Carmelo Garcia Hosting Kids Party in Local Bar

Party on, kiddies.

Folks, this one floored me.  Are you ready?

Assembly candidate and Christie-endorser Carmelo Garcia will be hosting a graduation party at a local bar for Hoboken High School and Charter kids!

The other host is Garcia's BFF and bar-owner, Joe Branco, former campaign manager for losing BoE slate, Move Forward.  He announced the party at Tuesday night's School Board meeting.

You recall Move Forward hired a video truck to sit outside Wallace Primary School flashing swastikas. The offensive images were also flashed for hours up and down Washington Street; the truck was condemned by local rabbis and local media coined it 'The Nazi Truck'.  It was a huge disgrace and repudiated by voters at the polls when Move Forward was creamed by Kids First.  No one on Move Forward apologized nor publicly condemned the use of swastikas in a School Board campaign.

Ruben Ramos supported Move Forward- he attended fundraisers and loaned his Chief of Staff to the Campaign for "campaign design."  Ramos never publicly repudiated the use of swastikas in a School Board election, nor the Nazi Truck- by the campaign he supported. 

Why not?

 left: District 33 NJ State Assemblyman Ruben Ramos,  middle: Move Forward $300 disbursement to Ramos' Chief-of-Staff for "campaign design",   right: Move Forward's Nazi Truck on October 16, 2012 at Wallace School.

So, this party for kids is being hosted  by Assembly candidate and Ramos ally at a bar with the enticement of "free food, soda and juice". 

That's NOT okay.

Have the party in Romparoo or McDonald's playroom, not in a bar surrounded by alcohol and the enticement of returning with a fake ID.   Graduating High School is no rite of passage to the bar scene.

If I were a cynical gal, I'd say that this was a combination campaign event and business marketing for fresh-faced doe-eyed kids, some of legal voting age.

SOME.  I graduated High School at 17, one of my sisters graduated at 16.

Call me a square, but I don't approve of this, not at all.  You can dress up a pig, it's still a pig.  You can serve milk and cookies at a BAR, but it's still a bar.

What kind of message does this send to our kids?  

Does Brian Stack endorse kids' parties in bars?  

Does Ruben Ramos endorse kids' parties in bars?