Gannett runs an Op-Ed from conspiracy theorist Lisa McCormick

Gannett New Jersey no longer has a local editorial page editor and rarely produces local editorials during an era of extreme budget cuts.  Instead, they rely almost entirely on cost-free Op-Ed’s to fill their opinion pages.

On Saturday, multiple Gannett-owned newspapers across New Jersey ran an opinion piece arguing that the state’s system of awarding preferential ballot positions for candidates running on the organization line helped keep U.S. Senator Menendez in office.  Menendez’s 2018 primary opponent, shadowy perennial candidate and conspiracy theorist Lisa McCormick, wrote it.

The decision of Gannett to run her Op-Ed has left some New Jersey politicos dumbfounded, considering controversies surrounding McCormick and her controversial life partner, political gremlin James Devine.

Attorney General Matt Platkin has filed criminal charges against Devine for filing allegedly fraudulent nominating petition to put McCormick on the ballot in the 2021 gubernatorial primary.

The conventional wisdom is that Devine writes articles carrying McCormick’s byline.

“The problem is that Gannett has laid off so many journalists that nobody does any vetting there anymore,” one of their reporters told the New Jersey Globe.  “They’ve lost their institutional knowledge, and they’ve become sloppy.  It’s rather sad.”

The reporter, who asked that their name be withheld, said the decision to run an Op-Ed from McCormick was done harmlessly.

“If they knew who she was, they would never have printed it,” the reporter stated.  “Gannet is so uninterested in local news that they were duped.”

Devine faces more than eleven years in prison on one count of falsely filing nominating petitions, tampering with public records, both 3rd-degree offenses, and falsifying or tampering with records, a 4th-degree crime.   Devine was McCormick’s campaign manager and the circulator of her petitions.

McCormick had filed to challenge Gov. Phil Murphy two years ago when an executive order during the COVID-19 pandemic permitted candidates to file nominating petitions with electronic signatures.

The counsel to the Democratic State Committee, Raj Parikh, alleged that McCormick’s petition resulted from a mail merge of an outdated voter database.  He produced multiple witnesses who testified that they never signed the petitions even though their names appeared as signatories.

During the 2020 congressional primary in New Jersey’s 12th district, McCormick and Devine allegedly sent emails using the congresswoman’s campaign letterhead in an attempt to trick voters into believing that Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing), one of the most progressive members of the state’s House delegation, backed then-President Donald Trump.

Watson Coleman asked authorities to investigate the fake emails after one trafficked anti-Semitic tropes to smear her.  She also called out McCormick for sending out an email using the congresswoman’s campaign logo and showing the sender at BWC Updates to make it look like it was the incumbent’s press release.

The following year, Watson Coleman urged the attorney general to investigate allegations of fraudulent McCormick for Governor petitions.

“The lack of consequences for questionable tactics, including a website that stole my identity and failing to file any required FEC reports, only encourages these immoral candidates to escalate their apparent crimes,” Watson Coleman said.

State Sen. Joseph Cryan (D-Union) had also sought a probe, saying that Devine and McCormick “have repeatedly shown they have no concern for the law.”

Later, in 2021, Devine and McCormick were accused of fabricating a racist quote from Cryan’s campaign manager on a menacing website they ran that made to look like one run by the Democratic State Committee.  McCormick is the website’s publisher, but Devine is widely viewed as the site’s leader.

Superior Court Judge Alan Lesnewich issued a restraining order after the Democrats filed a lawsuit against Devine and McCormick, alleging that the two seek to confuse voters by suggesting that some school board candidates have the backing of top Democratic officials.  Murphy’s photo appeared on the mailers, and Democrats worry that the two are falsely giving the impression that they represent the state Democratic Party.

A trademark lawsuit filed by the Democratic State Committee against Devine and McCormick in 2022 is pending in the U.S. District Court.

In 2018, the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission levied a $120,000 fine against a political action committee run by Devine for failing to file contributors or expenditures between 2005 and 2010.

McCormick has never filed a campaign finance report with ELEC or the Federal Election Commission in multiple bids for public office.  The perennial candidate has lost bids for Union County Clerk in 2010, Rahway Council in 2014, U.S. Senate in 2018, Union County Surrogate in 2019, and the U.S. House of Representatives in 2020.

Gannett executive editor Dan Sforza did not immediately respond to a request for comment.