James Devine, the controversial and mendacious political consultant charged with filing fake petitions in the 2021 gubernatorial primary, will return to court in September as he seeks to appeal his rejected application to enroll in the state’s Pretrial Intervention program.
Devine filed 1,948 fraudulent signatures to get shadowy perennial candidate and life partner Lisa McCormick on the primary ballot for the Democratic nomination for governor. An administrative law judge determined the petitions to be “fraudulently created without any input from actual voters,” the matter was referred to the attorney general’s office by Secretary of State Tahesha Way.
Devine spent about four minutes before Superior Court Judge Sherry Wilson today in his fourth appearance since being charged in April.
Deputy Attorney General Andrew Wellbrock said his office opposed Devine’s PTI program participation. His public defender, Aletha Sheppard Robinson, told Wilson she was appealing that decision.
Devine could sidestep a criminal record if he completes the PTI program.
He will be back in Wilson’s courtroom on September 14.
In May, the New Jersey Globe reported that Devine was seeking PTI but that the attorney general’s office refused to support that. Devine contested this, telling the New Jersey Globe after the story was initially published that the attorney general is not opposing PTI.
Devine insisted in May that the problems with the petitions were an innocent mistake – “I fucked up, and so it’s going to slow me down; I’ll try not to fuck up any more,” he told the New Jersey Globe – and that the charges against him were politically motivated.
“There’s absolutely no doubt that much of the political establishment in New Jersey thinks that I’m a pain in the ass,” Devine said at the time.
The political gremlin faces more than eleven years in prison on one count of falsely filing nominating petitions, tampering with public records, both 3rd-degree offenses, and falsifying or tampering with records, a 4th-degree crime. Devine was McCormick’s campaign manager and the circulator of her petitions. He is also her life partner.
McCormick had filed to challenge Gov. Phil Murphy in the Democratic primary two years ago when an executive order during the COVID-19 pandemic permitted candidates to file nominating petitions with electronic signatures.
The counsel to the Democratic State Committee, Raj Parikh, alleged that McCormick’s petition resulted from a mail merge of an outdated voter database. He produced multiple witnesses who testified that they never signed the petitions even though their names appeared as signatories.
During the 2020 congressional primary in New Jersey’s 12th district, McCormick and Devine allegedly sent emails using the congresswoman’s campaign letterhead in an attempt to trick voters into believing that Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing), one of the most progressive members of the state’s House delegation, backed then-President Donald Trump.
Watson Coleman asked authorities to investigate the fake emails after one trafficked anti-Semitic tropes to smear her. She also called out McCormick for sending out an email using the congresswoman’s campaign logo and showing the sender at BWC Updates to make it look like it was the incumbent’s press release.
The following year, Watson Coleman urged the attorney general to investigate allegations of fraudulent McCormick for Governor petitions.
“The lack of consequences for questionable tactics, including a website that stole my identity and failing to file any required FEC reports, only encourages these immoral candidates to escalate their apparent crimes,” Watson Coleman said.
State Sen. Joseph Cryan (D-Union) had also sought a probe, saying that Devine and McCormick “have repeatedly shown they have no concern for the law.”
Later in 2021, Devine and McCormick were accused of fabricating a racist quote from State Sen. Cryan’s campaign manager on a menacing website they ran that made to look like one run by the Democratic State Committee. McCormick is the website’s publisher, but Devine is widely viewed as the site’s leader.
Superior Court Judge Alan Lesnewich issued a restraining order against Devine after the Democrats filed a lawsuit against Devine and McCormick, alleging that the two seek to confuse voters by suggesting that some school board candidates have the backing of top Democratic officials. Murphy’s photo appeared on the mailers, and Democrats worry that the two are falsely giving the impression that they represent the state Democratic Party.
A trademark lawsuit filed by the Democratic State Committee against Devine and McCormick in 2022 is pending in the U.S. District Court.
In 2018, the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission levied a $120,000 fine against a political action committee run by Devine for failing to file contributors or expenditures between 2005 and 2010.
Devine also faced allegations that he diverted $2,244 in campaign funds for then-Perth Amboy Mayor Wilda Diaz to pay for overdue child support. Devine worked for Diaz in 2008, but the two later separated.
McCormick has never filed a campaign finance report with ELEC or the Federal Election Commission in multiple bids for public office. The perennial candidate has lost bids for Union County Clerk in 2010, Rahway Council in 2014, U.S. Senate in 2018, Union County Surrogate in 2019, and the U.S. House of Representatives in 2020.
Devine challenged Rahway Mayor Samson Steinman in the 2014 Democratic primary but lost by 57 percentage points. In 1991, he sought the Democratic nomination for State Assembly but lost the primary by nearly 2,000 votes against Elizabeth Mayor Thomas Dunn.
He got into trouble in 2005 when he was caught running a fake website that purported to be the official campaign site of two Republican Assembly candidates, Sam Thompson (R-Old Bridge) and Amy Handlin (R-Middletown). That site slammed Joseph Oxley, the Monmouth County Sheriff Joseph Oxley, and claimed Thompson and Handlin supported same-sex marriage and medical marijuana when those issues fared poorly among Republican voters.
Devine was working for the two Democratic candidates.
He made national headlines in 2017 after the shooting of then-House Majority Whip Steve Scalise; it was time for Democrats to go “hunting.” Tucker Carlson called him “unbalanced.”
Earlier this year, Devine mounted an unsuccessful write-in campaign for the Democratic nomination for the West Amwell Township Committee.
