OPINION: Wow, Team Mayer REALLY Wanted to Win the School Board Elections

The final financial tallies are in for the two school board elections that took place last November in Gloucester Township. So let’s go right to the bottom line.

Team Mayer spent an unprecedented $89,000 on the election campaigns* for its chosen school board candidates.

The Team Mayer-controlled political fund raising PACs and committees are a startling $79,000 in debt.**

So, what do these figures mean? Why should you care? Let’s try to understand the answers to a few of these questions.

1. How did Team Mayer raise the money for this large amount of spending?

Team Mayer controls five Political Action Committees (PACs), controls the local Democrat Committee, and controls the election campaign committees of it’s chosen candidates. (For the recent school board elections, the chosen candidates were, for the Gloucester Township Schools Board of Education, Maryjo Dintino, Mark Gallo, and Helen Albright Troxell; and for Black Horse Pike School District Board of Education, Kevin Bucceroni, Benjamin Zanghi, and Joyce Ellis. All but Ms. Troxell and Mr. Zanghi won school board seats.)

These eight committees continuously collect donations, almost all of them from professional firms who have been awarded contracts with Gloucester Township government. In fact, since 2008, Team Mayer political committees have collected $1,191,195 in donations.

2. Why would Team Mayer spend so much on school board elections?

After all, a school board position is non-paying, and is a difficult, time consuming job. For candidates, school board elections are supposed to be unelaborate, civil communication of ideas. For voters in school board elections, one should take a little time to ascertain which of the candidates have more common sense, more passion, more good ideas.

So why did Team Mayer spend record amounts and incur crippling debt?

Well, the Gloucester Township Public Schools’ yearly budget is $110 million. Black Horse Pike Schools’ yearly budget is $74 million. Compare those figures against the Gloucester Township Municipal yearly budget of $55 million. And match all of this against the fact that the donor-contractors might ask for a little return on their investment...well, you can take a guess on the answer to this question.

3. Why would these school board candidates decide to take this path for a campaign for a school board election?

That is a good question to ask of these Team Mayer candidates. Are they doing it for political aspirations? For financial gain? I don’t know. But the conduct and the tactics used during this campaign were not in the spirit intended for a school board election.

Further, the school board code of ethics states that a member must “refuse to surrender my independent judgment to special interest or partisan political groups or to use the schools for personal gain or for the gain of friends.” It seems that the very partisan nature of this election campaign threatens to violate this ethical standard.

4. How will Team Mayer pay off it’s $79,000 campaign debt?

$78,000 is owed to one firm - Strategic Message Design Group. Will the candidates and the PAC officers reach into their personal bank accounts? I doubt that.

That leaves three options.

Option 1 - Sleazy: They could just walk away from the debt.

Option 2 - Sleazier: They could try to squeeze even more donations from their contact list of professional firms with GT government contracts.

Option 3 - Sleaziest: They could grant some sort of political favor to the firms that are owed money. (Strategic Message Design Group does seem to have connections to South Jersey Democrats.)

5. What should Gloucester Township citizens do?

We all need to keep a close eye on our government. We need to question our government officials when anything doesn’t seem right.

With Team Mayer’s high campaign debt to pay off, and, with four GT Council seats up for election this year, their perceived need for even higher campaign spending in 2015, Team Mayer may begin to feel the financial stress.

Remember, Team Mayer controls all seven of the GT Council seats; they control six of the seven Black Horse Pike GT School Board seats; and control seven of the nine Gloucester Township School Board seats.

Given our government’s track record of awarding contracts to political donors, they will need to be watched especially closely this year.

NOTES:

* The Team Mayer school campaign spending data was taken from required reports submitted to New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC) http://www.elec.state.nj.us/

Six Team Mayer-affiliated and PACs/Committees made campaign expenditures on behalf of the Team Mayer school board candidates.

1. The Dintino, Gallo, Troxell Campaign Committee: This committee was completely funded by Team Mayer PACs and by contributions from GT Engineer contract awardee Remington & Vernick.

2. The Bucceroni, Zanghi, Ellis Campaign Committee: This committee, too, was completely funded by Team Mayer PACs and by contributions from GT Engineer contract awardee Remington & Vernick. This campaign committee is chaired by Kelly Matthews, who is also the Mayor Mayer appointee to be the Chair Commissioner to the Gloucester Township Housing Authority.

3. Association of Former Gloucester Township Democratic Mayors: This PAC’s Chairperson and Treasurer was Richard Calabrese, who is also the appointed Chair Commissioner on the GTMUA.

4. Gloucester Township Citizens for Government Reform: PAC Chairperson Cynthia Carlamere, wife of the Township Solicitor. PAC Treasurer Laura Power, a paid Team Mayer operative.

5. Gloucester Township Parents for Educational Excellence: This PAC was responsible for producing several campaign mailers and negative ads which crossed the line of decency for the normal limits of a school board election. (Chairperson Suzanne Moore; PAC Treasurer Kenneth Treger)

6. Gloucester Township Democrat Committee: Chairperson Kevin Piccolo; Treasurer Dora Guevara, Mayor Mayer appointed GTMUA Board member. This committee hosted and funded several campaign events and picnics for the benefit of the Team Mayer school board candidates.

** The Team Mayer debt data is as of 12/31/2014, and was taken from required reports submitted to New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC) http://www.elec.state.nj.us/

As of 12/31/2014, the eight active Team Mayer political committees (there is a ninth active committee, but it did not submit it’s required ELEC reports), show cash balance of $13,000; and show outstanding obligations of $92,000 ($78,000 of this is owed to Strategic Message Design Group). This calculates to a net debt of $79,000.