Steve Fulop is being sued by a political consultant for non-payment, but his campaign says they had no contract and believed he was working as a volunteer.
Rev. Derrick Green, who joined the Fulop for Governor campaign as a senior advisor with some fanfare in October 2023, claims he is owed $92,139.
The lawsuit alleges that Green “unequivocally relied on the defendants’ representation when he was offered the position of senior advisor for the Fulop for Governor campaign. The explicit agreement was that he would be compensated for his services to his detriment.”
“Of course we will respond formally against Rev. Green and seek to have this frivolous lawsuit dismissed as it represents nothing more than an old-fashioned shakedown attempt,” said Ashley Manz, a spokesperson for Fulop. “Rev. Green joined the campaign as a volunteer with the understanding his role would be revisited once we ramped up on voter targeting in 2025.”
An invoice dated May 16 bills the Fulop campaign $15,000-per-month for six months for “consulting, strategy, outreach, travel, staffing, meeting prep, and follow-up” and an additional $2,129 for what was described as a “Cherry Hill Meeting.”
Manz said the Fulop campaign told Green they wouldn’t get squeezed, which led him to pursue a settlement amount and then file a lawsuit.
“We will not allow this shakedown attempt to succeed,” she said.
It’s been a tough year politically for Green: his candidate for U.S. Senate in Maryland, David Trone, spent over $60 million of his own money but lost the Democratic primary, and his candidate in New Jersey, Tammy Murphy, dropped out of the race in March.
Fulop and Green had a falling out over the New Jersey Senate race, arguing over the Jersey City mayor’s decision to rescind his endorsement of Murphy and back Rep. Andy Kim (D-Moorestown) instead.
“Rev. Green became upset when Mayor Fulop endorsed Andy Kim, and he was increasingly disgruntled when David Trone lost badly in his primary,” said Manz. “During this time there was little to no contact between Green and our campaign due to his commitments elsewhere. The day after Trone lost, Green sent multiple texts saying that he quit our campaign due to the Mayor endorsing Andy Kim and that he was demanding to be compensated for work, that was never approved, even though he never had a contract with the campaign.”
Green worked on Gov. Phil Murphy’s 2017 and 2021 campaigns to help turn out Black voters and worked in the governor’s office directing outreach with faith leaders.
The lawsuit has been assigned to Superior Court Judge Jane Weiner in Hudson County. Green is seeking a jury trial with 300 days of discovery in a case that could extend beyond the 2025 governor’s race.
Green comes with some baggage: while working for Murphy in 2017, he stood by and said nothing when then-Passaic NAACP President Jeffrey Dye hurled a diatribe of anti-Semitic attacks against Assemblyman Gary Schaer (D-Passaic). Green initially denied being present.
In 2019, Murphy fired Dye from his job at the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development after learning of anti-Semitic and anti-Latino statements Dye made on Facebook.