There’s a mystery brewing in LD30, Save Jerseyans, the ordinarily safe GOP district where a Lakewood rabbi (Avi Schnall) is running as a Democrat and gunning for one of two Republican-held Assembly seats…
Who is paying for Schnall’s campaign materials?
Here’s what we know:
The Democrat’s ELEC report was filed on October 10th disclosing only $100 in total donations (from a single Lakewood business owner) and nothing spent. That’s remarkable for a campaign which has widespread support from the politically-potent Lakewood establishment. Yet in the early October days preceding the end of that particular reporting period (October 7th), a political mailer dropped – see below – in the mailboxes of Lakewood registered Republicans according to a Save Jersey LD30 source.
A “Paid for by Schnall for 30th Assembly” disclaimer is clearly visible on the left side:
So who paid for the mailer?
And with what?
And that’s only the beginning of the mystery. Take note of the “our voice” speech bubble.
At the end of September, another ad campaign ran in The Voice of Lakewood seemingly promoting a the tag line “Our Voice.” Here’s one of the multiple full-page ads, though the advertiser listed in the same edition of the publication is the candidate himself (click here), Avi Schnall:
I haven’t been able to find anything on ELEC for a group called “Our Voice,” Save Jerseyans, and I haven’t come up with any in-kind reports or other evidence of this possible non-profit (?) group’s legal configuration or purpose. More baffling still: my source says a video of the Democrat asking for voters appeared on several WhatsApp status updates of Lakewood news outlets.
I saw one of these videos featuring no disclaimer at all.
Here’s an example of a WhatsApp ad with an “Our Voice” disclaimer at the bottom:
Is Our Voice some species of non-profit?
A dark money group?
Is the Schnall campaign coordinating with a third party expenditure group of some kind? The use of the same slogan would suggest that the answer is “yes.”
Who is funding all of this?
There are more questions than answers based upon what I’ve been able to dig up so far, Save Jerseyans, but I suspect Assembly Republicans and the Jersey Shore GOP will want answers and fast.
