Guardian will help Gusciora re-election bid

Trenton’s non-partisan municipal elections have paved the way for a Republican lawmaker to help raise money for the re-election campaign of the mayor of Trenton, a Democrat.

Assemblyman Don Guardian (R-Atlantic City) has signed on as a host for a September fundraiser that will boost Gusciora’s bid for a second term.

A former Atlantic City mayor, Guardian is the only openly gay member of the New Jersey Legislature.  For a while, that designation belonged to Gusciora, who represented parts of Mercer and Hunterdon counties in the State Assembly before winning the mayoral post four years ago.

Guardian isn’t the only Republican helping Gusciora.  Also on the event invitation is Steve Cook, a former chief of staff to State Sen. Peter Inverso (R-Hamilton) and a onetime GOP Assembly candidate  If Cook had won his 2013 race, he would have been the state’s first openly gay Republican legislator.  Instead, it took Republicans eight more years – until Guardian’s victory – to achieve that.

Some big name Democrats are also hosting the Gusciora fundraiser, including former Gov. James E. McGreevey, former Assembly Speaker Joe Roberts, former State Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D-Elizabeth), former Casino Control Commissioner Jeannine LaRue, and Bordentown Mayor Jennifer Sciortino.

As mayor, Gusciora has been forced to deal with perhaps the most dysfunctional city council in New Jersey.   Tirades from some councilmembers have included homophobic and anti-Semitic rants.

In May 2020, a heated debate  over some non-profit organizations that receive some funding from the city, embattled Councilwoman Robin Vaughn descended into early 30 minutes of profane and slur-laced tirades aimed at Gusciora.

Vaughn, who made social media posts warning residents to keep “all eyes on all those ‘do nothing’ nonprofits” in advance of the meeting, claimed that the Trenton Health Team, which drafts Trenton’s community health improvement plan, had not done anything in the years it has contracted with the city.

Gusciora claimed the Vaughn was making baseless attacks and called her a child — and a little later, an idiot, a point that some do not dispute.

The mayor attempted to end the call after Vaughn began shouting.  Vaughn responded by claiming that Gusciora, Trenton’s first openly gay mayor and the first openly gay member of the state legislature, is a pedophile.

“You’re nothing but an old pedophile running around with little boys,” Vaughn said. “You need to get the fuck out of the office and get the fuck out of Trenton.”

Councilman Joseph  Harrison stepped in to defend Gusciora, deriding Vaughn as an embarrassment and asking the call’s operator to mute the councilwoman.

In the meantime, Vaughn repeatedly called both Harrison and Gusciora “bitches.”

Not long after, she again accused Gusciora of being a pedophile and told Harrison to “continue to suck Reed’s dick, motherfucker.”

“We don’t have bitch ass men in my family. We don’t have bitch-ass men like you and Reed Gusciora in my family. We got real men in my family, bitch asses. Nothing but a bunch of women, that’s all you are. Bitches,” Vaughn said. “That’s right, running around here with young men, and Reed ain’t nothing but an old pedophile. Bitch-ass mother-fucking mayor.”

The call returned to focus on COVID-19 after that, though the reprieve lasted only about two minutes.

As Council President Kathy McBride was attempting to end the call, Vaughn began shouting at Harrison, claiming he had done nothing for Trenton during his time in office and again told the councilman to fellate the mayor.

“Continue to suck Reed Gusciora’s dick all you want to, motherfucker,” Vaughn said.

The two councilmembers continued the deeply-personal fight uninterrupted for about 10 minutes.

Harrison called Vaughn a nobody who would be forgotten after losing her race in 2022. Vaughn said Harrison’s mother was a prostitute.

Eventually, McBride told everyone aside from the feuding councilmembers to get off the call, though she had to do it over Vaughn again calling the mayor a pedophile.

“The only thing he’s brought into city hall is a bunch of young boys, and they’re sitting up there in the mayor’s suite,” Vaughn said.

The quarrel renewed after that, with the councilman repeatedly calling for Vaughn to seek psychiatric help and the councilwoman repeating past charges at Harrison.

After roughly 30-minutes of fighting, Harrison moved to leave the call, and Vaughn again told the councilman to perform a sex act on Gusciora.

“Get the fuck outta here, you bitch. Goodbye. You better get off the phone, you fucking coward,” she said. “Go suck Reed’s dick now, motherfucker. Just go do that.”

Council Vice President Marge Caldwell-Wilson, McBride and Harrison remained on the call after Vaughn’s departure. They said the councilwoman had not attended such a call for roughly two weeks after a previous profane outburst and discussed ways to potentially mute her during future episodes.

Top New Jersey officials, including Gov. Phil Murphy, U.S. Senators Bob Menendez and Cory Booker, and Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing) condemned Vaughn.

Vaughn drew fire last fall for defending McBride’s use of an anti-Semitic slur, saying “Jew her down” was just a verb.

Full recording: