Murphy names Gilmore ally to Lottery Commission

Robert James D’Anton, a Democratic fundraiser with ties to Ocean County Republican Chairman George Gilmore, has been nominated by Gov. Phil Murphy for another term on the New Jersey Lottery Commission.

Gilmore was indicted last week on federal tax evasion charges.

POLITICO reported in 2017 that Gilmore took out a $275,000 loan against his law firm’s building in Toms River with D’Anton’s development company, AST FInancial.  The 2014 loan was supposed to be repaid within 9 ½ months, but POlITICO says there was no record that the funds had been paid back.

D’Anton had originally appointed to the Lottery Commission by Gov. James E. McGreevey after helping McGreevey raise money for his 1997 and 2001 gubernatorial campaigns.  

The Star-Ledger had reported that D’Anton was tied to a covert plan to use New Jersey State Police records to damage Gov. Christine Todd Whitman’s 1997 re-election campaign.  The report suggested that D’Anton made supplied cell phones and paid bills for the operation, but stopped just short of saying that he knew why.

Murphy also nominated George Gore, a former state GOP official from Plainfield,  to the Lottery commission.

Gore lost bids for the State Assembly against Bob Smith (D-Piscataway) and David Schwartz (D-Highland Park) in 1989, and Jerry Green (D-Plainfield) and Linda Stender (D-Fanwood) in 2003.

Marilyn Blazovsky, an advocate for compulsive gamblers, and former deputy state attorney general Virginia Class-Matthew were also nominated  to the commission by Murphy.