would be irresponsible enough to send out letters in someone's name without their permission?''

Officials at Verizon, the telephone company behind the statewide letter-writing effort, are now asking the same question as one lawmaker calls for a probe and evidence mounts that the phone company's "grass-roots" campaign for cable franchise reform is not exactly what it appears.

Verizon spokesman Richard Young said the company is undertaking an "internal investigation" to find out how so many bugs apparently invaded its computer-driven media campaign. He said company records show only 27 official e-mails were sent to Red Bank from a Web site set up by Verizon, TVChoiceNJ.com.

"Our records show only a few dozen letters going to the mayor of Red Bank," Young said. "If he says he got 200, something is wrong somewhere and we're going to find out where.''

Earlier this month, The Record reported the stories of several people who said they were stunned to find themselves unwitting recruits in Verizon's drive to change New Jersey's 30-year-old cable television laws. Cynthia Santomauro of North Caldwell said Verizon had even fabricated phony stationery to make it appear her letter to local officials was a personalized note.

Since then, a handful of others have come forward to say that Verizon has sent letters in their name without their permission. The Record has also found other holes in Verizon's "grass-roots" campaign:

In October, a "news flash'' on Verizon's TVChoice Web site claimed that the Bergen County town of Westwood had approved a resolution supporting more cable competition.
Borough Clerk Eileen Sarubbi said Westwood had actually passed a resolution supporting the old cable laws. Verizon said the news flash was an error that was corrected within 48 hours.

A group that calls itself "New Jersey Consumers for Cable Choice" would not exist if it were not for continued cash infusions from Verizon. The group's executive director, Rachel Holland, a self-described Democratic operative and former aide to Gov. James E. McGreevey, said in an interview last week that the group "probably couldn't survive" without Verizon.
Young, the Verizon spokesman, said he would not discuss how much beyond an initial $75,000 in "seed money" that Verizon had given to the New Jersey group and its parent organization.

Verizon's media campaign in New Jersey was designed, in part, by a onetime aide to then-Gov. Richard Codey. The aide played a key role in yet another deceptive public relations campaign last spring.
Mark Matzen, a former deputy chief of staff for Codey, designed and commissioned a March 2005 poll by the Civil Society Institute of Massachusetts showing that most New Jerseyans supported Codey's plan to finance stem-cell research. The poll was published without saying that it had been paid for by money from a special fund controlled by the Governor's Office.

Pete Cammarano, a former top aide to Codey, said last week that neither he nor Codey were aware the special fund was used to finance the poll. Codey, he said, was upset when he found out.

"Obviously the fund was not designed to be used like that, although it was not illegal,'' Cammarano said. "If the governor had known, it would have been disclosed.''

Matzen, in an interview Monday, said he was hired by Verizon at the request of its chief lobbyist, Harold Hodes, to offer strategic advice about the media campaign. He said he told the company to target municipal officials who would play a large part in deciding the fate of Verizon's proposals.

Matzen said he was not aware of any deliberate attempts to fabricate letters. He added, however, that the campaign had "something screwy" in its Web site that probably resulted in many errors. He also said workers at a Verizon information booth in Atlantic City were beset by computer problems and were responsible for "improperly signing people up" for the campaign.

"Things were very screwed up, but I can't say there was any purposeful deception,'' he said.

Matzen acknowledged making "a personal faux pas" in the stem-cell poll. He said that he had contacted the Massachusetts polling group in an attempt to "get some traction" for Codey's stem cell initiative, and requested money from the fund to pay "to find out what New Jersey's value are on stem cells.''

He said he did not tell Cammarano or Codey that the public money would be used for a poll.

"That should have been disclosed, and that is my fault,'' said Matzen, who left Verizon several weeks ago and is now employed by MWW, the politically connected public relations firm in Secaucus.

Verizon is in the midst of a multimillion dollar effort to build a fiber-optic network throughout the state. Lines have been built in a number of communities. Last fall, the company advanced legislation that would essentially grant it a statewide franchise to bring cable television and other fiber optic services to scores of cities and towns across New Jersey.

But firms such as Comcast and Cablevision, which together control 92 percent of the state's cable market, say such a law upends the state's 30-year tradition of local control over cable television. They say Verizon is free to compete for contracts town by town just as they have over the years.

Verizon officials suggest that questions about the phone company's media campaign are being fueled by frustrated cable executives who know their New Jersey monopoly is ending. They point out that the cable companies and their lobbyists are also spending millions on their own media campaign, polling and grass-roots advocacy.

"This is all about the cable industry running scared,'' said Young. "They know that there is enormous public support for ending their monopoly. People in New Jersey want choice and they know it, so they are doing anything they can to stop what's coming.''

Assemblyman John Rooney, a Republican, calls himself an avowed "enemy of Comcast" and says he is the biggest supporter of cable choice in New Jersey. But he says that his office has also been beset by the Verizon media campaign.

"Many of the letters received in my office were known to me either as current or retired Verizon employees and certainly were not from 'unbiased sources,'Ÿ" said Rooney, who is also the mayor of Northvale.

Rooney, who said he is especially troubled by reports that Verizon used people's names without their permission, plans to introduce a resolution calling for the state attorney general to investigate.

"Has Verizon committed mail fraud?" Rooney said. "Is Verizon secretly ... funneling money through a front group? Has New Jersey Consumers for Cable Choice violated state law by failing to disclose their funding?

"These are the crucial questions for which we must demand answers.''


Copyright © 2006 North Jersey Media Group Inc.
Copyright Infringement Notice User Agreement & Privacy Policy