Jersey City Board of Education President Mussab Ali is calling on the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office to investigate an anonymous attack flyer against Ward F council candidate Frank “Educational” Gilmore that was distributed early this morning.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
“The content of the piece is bad but what’s worse is that there is no paid for by on the literature- there needs to be an immediate investigation by @NewJerseyOAG
the JCPD should start collecting surveillance evidence immediately,” Ali tweeted this morning.
The literature was placed on car windshields and slammed Gilmore for his lengthy arrest record that eventually led to a 10-year prison sentence, also accusing him of crimes such as “employing black children to sell drugs.”
At Hudson Media Group’s Ward F debate on Thursday, Gilmore staved off attacks about his past from both Councilman Jermaine Robinson and Vernon Richardson, an aide to Mayor Steven Fulop who regularly went on offense against both of his opponents.
“I don’t think there’s been any more transparent candidate, more open candidate, than myself, my past life when I was a teenager – it’s open record – that’s why I’m indebted to my community to the work that I do,” he said.
Gilmore has also called a press conference tomorrow afternoon to address the incident in detail.
Ali also said the incident reminded him of the 2017 flyer in Hoboken that said “Don’t let TERRORISM take over our town!” above a picture of then-Councilman-at-Large Ravi Bhalla.
Bhalla, who is running unopposed this time around, joined the majority of the city council earlier this year asking for the AG to open a probe into the incident after subpoenas were issued over a similar occurrence in Edison.
Finally, Ali, who is not seeking re-election, said that everyone needs to speak out against these lowly tier campaign tactics, regardless who they are supporting.
“It doesn’t matter if you support or oppose @EducationalGil1 – everyone should denounce this kind of bottom of the barrel campaign tactics. Which are also ILLEGAL.”
A spokesman for the AG’s office declined to comment on Wednesday afternoon.
