A hard-hitting new TV ad in the 14th legislative district goes after a Democratic Assembly candidate Tennille McCoy for suggesting that white state employees should be pushed out of their jobs so that people of color could be hired in their place.
“At the end of the day, it’s being able to shift some people out of positions so we create opportunities for other people of color,” McCoy said on a Zoom meeting while serving as assistant commissioner of Labor and Workforce Development.
The ad was made by Adam Elias, an attorney who is the Republican Assembly candidate in the 14th, which has more state employees as residents than any other district.
In “American Dream,” Elias’ ad slams McCoy for her belief that some state workers should be pushed out to enhance state government diversity.
Script: (Narrator) “The American Dream is the opportunity for every hard-working individual to succeed. Tennille McCoy takes those opportunities away from the people she’s supposed to represent. (McCoy) At the end of the day, it’s being able to shift some people out of positions so we create opportunities for other people of color. (Narrator) Adam Elias immigrated to the U.S., works hard to achieve success for his family, and is living the American dream. Vote for opportunity for everyone. Vote Adam Elias for Assembly.”
McCoy says Elias is twisting her words.
“The point I was making, and what I firmly believe, is better characterized as that our state workforce should look like our communities and afford opportunities for everyone, regardless of who they are,” McCoy told the New Jersey Globe.
But Deborah Palombi, a personnel Assistant at the Department of Human Services, disputed McCoy’s claim.
“As a 28-year career service employee in the civil service system who was appointed as a promotional candidate, Tennille McCoy definitely applied this to me and appointed a ‘man of color’ who did not qualify until the civil service list expired, Palombi said on social media.”
Words that appear on the screen in Elias’ ad call McCoy a “disgraced public servant” who was “sued four times by her employees” and that she “resigned in shame.”
McCoy was personally named in lawsuits filed against the labor department, but that’s not uncommon in state government. Still, lawsuit allegations point to a pattern of discrimination, harassment, and creating a toxic work environment.
While several senior Murphy administration officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, did not dispute that she resigned to avoid termination, some at the labor department say the accusation is not true.
“This ad is disgusting and is Adam’s desperate attempt to distract the voters away from his extreme anti-choice, anti-union, culture war tactics for New Jersey,” McCoy said. “His political games won’t work, because the voters of LD-14 know that this election is far too important.”
Elias ran for the State Senate in 2021 and, with little party funding, lost to incumbent Linda Greenstein (D-Plainsboro) by ten percentage points. Republicans are more optimistic about beating McCoy than they are about unseating Greenstein or Assemblyman Wayne DeAngelo (D-Hamilton).
McCoy wants to succeed Dan Benson (D-Hamilton), who gave up his Assembly seat to run for Mercer County Executive. He’s a shoo-in for that post.
The 14th is an uphill climb for Republicans: Joe Biden won it by eighteen points in 2020 and Phil Murphy by nine in 2021. The GOP hasn’t carried the district in sixteen years.
McCoy was the surprise winner at a rocky Mercer Democratic convention in March, where three candidates from Hamilton were seeking two seats; Rick Carabelli finished first with 120 votes, followed by McCoy with 111, and DeAngelo finished third with 106 in a shocker.
Three days later, DeAngelo scored a comeback as the top vote-getter at the Democratic convention in Middlesex with 58 votes; Carabelli dropped out after McCoy defeated him by just four votes, 45-41.