Dark money flows into two GOP primaries in LD04 and LD24.

By Rubashov
 
One superPAC is run by the IUOE 825 gas tax union. Another is a Pro-Transgender PAC set up to elect Pro-Choice “moderate” women. A third is a brand-new PAC and seeks to extend the influence of a controversial Islamic cleric.  
 
Are these dark money special interest groups trying to steal the election in two GOP primaries?
 
Who are these groups and what does their dominance say about the New Jersey GOP heading into next year’s Presidential race?
 
According to figures provided by the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission (NJELEC), the Stronger Foundations superPAC – which is controlled by the IUOE 825 “gas tax” union – poured $280,086 into the Republican primary in South Jersey’s District 4 and $75,134 into Northwest New Jersey’s District 24. In addition, the Pro-Transgender “Women for a Stronger New Jersey” spent $75,387 – primarily in District 24.
 
Another superPAC called “Garden State Success” spent $47,500. This PAC was created just a few weeks ago by insiders affiliated with District 24 Assembly candidate Dawn Fantasia. According to The Record newspaper of Bergen County and its affiliate,NorthJersey.com, both Fantasia and the PAC’s founders are linked with a charter school business controlled by followers of a controversial Islamic cleric,

The Record also reported that former Governor Chris Christie is close to some figures in that controversial cleric's operation. Christie, a potential presidential candidate, was supported by IUOE 825 in his effort to raise the state's gas tax by 23 cents a gallon when the TTF was last up for renewal. It is again up for renewal next year. 
 
This money was used to attack conservatives Nick DeSilvio, Michael Clark, and Denise Gonzalez in District 4; and Josh Aikens and Jason Sarnoski in District 24.

Gloucester County Commissioner DeSilvio is running for Senate, while conservative activists Clark and Gonzalez are running for Assembly in District 4. Parental rights advocate Aikens and Warren County Commissioner Sarnoski are running for Assembly in District 24.

SOURCE: New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission (NJELEC).
 

The Heritage Foundation has commissioned a study on the infiltration of Republican organizations and primaries by Biden-backing labor unions like IUOE 825 – the one bankrolling the Stronger Foundations superPAC that has spent more than $350,000 to trash conservatives in two districts. Heritage – America’s most prominent conservative think tank -- is watching this election closely.
 
Women for a Stronger New Jersey made the news in 2020 when it spent around $30,000 on negative direct mail in an attempt to defeat a conservative State Committeewoman in Mercer County. The SuperPAC wanted to elect what would have been the first transgender State Committeewoman to represent a county Republican organization in New Jersey. The incumbent, a biological woman, was pressured to make way for a transgendered person, so that Republicans could brag about electing their first “trans-woman” as a GOP State Committeewoman. When the biological female State Committeewoman refused – they went after her. The effort failed.
 
Women for a Stronger New Jersey is run by NJGOP Chairman Bob Hugin’s 2018 U.S. Senate campaign manager, who has also benefitted as a vendor to the committee. Hugin’s spouse is a founding member of the two-member board that runs the committee, according to its webpage. And as if anyone needed clarification as to the ideology of the candidates the committee is looking to promote, the Women for a Stronger New Jersey website is very clear on this:
 
“We're working to grow the number of women serving in elected office at the state and local level by building a diverse network of moderate Republican and Independent women throughout the state and expanding the pool of women considering public office.”
 
In other words, conservative Republican women need not apply. In 2021, when the state’s senior Pro-Life Senator decided to run for re-election, Women for a Stronger New Jersey urged a pro-abortion woman to primary him. And now, in 2023, Women for a Stronger New Jersey has got involved in the GOP primary in District 24, putting out mailers and ads on behalf of Assembly candidates Dawn Fantasia and Mike Inganamort.
 
Garden State Success is running ads for Assembly candidates Dawn Fantasia and Mike Inganamort too. This PAC was incorporated on April 27, 2023. The lead trustee is Danielle Alpert, described by InsiderNJ as “a long time Trenton lobbyist”.  She is the wife of Brian Alpert, a state employee who works for Senators Steve Oroho and Tony Bucco. The other trustees are the County Supervisor for Roads of Passaic County and a Democrat activist from Newark.
 
Danielle Alpert works for T.J. Best – a longtime elected Democrat. He was a County Commissioner in Passaic County and a legislative aide to Congressman Bill Pascrell. Alpert and Best work for Harry Lee, the CEO and President of NJPCSA and the former Chief Strategy Officer at iLearn Schools, where Assembly candidate Dawn Fantasia worked as a Chief Growth Officer and Chief Communications Officer. Both T.J. Best and Harry Lee hosted fundraising events for Dawn Fantasia’s Assembly campaign committee.
 
Danielle Alpert is listed on the D-4 Form filed with the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission (NJELEC) on May 16, 2023 – along with Theresa Mondella, who lists her personal email address as committee’s email address. Mondella is a longtime Trenton establishment operative who is closely associated with Chris Russell, the political consultant for the Space-Fantasia-Inganamort campaign. Last year, Mondella set-up a SuperPAC for Russell client Bob Healey – a candidate for Congress in South Jersey’s 3rd District. The SuperPAC created by Mondello in 2022 (she was listed as Treasurer), was called Garden State Advance.
 
According to The Record newspaper & NorthJersey.com, iLearn Schools is linked to an Islamic cleric who is a convicted criminal in his native Turkey and wanted for terrorism.  Here’s a good overview from The Record/ NorthJersey.com (February 16, 2017):
 

Charter school leaders, founders linked to controversial Turkish cleric

 
A group of charter schools that arose from North Jersey’s Turkish community is rapidly growing in the state, with seven schools collecting more than $60 million in taxpayer money last year alone to fund their growth.
 
Now, an investigation by The Record and NorthJersey.com shows that some founders and leaders of the schools have close ties to the movement of Fethullah Gulen, the controversial Islamic cleric accused of working to overthrow the government in his native Turkey last summer. Gulen is fighting extradition demands as he lives in a secluded compound in Pennsylvania's Pocono Mountains, about 10 miles from the New Jersey border.
 
…Some belong to Turkish émigré groups that tout the cleric's teachings. There are also political donors who collectively have furnished hundreds of thousands in donations to U.S. office holders while the North Jersey charter schools in general have been adept at wooing state and local government officials with trips to Turkey and, in some cases, jobs.
 
Records show the charter schools in North Jersey also have been a channel for state taxpayer money to private entities that serve the schools as landlords or vendors — in one case, a Wayne boarding school that is openly Gulen inspired.
 
Turkish prosecutors accuse Gulen of attempts to overthrow the government and of instigating the 2016 coup attempt. In 2000, he was found guilty, in absentia, of scheming to overthrow the government by embedding civil servants in various governmental offices. A Turkish criminal court has issued an arrest warrant for Gulen and Turkey is demanding his extradition from the United States. Gulen is wanted as a terrorist leader in Turkey and Pakistan, as well as by the OIC and GCC. Turkey is a member of NATO.
 
…A state-financed property deal involving the Paterson Charter School for Science and Technology also benefited its landlord, a private group with close ties to the Gulen movement:
 
That group sold the property and used the proceeds to help open a new campus in Wayne for its private boarding school that hews closely to Gulen's teachings and caters largely to students from Turkey. 
 
Public money, in fees and rent that could amount to millions of dollars over time, continues to flow to the charter school's new landlord, a firm with multiple ties to Turkish charter schools in New Jersey and elsewhere. 
 
…More than $30 million in long-term, low-interest loans have been granted by the state to benefit the Paterson charter school despite its continuing financial and academic troubles…
 
A number of prominent Turkish nationals connected to the charters or their vendors have emerged as fundraisers and contributors to Hillary Clinton and Obama, among other political leaders. A former head of the Science and Technology charter in Paterson, Furkan Kosar, is the president of the Council of Turkic American Associations. Kosar raised more than $500,000 for Obama’s re-election bid in 2012. He did not return calls made to the council.
 
Critics say the presence of big-money contributors connected to the schools in New Jersey and other states is evidence the cleric and his followers are advancing the Gulen movement at the expense of U.S. taxpayers.
 
…Among those critics is retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, Donald Trump’s recently ousted national security adviser who claimed American taxpayers “are helping finance Gulen’s 160 charter schools in the United States” in an op-ed piece written in November for The Hill.
 
There is every indication to suggest that Garden State Success was created specifically to help elect Dawn Fantasia to the Assembly. Fantasia bragged to people – including colleagues – that she would be getting help from these sources.
 
We don’t know why, but during Dawn Fantasia’s December 2022 interview with LD24 and SRM staff, she made it very clear that iLearn’s leadership would facilitate her role as a legislator and that they saw her advancement in positive terms for their movement. When questioned about the conflict between her schedule as a school principal and the legislative schedule, Fantasia told interviewers that she had discussed it with iLearn’s leadership and that her role in the Legislature would be important enough for them to accommodate her schedule by assigning her a different role in their organization, like communications or government affairs.
 
Are Steve Oroho and Hal Wirths aware of this? And if they are, do they support Gulen and his works? Moreover, are they comfortable with sending someone from that organization into the GOP legislative caucus? 

“Voters can’t make informed decisions unless they’re informed.  If you asked any self-respecting constituent of George Santos, they’d tell you they wish they knew then what they know now.”
 
Micah Rasmussen
Director of the Rebovich Institute of New Jersey Politics at Rider University

"If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear."

George Orwell