Lawyer's Response to Manchester Resident's Election Mailing Query: 'Lotta Nuts Out There'

Chuck Lupo thought he was asking a simple question in the days before the election.

“I have recently received your bulk mailings, 3 to date, soliciting my support for members of your organization in the upcoming Manchester Township elections,” the Leisure Village West resident said in a contact form on the Continued Good Government website. “I would like to know where you were able to get my mailing address for this specific purpose. Thank you, looking forward to your response.”

The response he received, however, was far from what he expected.

Jess Connors of Tortuga Creative, a website management company in Lacey, forwarded Lupo’s question to lawyer Steven Secare for a response, with the note “Hi Steve, Here is another message to the website.” Secare replied, “Lotta nuts out there,” to which Connors answered, “haha yes indeed” with a smiley face.

On the reply to Secare, however, Connors included Lupo -- who shared the entire email thread with the Patch.

“Thank you so much for your email response to my inquiry. I especially like where the attorney called me a “nutjob”. Thanks Mr. Secare,” Lupo said in his reply to Secare and Connors. “I still would like to know how and where your organization obtained my mailing address.”

Lupo said he asked the question because he was concerned the source of the mailings was the Leisure Village residents’ directory. That directory is not available publicly, but only to residents, he said, due to privacy concerns. Using the directory for a direct mailing like this would violate what he said are unwritten rules about its use. The village’s bylaws do not expressly prohibit its use, but Lupo said it was a good-faith violation of the unwritten rules.

The Continued Good Government team consisted of Mayor Michael Fressola, who was defeated in the election last week, and councilmen Craig Wallis and Brendan Weiner, who ran unopposed and were re-elected.

Lupo said he had questioned councilman Charles Frattini Jr. -- a resident of Leisure Village West -- on the source of the addresses for the mailings and had received different answers each time, including voter registration lists.

But Lupo said there’s a distinguishing characteristic of the address used on the campaign mailings -- one he used only on the internal residents’ mailing list, and not on his voter registration.

“They had to have used the village directory,” he said. Lupo said he sent the entire email thread to the Manchester Township Council as well. No explanation was ever made, he said.

An email request to Connors and Secare for comment was not answered.