BY JOYCE BLAY
Staff Writer
JACKSON — In the dwindling weeks before Election Day 2003, charges of dirty politics and political retribution became the predominant topic of discussion during a tumultuous Township Committee meeting Oct. 14.
At stake are two seats on the Township Committee and a proposed change of government question that will appear on the Nov. 4 ballot.
The debate about issues turned to one about ethics after a packet of information was anonymously mailed out to some people in town a week earlier. The packet contained a document with criminal information about a person with the same name as Jackson’s mayor, Michael J. Kafton.
Kafton, a Democrat, is running for re-election to the Township Committee.
The information showed that the person named in the document had been arrested in North Carolina and charged with possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia in 1993. The person pled guilty and paid a fine.
A flier accompanying the document urged residents not to vote for Jackson’s Kafton.
At last week’s committee meeting, Kafton denied that he is the person named in the flier and a police investigation backed up his claim.
The flier carried an attribution that read, "Paid for by VOTE, M. Kaczynski, Treas."
Voters Organized To Elect Our Mayor (VOTE) led the petition drive that resulted in the change of government question being placed on the ballot. The group’s president, Robert Schiappacasse, denied that his organization had anything to do with the flier.
Kafton said he did not believe VOTE had sent out the misleading information.
"This was dirty politics at its worst," Kafton said.
Kafton said the document about the other Michael J. Kafton, which was obtained through the Internet Web site of a company located in Anguilla, West Indies, was that of a person born in December 1968. The mayor said he was born in December 1965. He said he had contacted the office of the state Attorney General about what he called a deliberate attempt to malign him.
"I have a good indication who [distributed the mailing] and I will file a lawsuit [when I know]," said Kafton. "This is the lowest of the low. You know who you are and we are coming after you. This is not what politics should be about."
Then he turned the meeting’s protocol around by confronting one of his Republican challengers, Melvyn Schubert. Kafton said Schubert’s credit card number and driver’s license number were encrypted at the bottom of the criminal report that he (Schubert) had obtained online.
"I know this is unusual, but I’m going to ask the questions," the mayor said.
"This isn’t proper," said Vicki Rickabaugh, a Republican who served on the Township Committee from 1995 to 2000.
"I know, but I’m doing it," Kafton said.
Holding up the downloaded document, Kafton demanded to know if former Jackson administrator William Santos had anything to do with its dissemination throughout the community.
Santos denied any responsibility in the matter.
"Vicki, same question," Kafton said.
"Absolutely not," she said without hesitation, and then added, "That’s funny, that’s really funny. You know, you’re so outraged, but I remember seven years ago I was accused of breaking into the Democratic headquarters and my license and truck description were given out. Luckily, my truck is white, not green."
"I’m really glad it’s Halloween because you spin some great webs, Vicki," said Deputy Mayor Sean Giblin, who is running for re-election with Kafton.
Kafton asked Schubert to come forward and address the committee. Kafton asked him if he had mailed out the packet.
Schubert said he did not disseminate the material, then left the room. Shortly afterward, so did Rickabaugh and Santos.
In a subsequent conversation with the Tri-Town News, Rickabaugh said, "I am denying that I am in charge of creating fliers for the Republican campaign committee or that I am on the campaign committee."
She did not deny having done work for the campaign committee.
"I help create advertisements for the Republican campaign committee," she said.
Schubert also denied sending out the mailing.
"I showed a couple of copies of the information downloaded from the Web site and told everyone [on the campaign committee] that it wasn’t [Kafton, the mayor], but I didn’t get all of the five copies back," he said.
"I’m not accusing anyone on the Republican committee of sending out the flier, but it is possible they sent it out. It could have been anybody. All I know is that Bill (Allmann, Schubert’s running mate) and I didn’t write the letter and mail it out."
Schubert said he would not investigate who might have sent out the packet, although he was aware that Kafton could still take legal action against only him.
Detective Lt. John Siedler of the Jackson Police Department said there is little basis for a criminal complaint to be filed.
"As far as any criminal charges for passing that item around, there is no criminal offense committed or any statute that was broken," he said. "I didn’t find any criminal wrongdoing. And as far as anything else [in a civil matter], again, that would be up to the individual parties who were involved and probably their legal advisers."
Siedler said that rather than the mayor requesting the Jackson Police Department to investigate the matter, it was the police who had asked Kafton to submit to a second set of fingerprinting in order to determine his fitness to hold office.
"Certain crimes preclude individuals from running for public office," said Siedler.
"They include indictable crimes, called felonies in other states. Possession of marijuana under 50 grams is considered to be a disorderly persons offense. The Michael J. Kafton in the police report had criminal arrests in several states in addition to the arrest made in North Carolina for marijuana and drug paraphernalia possession. The police department requested that the mayor come in for a new set of fingerprint classifications to be taken for comparison with those of the Michael J. Kafton arrested in North Carolina. We found them not to be a match."
As a result of that investigation, Siedler said the mayor was cleared of any possible exclusion from running for office or continuing to hold it.
That may have been little comfort to Kafton, even after confronting his political foes in public and asking them if they had orchestrated the embarrassment.
"Welcome to the silly season," Committeeman Michael Broderick said at one point during the Oct. 14 committee meeting.
Nobody laughed.