Belmar Democrats fined by Election Law Enforcement Commission

The Belmar Democratic Committee and the committee’s former chairman and treasurer, Luis B. Pulido, were fined a total of $1,972.18 by the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission for late disclosure reports from 2012 and 2013, according to a Final Decision posted of the commission’s website this morning.

On July 11, 2018, the commission issued a complaint charging that the Belmar Democrats and Pulido with six counts of late and incomplete reports for 2012 and 2013.

Read the rest of this entry »

• Tweet

Curley says he won’t challenge Kiley in the primary, might run as an Independent

Disgraced Freeholder John Curley told The Asbury Park Press that he will not be a candidate for the Republican nomination for freeholder in the June 5 primary.   The Monmouth Republican County Committee, the grassroot volunteers who Curley called a “political machine” and “Club Monmouth,” endorsed Hazlet Deputy Mayor Sue Kiley for the nomination on Saturday morning at a convention at iPlayAmerica in Freehold.

Read the rest of this entry »

• Tweet

Howard Birdsall Pleads Guilty To Pay To Play Crimes

Howard Birdsall, 72 of Brielle, pleaded guilty today to corporate misconduct for his role in a criminal scheme in which more than $1 million in corporate political contributions were illegally made through employees of his now defunct engineering firm, Birdsall Services Group, in violation New Jersey’s pay-to-play law, according to an announcement by the NJ Attorney General’s Office.

Under the plea agreement, the state will recommend that Birdsall be sentenced to four years in state prison. He also must pay $49,808 to the state, representing forfeiture of the political contributions that he made on behalf Birdsall Services Group that were reimbursed by the firm. He is scheduled to be sentenced on April 22.

“As the CEO and largest shareholder of Birdsall Services Group, Howard Birdsall reaped major profits from the millions of dollars in public contracts his firm secured each year – contracts that should have been off limits based on the illegal campaign contributions made by the firm,” said Acting Attorney General Hoffman. “This plea should serve as a warning to any corporate officials who would engage in this type of criminal scheme to skirt our pay-to-play law and skew public contracting in their favor.”

Read the rest of this entry »

• Tweet

Democrats spent $1.5 million to defeat Angelini and Casagrande

Assembly Members-elect Eric Houghtaling and Joann Downey

Democratic Assembly Members-elect Joann Downey and Eric Houghtailing, and Independent Expenditure Committees supporting them spent $1,503,233 to defeat Republican incumbents Mary Pat Angelini and Caroline Casagrande in the 11th legislative district election, according to an analysis of 2015 campaign spending published on PolitickerNJ.

Angelini and Casagrande spent $234,118 on their reelection effort.

For all of that spending, 700 additional Republican votes would have carried the day for Angelini and Casagrande. Those votes reside in Colts Neck, a Republican stronghold that had less than a 20% voter turnout and Freehold Township, another Republican stronghold in the district that did not turnout for the incumbents.  Casagrande and Angelini, while winning Freehold Township, did so with by a margin of less than 10%.

• Tweet

RED BANK: ZIPPRICH OWNS ‘ASTROTURF’ URL

Councilman Ed Zipprich, seen at the Red Bank NAACP candidates’ forum at Calvary Baptist Church Thursday night, acknowledged he set up a website that now attacks Republican candidates. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge) By JOHN T. WARD Red Bank…

Read the rest of this entry »

• Tweet

The Democratic Laundromat: Wisniewski’s Washing and Spinning

By Harold Kane and Art Gallagher

The legal money laundering of Assemblyman John Wisniewski in Middlesex County has been in the news this month as Politickernj and The Star Ledger brought to light the how Middlesex Democrats are circumventing state and local pay to pay laws by having government vendors, primarily the Middlesex based CME engineering firm, fund campaigns through PACs when the campaign finance laws prohibited contributions directly to the campaigns in jurisdictions where they were earning large fees.

Wisniewski, of Sayreville, is the Chairman of the State Democratic Party and the Assembly Transportation Committee. 

Despite the fact that the PACs are run by his former staff members and fund campaigns in his district and county, Wisniewski says he has nothing to do with them.  If that is true, the State Democratic Committee needs a new chairman.  If it’s not true, the Democrats still should get a new chairman and the people of the 19^th legislative district should elect a new Assemblyman.

Also in the news this month are the guilty pleas of insurance broker Frank Gartland of Federal Hill Risk Management.  Gartland plead guilty to giving $2 million in bribes to Toms River School Superintendent Michael Ritacco, and to theft by deception and money laundering for bilking the Perth Amboy Board of Education, an Abbott district, out of more than $2 million.

Gartland also admitted to making illegal contributions to the campaigns of former Assemblyman and former Perth Amboy Mayor Joe Vas through “straw” contributors.  Vas is now serving a 6 ½  year sentence for funneling illegal money from a real estate scheme into his unsuccessful 2006 congressional campaign.  Vas was Wisniewski’s running mate and they represented the 19^th district together in the Assembly from 2004-2009.

While all of this bribery, stealing and money laundering was going on, Gartland and his associates were also donating heavily to the Middlesex County PACS that Wisniewski says he has nothing to do with.

Wisniewski and Port Authority Deputy Executive Director Bill Baroni, a former Republican State Senator, got into it this week over the PACS and Wisniewski using his authority as chairman of the Assembly Transportation Committee to issue subpoenas requiring that Port Authority executives appear before his committee.  Baroni accused Wisniewski of a “shakedown” because CME did not receive preferential treatment while pitching their engineering services to Port Authority.

In response, Wisniewski said “the truth is an expendable commodity” for the “Christie character assassination team”

Let’s see some truth from Wisniewski regarding these PACS, including what quid pro quo Gartland received for his “contributions.”

• Tweet