DEMOCRACY RUNS ON DUNKIN’
Lawsuit says Mayor Gusciora bribed poll workers with Munchkins and lunch, accuses him of electioneering >>
TRENTON » One mayor accepted bribes, and another one is accused of doling them out.
An explosive lawsuit brought by Paul Perez’s cronies have alleged Mayor Reed Gusciora committed criminal electioneering and bribery during last month’s runoff that helped him overcome a seemingly insurmountable lead Trenton’s native son established in Round 1 of the nonpartisan municipal election.
Gusciora’s alleged weapon of influence was lunch and Dunkin Donuts’ munchkins.
Trenton residents Chester Jones, Jazmyn Jones and Michael Ranallo – all who worked for Perez as official challengers and donated money to his campaign – and others brought the lawsuit against the new mayor, the first leveled against him in his fouryear term, before the deadline to challenge the election.
The lawsuit is unique in that they aren’t challenging the runoff outcome and aren’t directly looking to unseat Gusciora as the mayor but hope to hold him civilly – and potentially criminally – responsible for his actions.
Mount Laurel-based Parker McCay, a law firm often tapped by the city to fight litigation, is representing Gusciora against the lawsuit. Attorney J. Brooks DiDonato didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Also named as a defendant in the complaint is Joanne Palmucci, the Democratic chairwoman of the Mercer County Board of Election, which is responsible for hiring and training board workers.
The board, under Palmucci’s direction, is accused of failing to maintain order at the polls, which compromised the outcome and integrity of the runoff when workers gladly accepted lunch from Gusciora and failed to crack down on him and his camp for brazen electioneering, a disorderly persons offense, that happened at polling places across the city, the lawsuit alleges.
“The sanctity of our electoral process is of great importance and the abuse of the electoral process demonstrated on the part of the defendants created an environment that severely tainted the process,” the lawsuit said.
Among the allegations are that workers allegedly allowed voters to “reenter the voting booth” when they claimed they forgot to vote for a candidate in each category or didn’t notice whether the green light lit up next to the candidate they picked when they pushed the “cast vote” button on the machines.
The lawsuit, filed by attorney God-Is C. Ike of The Ike Law Firm on South Broad Street in Trenton, faults the board for the alleged disenfranchisement of Spanish-speaking voters since there weren’t enough Spanish-speaking workers to help out at the polls in blaming Palmucci for the failures that created an “untrustworthy,” “dysfunctional” and highly politicized election plagued by voter apathy.
Gusciora’s office released a statement via email Tuesday afternoon after initial reports of the lawsuit were published.
“The election ended on June 12th at 8:00 pm. I was hopeful that the Perez camp would be willing to move forward and begin cooperating towards this city’s betterment. But I was wrong; they instead found it necessary to file a frivolous lawsuit, and attempt to hinder our new administration in moving Trenton forward,” Gusciora said in the statement.
“They have made it painfully obvious that they never had Trenton’s best interests at heart,” Gusciora said. “This is not a pursuit of justice, but a half-hearted attempt to serve their own interests.”
Ike didn’t return a phone call requesting comment.
The Munchkin Man
Gusciora is all smiles in photos attached to the lawsuit as he holds two boxes of Dunkin Donut munchkins in his hands outside of the Briggs Branch Library.
He was also photographed walking into the polling center with the sweet, little dough balls that apparently turned the tide in the election.
Perez’s people cited election bribery laws that forbid paying, providing or giving board workers and voters “any meat, drink, entertainment or provision to or for any person for the purpose of influencing that person or any other person to give or refrain from giving his vote at any election.”
Bribery is a third-degree crime in New Jersey, punishable by three to five years in prison upon conviction.
In addition, Perez’s people alleged in several attached sworn affidavits that they heard and saw board workers instructing voters at polling locations and over the phone to cast ballots for Gusciora, who overcame Perez’s more than 700-vote bubble to become the capital city’s first openly gay mayor.
Perez first raised the electioneering allegations in a post-runoff interview with The Trentonian, claiming the ex-assemblyman and his camp misrepresented to voters that he was a Republican to dissuade them from voting for Trenton’s native son while Gusciora held himself out as a proud Democrat.
Perez, however, is not a plaintiff in the tar-and-feather lawsuit, which isn’t a formal challenge to the election and instead is aimed at chipping away at the new mayor’s reputation.
Perez’s people want Gusciora found guilty of electioneering and bribery and ordered to pay fines and hope to get Palmucci removed as chairwoman of the Board of Elections.
Palmucci survived Perez’s previous attempt to have her removed as chair before the election because she helped throw a fundraiser for two-time, thirdplace mayoral candidate Walker Worthy Jr.
The lawsuit seeks sanctions against the board hoping it will reexamine policies and procedures for failing to properly train staff.
The lawsuit cited an affidavit from Ericka McCoy, a supervisor at the Mercer County Board of Elections who helped develop the training program for board workers.
McCoy, who is listed as an administrative clerk on the board’s website, claimed policies weren’t consistently followed for nonpartisan elections, which caused “major dysfunction” and a “very toxic” environment at the Board of Elections since people disregard the rules and “do what they want.”
“There is a lot of stuff that goes on behind the scenes that is party affiliated there is an unspoken understanding that a certain party runs things,” she said in the affidavit.
Bribes
Ex-Mayor Tony Mack and his associates at least used code words like “Uncle Remus” and “cheesesteaks” when soliciting bribes.
Gusciora didn’t bother to hide food bribes for board workers while propositioning Trentonians to vote for him in the mayoral race inside or within 100 feet of polling centers, in violation of state electioneering laws, the lawsuit says.
Making matters worse, board workers didn’t halt Gusciora’s and his camp’s alleged misconduct at Briggs Library in the East Ward, Joyce Kilmer School in the West Ward and Architect Housing in the North Ward, which was reported to “super challengers.”
Perez challenger Jazmyn Jones said in a sworn affidavit that Gusciora told everyone at the Trenton Apartments West that he was buying them lunch. Board workers even helped him take a head count and introduced him to residents.
Gusciora was also allegedly overheard introducing himself to people as a Democrat, the lawsuit outlines.
Jones claimed she was approached by a poll worker and told to remove her badge. The same worker went up to her daughter, Taina Jackson, also a challenger, and asked her to do the same, but didn’t harass Gusciora’s challengers.
Jones reported Gusciora’s lunch offer and board workers’ behavior to a supervisor and to
Republican board commissioner Anthony Conti.
Conti, who previously seemed to buoy Perez’s electioneering allegations when he admitted to The Trentonian he saw activity that was “out of bounds, told board workers it was “illegal” for them to take food from the candidates and ordered them to stop.
More Issues At Polls
Machines didn’t work, causing long lines. Air conditioners tanked, making waiting in line “uncomfortable.” And workers allegedly acted as cheerleaders for Gusciora, “coached” and asked voters who they voted for and disparaged Perez as a Republican, the lawsuit said.
Jones said that while polls were still open and voters were within earshot, she saw poll workers who
apparently expected the assemblyman to win dancing and screaming about how they’d be attending Gusciora’s post-election party.
Taina Jackson claimed in her affidavit one poll worker called Perez campaign peeps “crazy.”
And a poll worker named “Minnie” refused to provide one of her friends with a provisional ballot and gave her improper instructions about leaving the provisional ballot unsealed.
Jackson told her friend to
disregard those directions because she knew unsealed ballots would get tossed.
Election challenger Santa Correa was at Joyce Kilmer and heard a poll worker inappropriately respond to a voter’s question about which candidate was a Democrat.
Another election challenger said two voting booths didn’t work at Briggs Library. Replacement machines were brought in but the key used to open them was missing, so voters were
forced to use one machine, leading to long lines and delays.
Another poll worker named Robert was observed “coaching” voters to pick the No. 2 candidate on the ballot and heard talking about the election while on his cell phone, the lawsuit said.
“Both Mr. Gusciora’s conduct and that of the board workers was deliberately used to solicit votes for Mr. Gusciora,” the lawsuit said.