MIDDLETOWN — What is politically illegal to one politician is mere legitimate posturing of prose to a grassroots nonprofit group.
That’s why when the Concerned Citizens of Middletown found out last week that a complaint had been filed against them with the state’s Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC), they were shocked.
The complaint was filed three weeks ago by election and finance law attorney William E. Baroni on behalf of Assemblyman Joseph Azzolina (R-13). It calls for investigation into what Baroni says are illegal fund-raising practices leveled by the Concerned Citizens, a nonprofit group of Middletown residents formed more than a year ago to mobilize against a proposed 137-acre, $150 million town center on Route 35 north between Kanes Lane and Kings Highway East.
When unveiled, the proposed center’s developer was Azzolina Land Corp., headed by the assemblyman. Since then, the conceptual development changed hands and is now spearheaded by Azzolina’s son, Joseph Jr., and his nephew, Philip Scaduto.
Assemblyman Azzolina bowed out of the forefront of the town center picture, though the land is still owned by his family. Still, Concerned Citizens circulated buttons, petitions, signs and public relations information packets for which they received donations to contribute to the anti-town center cause.
This was all legitimate, Baroni said.
"They can stand on a soapbox all they want; that’s fine," he said. "Once you take out an ad, though, it’s a communication that was paid for, and there are laws put into place to prevent anonymous support of those paid-for ads leveled against someone running for office on the eve of an election [or at least 20 days prior]. Yes, there are lots of political ads, but you can go to the ELEC and find out who funded them. These charges would have been more difficult to prove had the Concerned Citizens only attacked Assemblyman Azzolina as a developer and kept the politics out of it."
Concerned Citizens Secretary Linda Gumina countered, "We’re not a political group. They’re just trying to discredit us. Our books are open. If they want to see them, they can go ahead. We have nothing to hide."
Baroni feels differently. He says that while the Concerned Citizens have every right to their own opinion as a grassroots group, they don’t have a right to level paid-for political attacks against a candidate when they haven’t filed an ELEC report with the state.
"Their books could be filed in the library. They broke the law by not filing with the ELEC and by taking anonymous contributions," he said. "Soft-money political action committees who run stealth commercials and stealth advertising and don’t reveal their donors are not operating within the law. The most basic reason for campaign finance laws is to allow voters to know who is paying for political commercials — to make sure the money spent to run advertisements is not illegal money."
Concerned Citizens attorney Ron Gasiorowski, Red Bank, says it’s just not so.
"My client is litigating a matter opposing land use," he said. "I don’t know of anything that says all moneys for such a cause need to be reported. From what I can tell, [Azzolina and Baroni] are saying Concerned Citizens has engaged in political rather than civic activity. I think they’re drawing on an instance wherein one or two members of the group spoke for themselves and made a statement about a political candidate. They spoke as private citizens and as such have a right to speak. They did not speak on the group’s behalf."
He added, "We’ll have to see how this plays out. But in my estimation, it’s a way to exert pressure on my client for the litigation against the development. My client will proceed with the case, nonetheless."
While Gasiorowski’s area of legal expertise lies with the land use issue, Baroni says he "knows very little about the town center but a lot about election and campaign finance law."
Neither disputes the other’s knowledge. Both choose to opt for a wait-and-see approach, waiting for the law to take its course.
Time will tell, said Baroni.
"The complaint was hand-delivered, as mandated," he noted. "Under its own statute, the ELEC won’t say whether the matter is under investigation. What the organization will do is look at the complaint, which they have 90 days to do. After it’s looked at, they will determine whether an investigation is warranted.
"Right now they’re just looking at the complaint. My view, though, is that we’ve supplied enough evidence to open an investigation. Mr. Azzolina was a clearly identifiable candidate [in the advertisement]. There is no gray area; it’s black and white. If the Concerned Citizens want to do the right thing, they need to fill out the papers. They can get them on the Internet. They can’t just say their books are open. File the papers."