Jersey Freedom, the shadowy dark money group that is backing a phantom candidate for State Senate, has spent $35,226 in two South Jersey races but received no contributions, according to reports filed with the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission.
The tenebrous Group, operating out of Jamaica, Queens’ post office box has sent attack mailers in an attempt to redirect Republican votes from Christopher Del Borrello – the GOP Senate nominee for the 4th district – to Giuseppe Costanzo – a ghost candidate who is running as a conservative independent.
Jersey Freedom was founded on September 11 and reported no donors. It also owed $35,226. They spent $15,000 on independent expenditures to support Costanzo. And they spent $20,036 in order to help Libertarian Senate candidates Shawn Peck and the 2nd district. Peck’s outage over the Jersey Freedom mailer led him to drop out of the race and endorse State Sen. Vince Polistina (R-Egg Harbor Township) for re-election.
Cable TV ads supporting Costanzo that started running on Fox News on Saturday are not included in the report of 11 days before the election.
The same media company that handles anti-Del Borrello attacks ads for Brighter Future Forward (another independent expenditure group) that is directly linked to the South Jersey Democratic Machine, placed the ad.
Costanzo is a 62 year old restaurant account manager, originally from Clementon. He has been a mythical character on the campaign trail. He has raised virtually no money and opened no social media profiles. He has not made a case for himself and does not answer his phone. Until earlier this year, he wasn’t even a registered voter.
His conservative running mate, Maureen Dukes-Penrose, a Democrat, told the New Jersey Globe that retiring State Sen. Fred Madden (D-Washington), a former Gloucester County Democratic Chairman, encouraged her to run. As an Independent. Madden said that wasn’t true.
Brighter Future Forward has direct links to South Jersey Democrats. The group, which has been running TV ads in South Jersey races, has raised $2.5 million: $1 million from the Carpenter’s Action Fund and $1.5 million from Working for Working Americans, a Las Vegas-based group.
Brighter Future Forward had spent $1.95M so far. It also had $549.061 Cash on Hand at the end.
One of those who circulated the petitions to nominate Costanzo and Dukes Penrose as independent conservatives has strong ties with South Jersey Democrats.
Angela McGeehan is a 36-year old administrative worker at Washington Township. She collected more than a third of the signatures on petitions in support of Costanzo and Dukes Penrose.
She is the daughter Frank J. Cianci. Frank was the long-time Democratic municipal chair of Washington Township before stepping down this year. She has been a staunch supporter of Paul Moriarty, the Democratic candidate for State Senate of the 4th District.
McGeehan also spent six years working in the Gloucester County Clerk’s office.
She refuses to talk about her role in the phantom campaign.
“I have no comment at this time,” McGeehan told the New Jersey Globe on Monday morning.
This media placement company is the second link in the chain between Jersey Freedom & Brighter Future Forward.
The two groups used the same union printer from Baltimore for attack mailers in the 4th district, and both used seemingly identical research on Del Borrello.
This is the second link between Jersey Freedom and Brighter Future Forward. Both groups used identical research and used the same union printer in Baltimore to print their attack mailers for the 4th District.