While the June 10th Assembly primary in the 33rd Legislative District never had a friendly tone, the discourse has taken an explosive turn in light of the underdogs doing a $10,000 ad buy with Leroy Truth.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
Truth, whose real name is Leonard Filipowski, has been accused by state Senator (D-33)/Union City Mayor Brian Stack of being an attack dog for North Bergen Mayor Nick Sacco, which both he and Filipowski have denied repeatedly.
However, Stack, who is backing Larry Wainstein and Assemblyman Gabriel Rodriguez against Tony Hector and Frank Alonso – who have Sacco’s support – took notice that the opposition paid “Truth Investigations” $10,000 for a social media ad on May 6th on May 6th, campaign finance reports show.
“The recent ELEC [New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission] filing proves what we’ve known all along – that the Sacco political machine has been paying my political enemies for years to be disruptive, launching personal attacks against my administration and family,” Stack said in a statement.
“The Sacco political machine has always been about helping themselves and hurting people. But we will not be deterred. In fact, the recent confirmation by ELEC only motivates me to work harder with the aim of expelling Sacco and his cronies from government.”
Filipowski said that they paid to take out an advertisement on his Facebook page, largely deferring comment to the Hector and Alonso campaign, who spokes through their campaign chair Joe Blaettler, a retired Union City deputy police chief.
He responded in kind, pointing out that they had an ad approved with the New Jersey Globe in April, but it never ended up being used (as a result their check was never cashed).
“We knew this would get under Brian’s skin: That’s why we did it. Leroy Truth has more credibility than the NJ Globe, Leroy Truth never pled guilty to shutting down the George Washington Bridge,” he exclaimed.
“Leroy Truth has no connection to Kevin O’Toole, who is a close ally to Brian Stack, and Donald Scarinci, who is closely aligned with convicted felon/foreign agent Bob Menendez. Leroy’s not running in those circles.”
Blaettler also said that the Rodriguez-Wainstein team had spent $14,000 on ads with the NJ Globe to date, as well as that Hudson County Democratic Organization (HCDO) Chair Craig Guy, also the county executive, met with him at the Randolph Diner last year to see if he knew who was behind Filipowski.
NJ Globe editor David Wildstein declined to get into the North Hudson melee, simply stating “people see ghosts in politics, especially this close to Election Day.”
Hector and Alonso are running on Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop’s “Democrats for Change” gubernatorial ticket in their effort to upset the HCDO-backed candidates.
Editor’s note: Both Assembly slates in the 33rd Legislative District have taken out advertisements with HCV.
Leroy, your whole claim of being an “investigative journalist” is a complete joke. You’ve made it painfully clear that you’re not objective you’re just a mouthpiece for Mayor Sacco. No matter what anyone else does, your focus is always on attacking Brian Stack. That’s not journalism that’s bias, plain and simple.
Take Alonso, for example. He used to be up Stack’s ass, and now suddenly he’s trashing him? Please. Everyone knows he didn’t get his cushy job based on qualifications. Sacco made that call just like he did for the Sheriff. And now the Sheriff’s running under “Democrats for Change”? He’s been in office forever and hasn’t done a thing except hand out jobs for his cronies.
If you actually cared about honest reporting, you’d tell the full story not just the version that makes Sacco look like a saint. You tipped your hand when you took that money and tried to spin it like Stack is the problem. The truth is, your reporting is just one-sided propaganda. People in the county see through it. We know what’s really going on even if you refuse to say it.
Leonard/aka/Lex/aka Leroy,
I wish you the best in your quest for justice with regards to your lawsuit against a NY cleric. I also think the Grammy Awards should also acknowledge all musicians like yourself who played on Grammy Award winning compositions, instead of only recognizing the leader/ frontman (Jimmy Sturr)
When you do publish the results of polls like you recently did, that show that the candidates you support in the upcoming primary (Fulop for Governor, Scillari for Sheriff , and Alonso and Hector for Assemby) ALL projected to win their respective contests, you really should the details of the poll: names of pollster, dates of poll, classification and number of people polled ( registered voters, likely voters, etc) and margin of error.