LD-13 Republican primary still on after petition challenges on both sides fall short

A Republican primary fight between 13th district Assemblymemebrs Gerry Scharfenberger (R-Middletown) and Vicky Flynn (R-Holmdel) and solo challenger Rich Castaldo will proceed as planned, after efforts by both sides to kick an opponent off the ballot failed to succeed.

New Jersey Assembly Republican Victory, the campaign arm of the Assembly GOP, alleged that Castaldo had not circulated many of the petitions he claimed to have circulated, rendering a huge number of them invalid. Castaldo, in turn, alleged that many of Scharfenberger’s and Flynn’s joint petitions had in fact been collected for Scharfenberger alone, which he said meant that Flynn should be barred from the ballot.

Two separate administrative law judges, however, decided that the evidence in both cases was not overwhelming enough to order any candidates removed from the June 10 primary ballot (though Castaldo was told that he can’t use his original ballot slogan).

In his case on behalf of Assembly Republican Victory, which is supporting Flynn and Scharfenberger, elections attorney Jason Sena argued that more than 270 signatures Castaldo claimed to have circulated himself had in fact not been fully circulated by Castaldo, and also contained serious defects.

To back up his claim, Sena called in three witnesses: Louis Andreuzzi, a Union Beach councilman who said two young canvassers asked him to sign a petition in support of youth political involvement without telling him the petition was for Castaldo, and Nicole Hickey Weber and Jennifer Rutherford, who both said their signatures had been forged. The faulty signatures, Sena argued, were enough evidence to point to widespread fraud.

Administrative Law Judge Mary Ann Bogan invalidated those three signatures specifically – Castaldo filed with 438, so he wasn’t especially vulnerable to falling below the 250-signature threshold – but said Sena hadn’t presented her with compelling enough reason to kick Castaldo off entirely.

“There was insufficient testimony to substantiate that the signatures were forgeries,” Bogan wrote. “The petitioner presented the testimony of three witnesses who could only testify to their own experience… Petitioner did not present sufficient evidence that would demonstrate a high likelihood of forgery, or that the circulator’s actions were taken in bad faith and that the nominating petition was fraudulently filed.”

Bogan did, however, agree with Sena’s contention that Castaldo couldn’t use the slogan “Monmouth County Conservative Republican,” since there is already a registered organization called the Monmouth Conservative Republicans; Castaldo will have to come up with a new slogan to use on the ballot.

Castaldo’s counter-case against Flynn was more circuitous. He testified that, in conversations with local 13th district residents, he had heard numerous times from people who said they had signed petitions for Scharfenberger alone and did not intend for their signatures to be used in support of Flynn. (Petition signatures in New Jersey are allowed to count for multiple candidates running as a team for the same office.)

As evidence, Castaldo cited an email from the NJ Public Health Innovation PAC that seemed to encourage people to sign petitions for Scharfenberger alone. He also noted that a handful of people had signed petitions two or even three times, which he said was because they didn’t realize their initial signature would be used for both Scharfenberger and Flynn.

But Castaldo did not call forth any live witnesses, which he said was because those who might have testified on his behalf were concerned about political retribution – a common theme he returned to across both petition hearings. 

“It would be a lot easier for me to have more compiled evidence if people were more willing to come forward, but under the fear of political and other types of retribution, many people that were considering coming forward to help the case decided not to – because they were scared of retaliation,” Castaldo said. “I’m here because I want a free and fair election.” 

Unsurprisingly, Administrative Law Judge Judith Lieberman was not swayed by such arguments and, lacking any hard evidence that Flynn had collected petitions inappropriately, ordered her to remain on the ballot.

“There is insufficient evidence in the record to demonstrate or even suggest that a significant portion of the individuals who signed the petitions intended to endorse only Scharfenberger and were not aware that their signatures would also serve as endorsements of Flynn,” Lieberman wrote.

The pair of decisions means that the three-way primary is set to forge ahead, though it’s tough to  say right now how competitive it will be. Flynn and Scharfenberger are each multi-term incumbents with the backing of the Monmouth GOP, while Castaldo has never held elected office before; the winners will face Democrats Jason Corley and Vaibhav George in a district that hasn’t elected a Democratic legislator in over three decades.