We Call It The Silly Season For A Reason

BettyLou DeCroce

When we launched the Bob & Steve Show nearly three years ago Bob and I decided we were going to focus on South Jersey politics, but something happened that I simply cannot ignore.

Way up north in LD26 (Essex, Morris, Passaic) a Democrat has decided to, unsolicited I suspect, offer his endorsement in the Republican primary election for state Assembly.

Yesterday, our friends over at New Jersey Globe reported that:

Former Gov. Richard Codey, a Democrat, says he wants Assemblywoman BettyLou DeCroce to win the Republican primary for State Assembly in the next-door 26th district.

I’m not going to insult anyone’s intelligence and try to pretend that BettyLou DeCroce is the most conservative member of the state Assembly – she’s not. But one has to wonder why Richard Codey, a former Governor and sitting state Senator, who happens to be a Democrat, would make an endorsement in a competitive Republican primary in a district he doesn’t represent.

There are four candidates in the LD26 Primary, most of the votes come out of Morris where Assemblyman Jay Webber and Christian Barranco have the line, the first time Morris has awarded a line. DeCroce is running off the line as is Morris County Commissioner Tom Mastrangelo.

I don’t live in LD26 and will not offer an endorsement of any candidate, though, admittedly, there is no way in hell I would ever encourage anyone to vote for Mastrangelo. I would rather stab myself in the eye with a rusty needle! I’m fairly certain the feeling is mutual. We have a history and I have a framed court dismissal thanks to the Commissioner.

As to the others in the race I honestly have no preference because, like I said, I don’t live there. But I do have to wonder what motivation Codey would have to endorse DeCroce.

Codey is not stupid, to the contrary the guy is borderline genius, at least politically. He had to know his endorsement of DeCroce does not help her. Codey even went the extra mile and said, “I hope I don’t lose her votes.” Codey knows that is the least helpful statement he could make!

My guess is Codey is looking for what he views as an easier matchup for the Democrats in November by getting rid of the one candidate in the race viewed as a moderate, DeCroce.

Melissa Brown Blaeuer and Pamela Fadden are the only Democrats on the LD26 primary election ballot and appear to be extremely left. According to their website they are “bringing the Blue Wave to 2021 with bold solutions and a people-first agenda.” Fadden is President of the Hawthorne Teachers’ Association and a consultant to the NJEA in Morris County.

I’m pretty sure Codey would love to see an NJEA aligned candidate win in LD26. And I’m fairly certain Codey thinks getting rid of DeCroce could help make that happen.

Welcome to the silly season!

The Mastrangelo Recording – Don’t Listen In Front Of The Kids

Tom Mastrangelo

I figured I might as well see if I can get another cease and desist letter from Morris County Freeholder Tom Mastrangelo’s lawyer. If I do it will be my third, and like the first two, I’ll ignore it.

For those who don’t know, Fred Snowflack has an excellent piece on InsiderNJ about how Mastrangelo is suing the candidates he beat in the most recent primary election over a mailer that “that referenced a now-expunged arrest report of Mastrangelo out of Randolph.” The piece goes on to explain, “the expunged record already was made public in a previous campaign.” For the record, I would be the consultant who released the stuff before (it wasn’t expunged at that time) and Mastrangelo dragged my candidates and me into court where we were all found not guilty by way of a dismissal.

So, it’s no secret, Republican or not, I don’t like Tom Mastrangelo. I think he’s a scumbag for a lot of reasons. I’m fairly certain he has similar feelings about me.

Oh, and for those who don’t know, one of the freeholder’s phony Facebook accounts is McWilliams Johnson.

Back to the InsiderNJ piece. In the piece, Snowflack writes:

And then, there was the phone call.

The filings include a partial transcript of a phone message Mastrangelo left for Valori in 2016. No exact date given.

But, the folks at InsiderNJ don’t share the recording. Being the helpful kind of guy I sometimes like to be I have provided the recording for you below – just don’t play it in front of the kids.

A Cease And Desist Letter That Will Be Ignored

Tom Mastrangelo

On Saturday’s radio show Bob and I chatted a little bit about a cease and desist letter I received as a direct result of a blog post last Wednesday.

I received the cease and desist letter via email from the law firm of Chiesa, Shahinian & Giantomasi PC. They are representing Morris County freeholder Tom Mastrangelo who happens to be on tomorrow’s primary election ballot. The firm represented Mastrangelo three years ago when he filed criminal charges against me and the three freeholder candidates I was working with. The case was eventually dismissed “due to insufficient evidence.”

I have a framed copy of the dismissal proudly displayed in my home:

Oh! I forgot to mention, the last time I checked the law firm representing Mastrangelo happened to be on the Special County Counsel list. I’m not a lawyer, but if they’re still on that list there may be some sort of a conflict.

“Insufficient evidence.” In other words I was never given any evidence the record was expunged, despite three different lawyers asking for that evidence.

Anyway, last Wednesday’s blog post for those of you who haven’t read it talked about a mailer that used a “phony paid for by line.” I said in the post that it was “cowardly” to use a “phony paid for by line.” I truly believe it was cowardly. I practice hardball politics often, but always stand by my work.

The mailer with the phony paid for by line just happened to include a police report that Mastrangelo alleges was expunged. Never mind the fact he said the same thing three years ago and the case was dismissed for insufficient evidence.

What I really found interesting was that shortly after I shared the blog post to my personal Facebook page Johnson McWilliams used the comments section to attack Bob Greco, my radio show co-host and McWilliams’s comments were removed at almost the exact same time I received the cease and desist letter via email.

Could the deletion of McWilliams comments at the same time I received the cease and desist letter from Mastrangelo’s lawyer be a coincidence? It could be, but allegedly Johnson McWilliams is one of several of Mastrangelo’s phony Facebook accounts, so I doubt it was coincidence.

At the time of the comments it appeared Mastrangelo/McWilliams was more concerned that I referred to him as a “scumbag” for once throwing his own son under the bus by denying he sent him to video an event hosted by his opponents.

I standby the scumbag comment because what kind of person would knowingly lie about sending his son to record an event:

As to the cease and desist letter. That law firm can pound sand because, according to the New Jersey State Supreme Court, “The issue before us arises in the realm of political discourse, where speech is often harsh and caustic, but where the constitutional guarantee of free expression is given great latitude. Although our expungement statute relieves a prior offender of some civil disabilities, it does not extinguish the truth.” G.D. v. Kenny, 205 N.J. 275, 283 (N.J. 2011)

While I still think the designer/sender of the mail piece in question is a coward for using a phony paid for by line it doesn’t change the truth.

And, while on the subject of truth I still think any elected official who hides behind fake Facebook accounts and who lies about his own son to save his political hide is truly a scumbag.

You have some interesting choices in tomorrow’s election Morris County!

And just for fun, here’s the cease and desist letter:

Issuu is a digital publishing platform that makes it simple to publish magazines, catalogs, newspapers, books, and more online. Easily share your publications and get them in front of Issuu's millions of monthly readers. Title: Cease and Desist, Author: sandiastrategies, Name: 5.30.19_ltr_to_s._kush, Length: undefined pages, Page: 1, Published: 2019-06-03