Blue Perigon, a Democratic digital ad firm, won’t say who hired them to work for Jersey Freedom, a shadowy independent expenditure committee that ran ads supporting a conservative phantom candidate and a Libertarian in South Jersey Senate races last year.
Nat Wood, who worked for Gov. Jim Florio’s 1993 re-election campaign, has not responded to two requests to answer questions about Blue Perigon’s role in Jersey Freedom. Those questions were submitted to Wood.
The New Jersey Attorney General’s office has already launched a criminal investigation into Jersey Freedom after allegations that the independent expenditure committee violated state campaign finance laws. The New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission has also opened a probe of the committee.
Jersey Freedom, which was funded by another political committee allied with South Jersey Democrats, Brighter Future Forward, paid $40,000 to run digital ads in support of Giuseppe Costanzo in the 4th district and Libertarian Shawn Peck in the 2nd, according to reports filed with the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission.
Among the unanswered inquiries: who approved the digital ads that Blue Perigon designed and placed for Jersey Freedom?
The messaging for the ads puts the Democratic firm in a position of advocating for right-wing candidates.
One of the ads that ran on Facebook uses a photo of Costanzo with Donald Trump: “Giuseppe Costanzo will protect 2nd Amendment rights, end woke brainwashing of our kids, and stop tax & spend Democrats from wasting our money. Trump Conservatives vote Costanzo!” Other ads touted Costanzo’s pro-life and pro-police stances.
But Wood, a former Democratic National Committee staffer and Obama administration official, ducked a question about how they verified Costanzo’s positions.
Publicly, Costanzo never said a word about where he stood on issues; he had no social media presence or a campaign website and spent no money. So it’s not clear how Blue Perigon was able to research what Costanzo believed on abortion, guns, or even if he supports Trump beyond a ballot slogan that identified the 62-year-old restaurant manager as a South Jersey conservative. They could not have spoken directly to Costanzo since that could be considered illegal coordination.
The digital ads also identified Peck as “Atlantic County’s true Trump conservative, even though he is a Libertarian. Peck is assigned the same positions as Costanzo.
“I was not and still am not a Trump conservative,” Peck told the New Jersey Globe.
Blue Perigon has ties to South Jersey Democrats. The firm was paid $574,000 for digital to help Rep. Donald Norcross (D-Camden) win re-election in 2022, and last year worked for the Camden City Democratic Committee, Gloucester County Surrogate Joseph Chila, and American Democratic Majority, a super PAC tied to South Jersey Democrats.
Wood didn’t respond to a question about whether his firm works for candidates of both parties.
Hina Razzaq, the president of Blue Perigon, has not returned calls seeking comment.
Days before the election, Superior Court Judge Michael Blee froze Jersey Freedom’s bank account. It remains frozen until Blee holds his next court hearing on February 1.
There are other ties between Jersey Freedom and Democrats.
Their bank account was opened with a $50 check from New York public relations consultant Chris Bastardi. His business partner is Julie Roginsky, a Democratic strategist.
The frontman for Jersey Freedom is Eric Peterson, a 33-year-old Berkeley Heights native with no apparent political experience. Until 2022, Peterson was an accounts payable manager for a Manhattan-based property management company; he had previously worked as a drag makeup artist for “Thank You For Being a Friend: The Golden Girls Musical.”
Records show that Peterson was paid $5,000 for his brief stint at Jersey Freedom, plus reimbursement of $216 for the rental of a post office box near his home in Jamaica, Queens. As treasurer, Peterson signed campaign finance reports filed with ELEC. It’s not clear if Peterson approved Blue Perigon’s work.
Jersey Freedom’s intent seems to have been to convince Republicans that Costanzo, whose ballot slogan was “Conservatives South Jersey,” was a better pick. They targeted GOP voters with mailers, digital ads, and a cable TV ad that aired on Fox News.