Is it OK to suggest a candidate did something criminal when they didn’t?
/By Rubashov
The Killian documents controversy (aka Memogate or Rathergate) involved six documents containing allegations about President George W. Bush's service in the Texas Air National Guard in 1972–73. Dan Rather presented these documents as authentic in a broadcast aired by CBS on September 8, 2004, less than two months before the 2004 presidential election, but it was later found that CBS had failed to authenticate them. The documents were allegedly typed in 1973, but several typewriter and typographical experts soon concluded that they were forgeries.
Fast forward to 2023, and the legislative campaign of Parker Space, Dawn Fantasia, and Mike Inganamort has put out a mailer alleging that opponent Josh Aikens was a registered voter in Pennsylvania, while he was registered in New Jersey. To back up that claim, the campaign mailer includes an image of a document that they had shopped around to reporters last month.
But the image on the mailer is not the same document given to reporters. The Space-Fantasia-Inganamort campaign appears to have deliberately altered the document, removing a very important part of it (literally chopping it off). That part of the document indicates that the person in question, who shares a name with the opponent, last voted on November 2, 1999.
The opponent, Josh Aikens, was a 16-year-old in 1999 and a well-known member of the High Point High School soccer team. He was living with his parents in Wantage – not far from Space Farms.
Is the document even real? If real, was the document deliberately altered by the campaign? Is Josh Aikens a victim of identity fraud? Or is there some other explanation.
Tossing aside such reasonable doubts. The campaign mailer goes on to irrationally suggest that Aikens may have committed the crime of “voter fraud”. The mailer refers to Aikens as “shady” even though the document – both in its unaltered and altered forms – does not indicate that “voter fraud” occurred. Nevertheless, the Space-Fantasia-Inganamort mailer uses the words “voter fraud” and “shady”.
The penalty for voter fraud can include a fine, up to two years imprisonment, and disenfranchisement. It is a serious allegation and not something to be lightly tossed around. If it happened, it should be reported to the prosecutor’s office in both states. But, of course, it has not been. Reporting something as a crime, when you know no crime has occurred, can be a crime itself.
Along with the word “conservative”, the phrase “voter fraud” is fast being made meaningless by the language pimps who manage some of the state’s political campaigns. Unwittingly, these particular language pimps have opened the door to some embarrassing questions of their own making.
For example, will these language pimps suggest to their client – gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli – that he needs to register from his new address?
From her public Facebook posts, Sussex County Commissioner Dawn Fantasia appears to be residing on a farm in Warren County. How will the language pimps she employs advise her?
And what about those various public officials in Sussex County – both elected and appointed – whose residency in Sussex County is required, but who keep most of their lives outside the County? Once the language of impropriety has been tossed about, don’t expect it to end with a campaign.
1999. High Point High School
Sussex County, New Jersey
When faced with an allegation of voter fraud – an allegation of criminal behavior – Assembly candidate Josh Aikens (a family man with a spotless legal record) addressed it publicly. He faced two journalists and told them directly that he had never lived in Pennsylvania.
This stands in contrast with Sussex County Commissioner Dawn Fantasia, who has consistently refused to address her very real, and very spotty, legal troubles.
Last September, the Commissioner was embroiled in a legal battle with Ashley Furniture over a debt of $2,045.06 (Docket SSX-DC-001706-22). And it appears she avoided the court notice (not at that address?). Most recently, there’s docket number SSX-DC-000502-23, filed on March 6, 2023. The plaintiff – a credit card company – is demanding a judgment in the amount of $1,152.00.
There are other incidents as well. On March 7, 2017, judgment was entered in the Superior Court, Special Civil Part, in favor of plaintiff CAPITAL ONE BANK and against defendant DAWN CUNNEELY (the Commissioner’s former married name) in the amount of $1,623.85 plus cost of $57.00. A Writ of Execution was issued by the Clerk of the Superior Court, Special Civil Part, with regard to this matter (Docket SSX-DC-000051-17). On November 16, 2017, pursuant to said Execution, Court Officer MICHAEL SCRIVANI levied on all monies on deposit in the Wells Fargo Bank, in the name of DAWN CUNNEELY. Judge David Weaver issued the Writ of Execution for $1,898.44.
And then there was judgment SSX-VJ-000722-16 (Docket SSX-DC-000631-16) against defendant DAWN FANTASIA (aka DAWN CUNNEELY). In which an order to garnish wages was executed on June 17, 2016, for the amount of $826.21. The listed employer was ILEARN SCHOOLS in Elmwood Park, NJ 07407.
These court actions were taken while Dawn Fantasia held public office. We have avoided those that concerned her as a private citizen, but before she held office, Fantasia was a joint debtor in a bankruptcy, filed by her husband, in 2008.
The Space-Fantasia-Inganamort team are sending out mailers and making allegations against a 16-year-old. Does it not follow that their entire histories are relevant?
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Senate candidate Parker Space has been dodging the question of when and why he got a Confederate flag tattoo. He denied having one and repeatedly lied to the media about it in 2017 -- that much is on the record.
Sources have confirmed that the Assemblyman, accompanied by actress Janeane Garofalo’s brother, got the tattoo in the aftermath of the terrorist mass murder of nine people (including Pastor and State Senator Clementa C. Pinckney). Space was confronted about this at a March 18, 2022, meeting – attended by State Senator Steve Oroho and other Sussex County political leaders. He refused to address it.
Will his running mates care to comment on this? Two of those running mates, Commissioner Dawn Fantasia and Surrogate Gary Chiusano, were present at the March 18, 2022, meeting. In fact, Commissioner Fantasia called the meeting.
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Commissioner Dawn Fantasia seems to believe that large parts of her public life – the life she made public – are off limits to discussion. When asked why, she invariably claims a feminist exemption. “I am the only woman running”, and statements like that. But there are statements she made, after beginning her political career in 2014, that need examination.
One such statement by Fantasia was made on the front page of the November 10, 2014, edition of the Star-Ledger, the largest circulation newspaper in New Jersey. In a story concerning her former husband, a schoolteacher who was convicted of a sex crime against one of his students (and “required to register as a sex offender under Megan's Law and… undergo parole supervision for life”, ibid April 18, 2008), the Star-Ledger reported:
“Like Jim Cunneely, Dawn Cunneely [Fantasia] believes he will never commit a similar crime. She calls him a good father, and she has granted him joint custody of the children.”
Studies vary, but the U.S. Justice Department’s National Sexual Violence Resource Center states: “Contrary to conventional wisdom, most re-offenses do not occur within the first several years after release. For example, in one study, subsequent sex offenses occurred as late as 10 years after prison discharge. The study found a 30 percent recidivism rate at year 10 of offender's release from prison. By the year 25, re-offending had increased to 52 percent.”
Nobody made this document up. It is on the front page of the state’s largest newspaper. And we’re not discussing events that happened when somebody was 16-years-old – but rather, statements of an adult pursuing a political office.
Nevertheless, Commissioner Fantasia believes that she should not have to clarify her statement – even though, as an Assemblywoman – a member of the New Jersey Legislature – she will be voting on bills that affect Megan’s Law and mandatory sentencing, and sex crimes, and child custody.
Fantasia’s statement certainly suggests that she might be open to policies that allow registered sex offenders, convicted of sex crimes against children, to be granted custody of minor children. That is why we asked her for a clarification of her statement from 2014. So far, she has refused.
Finally, before anyone suggests that we are revisiting some secret, best left in the dark, place – remember that the 2014 front page story was possibly in aid of marketing a book, written by Fantasia’s former husband. Published in 2013, it is called “Folie A Deux” and is 374 pages of self-disclosure. You can buy it on Amazon for $19.95.
“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
