Jon Kurpis sets the record straight to LD39: Evidence of how the Trenton swamp manipulates GOP voters.

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By Jon Kurpis -Saddle River Municipal Chair

As a proud populist (America First) Republican and elected County Committee member / Municipal Chair from a ruby red community, I have come to enjoy the articles published by Jersey Conservative (JC). JC articles tend to be hard hitting, intelligently written and from a for the people perspective. It was therefore quite alarming to read Rob Owen’s article LD39: Evidence of how the Trenton swamp manipulates GOP voters that included multiple irrefutable lies about me.

First and foremost, neither Rob Owen nor anyone from Jersey Conservative contacted me to do a fact check or had the courtesy to include proof to back up these obviously false allegations. Rob Owen apparently feels that he is above journalistic rigor and somehow just knows exactly how things went down with my personal campaigns. With that as the back drop, I will now factually dismantle the lies Fake Rob Owen made up about me to give the voters / readers the truth and to protect my good name.

Lie #1: Schepisi had Auth Booted from Passaic Line

Rob Owen wrote:

“But in Passaic County, she (Schepisi) was actually working to undermine her popular running mate and boot him off the Passaic line.”

“Then, days after the filing deadline, a decision was made to boot Auth from the Passaic line ensuring that Schepisi, Azzariti and Kurpis would appear on the Passaic ballot together despite the vote of the Passaic County Republican organization.”

Although Schepisi, Auth and Azzariti did originally win the Passaic line, Owen's suggestion that Schepisi got Auth booted from it is lie.The truth is Auth did NOT accept his place on the line for technical reasons.

In order for Auth to accept his spot on the Passaic line, it would have required that he unbracket from his running mate DeAnne DeFuccio. And because unbracketing would also mean splitting up their shared signatures, it opened up the possibility that DeFuccio could be completely removed from the ballot if a few of her signatures were challenged and found to be invalid. Rather than risking the possibility of losing DeFuccio from the ballot altogether, Auth strategically rejected his invitation to run on the Passaic County line with Azzariti.

Prior to Auth voluntarily turning down his spot on the line, I personally realized the predicament he and DeFuccio were in being that they had so few signatures. In fact, I preemptively submitted an official letter to Passaic County Chairman Murphy requesting to be considered to fill any void that would occur if an Assembly candidate chose not to accept the line. When Auth eventually turned down his invitation, a spot opened up (as I anticipated) and I was already in position to appropriately fill that void and also was the only candidate left to fill the spot on the line.

Screen shot of official letter sent to Chairman Murphy. Should anyone want the full letter with the remainder of my resume, I’d be happy to provide it.

As you can see, I was clever enough to put myself in the proper position to fill the void when Auth voluntarily chose not to unbracket from DeFuccio and run on the Passaic line. Rob Owen’s assertion that Schepisi somehow manipulated the Passaic County line is an intentional lie meant to decieve Jersey Conservative readers.

Lie #2: My campaign signs were influenced by Schepisi and included lies meant to decieve voters.

Rob Owen wrote:

“That didn’t didn’t stop Schepisi’s candidates from distributing lawn signs implying it was actually Azzariti who would appear with her on a so-called “Official GOP Line…campaign was political disinformation par excellence.”

First and foremost, I’M NOT SCHEPISI’S OR ANYONE ELSE’S CANDIDATE. I’m a 45 year old husband, father and alpha male. I do what I want, when I want and how I want. I certainly don’t ask Holly Schepisi or anyone for permission to fight for the people.

Furthermore, Fake Rob Owen's bullshit contention that my campaign signs were in some way immoral makes his own writing the only example of “political disinformation par excellence”.

I directly oversaw every aspect of my sign strategy. I personally designed 2 separate campaign signs (1 for Passaic and 1 for Bergen). Each county sign was unique and included accurate wording based on its anticipated location.

My Passaic campaign sign included the message “Vote Official GOP Line” as Azzariti and I were both on the official GOP line. This phrase was included at Chairman Murphy’s suggestion so that other on-the-line candidates would also get traction from these signs. Below is a photo Chairman Murphy sent me to confirm our Passaic signs were delivered and met his expectations.

Its also worth noting that my campaign purposefully arranged for the Passaic signs to be delivered to the Passaic County HQ so that they could only be used in Passaic County.

As for my Bergen County signs, I personally made sure the design did NOT include any mention of the line because Azzariti and I were not on the line. It did however mention that we could be found in Column 5 which was accurate.

As you can see from the examples above, my campaign signs were perfectly acceptable and used only in the counties for which they were designed. ANY suggestion that my signs tricked the voters or were used in an inappropriate manner is Fake news at its worst.

Lie #3: Schepisi went against the will of the voter by endorsing me.

Rob Owen wrote:

“Rejecting the will of Bergen County Republicans, Schepisi announced a full-throated, unequivocal endorsement of Azzariti and his running mate, Jon Kurpis.”

If Schepisi, Auth and DeFuccio won the 2021 line via a fair convention, one could then potentially claim that those results would represent the will of the Bergen County Republicans. Unfortunately for Rob Owen and his fakakta narrative, there was no free and fair convention to award the line in 2021. Schepisi, Auth and DeFuccio crafted a backroom deal based on the absurd and irrelevant excuse that somehow a replacement election to fill a vacant assembly/senate seat is all that’s needed and the BCRO unilaterally gifted them the line.

There was no convention to get the line and the will of Bergen County Republicans was never established. It was therefore impossible for Schepisi to going against the will of Bergen County Republicans by endorsing me. And should there be any question as to why she endorsed me, the truthful answer that I was an incredible candidate (if not the best candidate). Once again, Fake Rob Owen opted to obscure the truth and push obvious disinformation.

Although not specifically directed at me, I also take offense with the articles notion that I could have been pressured to drop out of the race.

Rob Owen wrote:

“But Republican “leadership…had already decided to support Azzariti and swooped in to squash the opposition.”

For the record, not one person suggested or attempted to pressure me to drop out of the 2023 Assembly race. Not Schepisi. Not Auth. Not Azzariti. Not Zisa. Not DiMaio. Not Hugin. NOBODY!

And had ANY Republican been stupid enough to threaten or pressure me to step aside, I would have laughed in their face. I’m an America First warrior who is perfectly willing to kick the establishment and/or swamp in the ass. It's completely absurd to suggest that I would let anyone ever interfere with my willingness to serve the people.

In conclusion, Fake Rob Owen should be embarrassed and ashamed of the verifiable lies and disinformation he spread about me and my campaigns in his article. I’m ethical, for the people and have a track record of transparency and fair play. I would NEVER let a candidate interfere with my campaign or use me for political vengeance. I would never create, put up or allow signs that in any way decieved the voter. I would never involve myself in an immoral scheme to steal the line. I only do things for the right reasons and Fake Rob Owen is an idiot for posting these lies and thinking I would let it slide.

I thank Jersey Conservative for publishing this full rebuttal. If Fake Rob Owen has any class or integrity, he will stop being a coward, identify himself for real and offer up an apology for intentionally lying about me and to the readers.

Thank you all for your continued support,

Jon Kurpis

Saddle River Municipal Chair