General Majority PAC spent millions helping Democratic candidates in several legislative districts, contributing to Democratic gains of 3-4 seats. The big spending helped Democrats take seats in LDs 1, 2, 11 and 38. Republicans maintained control of some county freeholder boards, while Democrats held or increased their majorities on others. Incumbents generally fared well in various local races. Overall, money from outside groups like General Majority PAC was a major factor in many close races.

1. Volume XIX, # 21 November 4, 2015
And the Winners Are
OVERVIEW. The second the polls closed everyone from Cape May
Point to High Point started bemoaning the low turnout and the outside
money. But money talks. It helped the Democrats picked up three (and
perhaps four) seats, mostly where General Majority PAC played a major
role, and made Vinny Prieto and the NJEA the big winners for the night.
LD 1. General Majority PAC spent more than $1.4 million on television
either promoting The Van Drew Team, Bob Andrzejczak and Bruce Land,
or slamming Sam Fiocchi and Jim Sauro, and the candidates spent another
$958,000. Compare that to the $203,000 Fiocchi and Sauro spent. The
Republicans signed the Americans for Tax Reform’s pledge not to raise
taxes. Fiocchi went into high dudgeon over a ranking of the most redneck
places in New Jersey that put Vineland first and Millville third. (Bridgeton,
which ranked second, is also in Cumberland County, but it’s in LD 3.) The
list was compiled by a website in Durham, North Carolina. (Did you get
that? Some guys in North Carolina are ranking the redneck quotient of
New Jersey cities! Isn’t there some old saw about pots and kettles that ap-
plies here?) And the money spoke. Andrzejczak led the pack as Land beat
Fiocchi and Sauro by more than 2,000 votes.
LD 2. Here General Majority PAC spent about $2 million boosting
Vince Mazzeo and Colin Bell or attacking Chris Brown and Will Pauls,
while the Republicans have spent about $580,000. Mazzeo and Bell picked
up the Sierra Club endorsement. According to a Stockton Poll, however,
Chris Brown was holding his own. That survey produced identical num-
bers for him (24 percent) and Mazzeo (26) to ones in n October 19 survey;
Bell (22) and Pauls (19) had slightly improved numbers from the earlier
survey. [Nota bene: Last week, we quoted NJEA Director of Government
relations Ginger Gold Schnitzer, whose name we misspelled, saying that
the union hadn’t endorsed Vince Mazzeo because of his vote not to fund
the pension system fully. We were talking about LD 1 there and meant to
say Sam Fiocchi. The NJEA, in fact, endorsed both Mazzeo and Bell in
this district.] In the end, the poll was right. Brown led the field. Mazzeo
took the second seat. Bell came in third, and Pauls trailed substantially.
Continued on Page 3.
What’s Hot
PACs
When all the pennies are
counted, General Majority
PAC and its ilk will have
spent upwards of $10 million
or more than 40 percent of all
expenditures. Unfortunately
this is little more thana
glimpse into the future. (Jeff
Brindle at ELEC is the only
one shaking his fist and
shouting “No! in thunder” at
all this.) Wait until 2017. As
the Randy Bachman song put
it back in the 1970s, “You
ain’t seen nothing yet.”
Quote of the Week
A Republican wag opined
about the structural advan-
tages the Democrats have.
“The unions get it in New
Jersey; the business commu-
nity doesn’t. If the unions
get behind someone, it comes
with a minimum of $500K to
form a SuperPAC and boots
on the ground. If the busi-
ness community gets behind
someone, it’s a $5,000 check
(if you’re lucky) and a lot of
complaining that the shrimp
cocktail wasn’t sufficiently
chilled at your last event.”
TM

2. And the Winners Are, continued
LD 11. General Majority PAC jumped into this race
late, running ads pounding Mary Pat Angelini for the
way Prevention First, a non-profit she began, spends
its money. The Assemblywoman sued over what she
calls “disgusting lies about a charity that provides
mental health, substance abuse, and anti-bullying pro-
grams” and calls her opponents “heartless and sinister.”
Insisting that she draws only a modest $61,000 salary
and that 90 percent of the organization’s staff provides
“direct care” to clients, she asked radio and television
stations running the ad to take it down because it is
“maliciously false and misleading.” the PAC held its
ground, airing the commercial right up to the end, even
on Fox after the final World Series game. (Yes, we
stayed up to watch the horror.) In the event, money
spoke again. In a major victory for Democratic chair-
man Vin Gopal, Neptune Mayor Eric Houghtaling
topped the ballot. Attorney Joann Downey leads Ange-
lini by fewer than 200 votes, and Caroline Casagrande
trailed her runningmate by another 200. Houghtaling is
also the Political Coordinator for IBEW Local 400, so
his victory is, aside from the huge NJEA success, the
biggest labor win of the night.
LD 16. Democrats launched a last minute stealth at-
tack against Donna Simon. (Local Democrats believe
these seats were as ripe for the picking as those in LD
11.) Jack Ciattarelli finished first. Andrew Zwicker, the
head of Science Education at the Princeton Plasma
Physics Laboratory (Rush Holt’s old job), leads Simon
by 29 votes in a race too close to call. And attorney
Maureen Vella came in fourth.
LD 38. General Majority PAC’s contribution was
only $365,000 here, all of it spent attacking Anthony
Cappola and Mark DiPisa. It would’ve spent more, but
Cappola’s literary efforts apparently made that unnec-
essary. Tim Eustace and Joe Lagana got the endorse-
ment of The Record and won reelection by more than
4,000 votes.
BERGEN FREEHOLDERS. The Record en-
dorsed all three Democrats -- Tracy Zur, Steve Tanelli,
and Tom Sullivan, who outspent the Republicans --
former Freeholder John Mitchell, Ramsey Councilman
Ken Tyburczy, and Isuzu marketing executive Daisy
Ortiz-Berger -- by about seven to one. That was pretty
much the story as all three Democrats won by at least
12,000 votes to hold onto their a 5-2 majority
BURLINGTON FREEHOLDERS. This wasn’t
an election for control, since the Republicans hold a 3-
2 edge and the two Democratic seats were on the bal-
lot. But it’s worth noting for two reasons. One is that
one of those incumbents was Aime Belgard, who lost a
Congressional race to Tom MacArthur last year. (The
other is Joanne Schwartz.) The Republicans lost both
seats in 2012 but regained them this year. Attorney
Ryan Peters and Kate Gibbs of the Engineers Labor-
Employer Cooperative, which is affiliated with Local
825 raised more than $370,000; the Democrats less
than $17,000. Bill Layton’s county GOP raised another
$198,000 in the third quarter and had $57,000 on hand;
the county Democrats raised zero and had only about
$6,500 in the bank. Money, as we said, talks, so it
should surprise nobody that Peters and Gibbs won by
about 1,500 votes to give the GOP a 5-0 shutout.
CUMBERLAND FREEHOLDERS. Freeholder
Director Joe Derella and Millville Commissioner Jim
Quinn, the Democrats, beat Cumberland County Wo-
mens Hall of Fame president Louise Bertacci and for-
mer Vineland Councilwoman Mayra Arroyo by about
1,000 votes to hold onto a 4-3 majority.
SALEM FREEHOLDERS. The Board was 5-2
Republican with one seat held by each party up for
election.) But the race is interesting at least partly be-
cause Democrat Beth Timberman declined to run for a
fifth term. Incumbent Republican Ben Laury won one
seat handily, and his runningmate, attorney Melissa
2 POLITIFAX November 4, 2015
Around the State
Editor and Publisher
Nicholas Acocella
Associate Editor
Reneé Creange
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3. DeCastro, leads Salem City Councilman Charles Has-
sler by 11 votes while the other Democrat, Carneys
Point Township Committeeman Ken Brown, trails by
about 1,000 votes. If DeCastro’s lead holds, the
Republican majority will go up to 6-1.
BRICK. The Ducey Team (for popular Mayor John
Ducey) swept all four Council seats on the ballot by
about a two to one margin to maintain their shutout
dominance of the governing body.
ELIZABETH. Incumbent Charlene Bathelus, local
firefighter Daniel Nina, and Stephanie Goncalves gave
Ray Lesniak and Chris Bollwage a big victory by beat-
ing the Rafael Fajardo faction candidates -- incumbents
Tony Monteiro and Elcy Castillo-Espina and Perth
Amboy principal Michelle Velez-Jonte -- by better than
three to two to take control of the Board of Ed.
HOBOKEN. Mayor Dawn Zimmer’s Council team
picked up two seats to gain a 7-2 super majority. Jen
Giattino, backed by Zimmer, beat Assemblyman Car-
melo Garcia handily, and former Assemblyman Ruben
Ramos, who wasn’t on the Zimmer ticket, beat Tim
Occhipinti, who is also not a Zimmer supporter. This is
interesting because, when Ramos ran against Zimmer
two years ago, Occhipinti jumped into the race and
split the anti-Zimmer vote, and payback is a, well, you
know what we mean.
JERSEY CITY. The nonbinding referendum to
move the mayoral election to November passed by
about 450 votes. That was perhaps closer than Steve
Fulop would’ve liked, but the City Council will proba-
bly follow suit and make the change sometime soon.
SAYREVILLE. Mayor Kennedy O’Brien, a Re-
publican, beat Council President Dave McGill, an ally
of John Wisniewski, by fewer than 300 votes.
TENAFLY. Independent Peter Rustin not only won
a fourth term, he also got more than 50 percent of the
vote in a three way race against a Democrat and a Re-
publican. Impressive.
WEST DEPTFORD. Former Mayor Ray Chintall,
reported several major threats against his safety -- in-
cluding an arrow shot through a window in his home --
but any sympathy he received wasn’t sufficient to over-
take Denice DeCarlo, who won reelection more than
approximately 900 votes.
WOODCLIFF LAKE. Councilman Jeff Bader lost
the Republican mayoral primary to Council President
Carlos Rendo. Then, he switched parties and ran as a
Democrat (Incumbent democrat Jeffrey Goldsmith
wasn’t running again.) Party switches tend not to work
out very well, and this one proved not to be an excep-
tion as Rendo won, 805-795.
3 POLITIFAX November 4, 2015
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4. Winners and Losers
4 POLITIFAX November 4, 2015
Tidbits
Historical Marker of the Week: On Novem-
ber 10, 1783, George Washington departed from
Rockingham, which is in present day Franklin
Township in Somerset County and which was his
last wartime headquarters. He had come there in
late August at the request of Congress, which had
removed itself to Princeton because Continental
troops, disgruntled over not having been paid,
threatened to attack Philadelphia. While at Rock-
ingham, Washington learned of the signing of the
Treaty of Paris and composed his farewell ad-
dress to his troops.
Challenge of the Week: AT&T teamed up
with the New Jersey Tech Council, the Associa-
tion of Independent Colleges and Universities of
New Jersey, the New Jersey Association of State
Colleges and Universities, the New Jersey Coun-
cil of County Colleges, NJIT, Rowan, Rutgers,
and Stevens Institute of Technology to offer
$19,000 in prizes for new smartphone apps that
serve a variety of community needs. The deadline
for submissions is November 13. Check it out at
attnj.njcivipapp.com.
Best Moment of the Week: Freeholder Gerry
Balmir fell out of favor in Jersey City when his
wife took a job with Steve Sweeney (just in case
you’ve been vacationing in the Malagasy Repub-
lic) but nevertheless showed up at the annual
Hudson County Democratic Organization dinner
and even got introduced by Tom DeGise.
Press Merger of the Week: The Philadelphia
Inquirer and the Daily News merged newsrooms.
They’ll continue to put out two different products
but with one staff. This could prove a neat trick,
given the very different styles of the two papers.
Good News of the Week: State revenue col-
lections are up 4.7 percent over last year and
ahead of this year’s projections. And jobless
claims are the lowest they’ve been in 15 years.
Best News of the Week: Pasta & Politics
with Nick Acocella will return to NJTV on Wed-
nesday November 11 at 8PM. Steve Sweeney will
help cook Rigatoni with Roasted Peppers.
News Roundup
Winner: Richard Hammer
The Governor promoted the Assistant Transpor-
tation Commissioner to Acting Commissioner and
said he’ll nominate him to remove the “Acting.”
Winner: Bill Gaughan
The Hudson Democratic Organization honored
the County Executive Chief of Staff for his 20
years of service, which made him the longest serv-
ing Councilman in Jersey City’s history.
Winner: Josh Gottheimer
Scott Garrett’s opponent made The Cook Politi-
cal Report’s list of “Democratic Candidates Worth
Watching in 2016.”
Winner: Janice Fields
The Center for Italian American Culture will
honor the Somerset County State Committeewo-
man as its Woman of the Year at its Gala 2015 on
November 20. And, yes, her heritage is Italian; her
surname before marrying was Miriana.
Winner: Christian Hetrick
The Atlantic City Press staff writer has been the
busiest reporter in the business, filing multiple sto-
ries several days in a row. (That’s what happens
when the hottest races in the state are in your back-
yard.) He deserves a rest.
Loser: Trenton
The feds put the capital city on a list of high-
risk grant recipients after an audit revealed that the
city had misspent almost $190,000 out of $2.7 mil-
lion in grants because of a lack of oversight.
Loser: Hillside
Things are just not going well in the Union
County township. It is without a Business Admin-
istrator since Joe Santiago departed after only a few
months. It is also without a Chief Financial Officer,
and that created a problem when the municipality
paid the county its share of property taxes a month
late and had to pony up a $12,700 fine.