Giuseppe Costanzo, onetime phantom candidate, says he’s finished with politics

Former phantom State Senate candidate Giuseppe Costanzo said today that he has no plans to seek public office again and declined to identify who recruited him to run in one of New Jersey’s most competitive legislative races three years ago.

“I’m not interested in politics anymore, and I’m done with that,” Costanzo told the New Jersey Globe during a brief telephone interview. “And that’s it.”

Costanzo, a 64-year-old restaurant account manager from Clementon, ran for State Senate in the 4th legislative district under the “Conservatives South Jersey” banner.  He mounted no visible campaign, raised no money, and repeatedly declined to discuss his candidacy.

But a shadowy, dark money independent expenditure group, Jersey Freedom, spent heavily to promote Costanzo as a conservative alternative to Republican Christopher Del Borrello.  The group, based out of a Queens mailbox, sent mailers and purchased digital and cable television advertising, including spots on Fox News.

Record show Jersey Freedom spent $187,065 to elect Costanzo.

Costanzo received 3% of the vote.  Democrat Paul Moriarty defeated Del Borrello, 53%-44%, a margin large enough that Costanzo’s presence on the ballot did not affect the outcome.

Questions about Costanzo’s candidacy intensified after the New Jersey Globe reported that Angela McGeehan, a registered Democrat and the daughter of longtime Washington Township Democratic chairman Frank Cianci, collected more than one-third of the signatures needed to place Costanzo and Assembly candidate Maureen Dukes-Penrose on the ballot.  Several petition signers said they had never heard of the candidates.

Jersey Freedom’s funding was later traced to Brighter Future Forward, an independent expenditure committee tied to South Jersey Democrats.  A judge froze Jersey Freedom’s bank account shortly before the election, and the Election Law Enforcement Commission later assumed jurisdiction over an investigation into the group.  The statute of limitations has now passed for ELEC, and a criminal probe opened by the New Jersey Attorney General’s office never advanced.

Costanzo’s refusal to name his recruiter leaves unanswered one of the central questions surrounding his brief and unusual candidacy.