A South Jersey lawmaker wants the New Jersey Department of Education to investigate the role of an administrative employee of the Washington Township public schools in circulating a nominating petition for phantom candidates running for the legislature.
The New Jersey Globe reported on Sunday that Angela McGeehan, who obtained a clerical job at the local high school last year, had obtained signatures for the ghost candidates running as independents under a conservative label: Giuseppe Costanzo for Senate and Maureen Dukes-Penrose for Assembly.
State Sen. Vince Polistina (R-Egg Harbor Township) sent a letter to the acting Education Commissioner, Angelica Allen-McMillan, asking for assurances that the hiring of McGeehan, the daughter of former Washington Township Democratic Chairman Frank Cianci, wasn’t politically motivated.
“These reports bring troubling concerns regarding the partisan nature of work at the Washington Township Board of Education,” said Polistina. “These employees should not be involved in conspiracies to recruit fraudulent candidates and undermine confidence in our electoral system.
It’s still not clear why McGeehan, a registered Democrat with close ties to South Jersey Democratic insiders, would circulate independent petitions for conservative candidates. She secured more than one-third of the signatures on petitions for Costanzo and Dukes-Penrose.
Since the presence of phantom candidates on the ballot could be viewed as a crime in progress, Polistina wants Allen-McMillan to launch an immediate investigation.
A tenebrous new political organization, Jersey Freedom, sent out attack mailers to Republicans in the 4th district attacking the GOP candidate, Christopher Del Borrello, and asking them to vote for Costanzo instead.
Cianci has longtime ties to the Democratic Senate candidate, Paul Moriarty.
