Councilwoman Candidate Orgen speaks for her 3-candidate MTF Slate on non-partisanship

In early March of 2020, Teaneck’s all-mail-in May 12 Municipal Council Election had shaped up into a 2-way competition.

A Slate of candidates with a single incumbent called itself Moving Teaneck Forward (MT).  Karen Orgen, Michael Pagan and Mark Schwartz
A Slate of three challengers called itself People for Progress Teaneck (PFPT) – Denise Belcher, Gina Gerszberg and Ardie Walser

Teaneck’s Democratic Municipal Committee (TDMC) approached both slates offering them a path by which each Council candidate might obtain TDMC endorsement

Here is the response sent by candidate Orgen on March 30 – apparently on behalf of her two slate-mates – rejecting the TDMC offer & declaring an MTF position not to accept partisan support

Orgen’s Bottom Line:
“we [MTF] will not seek, nor will we accept partisan support from your group (or any other)” 

Except – Ms. Orgen already had an insurmountable problem: linking her principles with her slate’s practices!

The slide shown below discloses that MTF had already (a week before the Orgen email) received and accepted a $900 contribution from the Skyland Victory PAC – a decade-old Republican PAC located in the State’s northwest corner.

The Skylands PAC had not sent its contribution directly to MTF – instead sent its contribution to MTF via the law offices of attorney John Shahdanian II who had moved to his new firm in Florham Park several months earlier.

Unfortunately, MTF had not been following the State election law rules (it had not report this contribution – due to ELEC on 5/1/2020 –  until 1/21/2021)

SO – only the 3 MTF candidates, their Committee’s President and Chair Reiner and the Teaneck attorney knew anything about the Skyland Victor PAC contribution before the election or, indeed, for 8 months thereafter!

The Teaneck Township Attorney? How would he know? Actually, he was the direct recipient of this MTF contribution – check out the slide below!
Mr. Shahdanian is the Township Attorney for Teaneck and is in his first (and last) term as a member of the NJ Democratic State Committee.

Is that OK with everyone?

Just what is the Skylands Victory PAC? Why would the contribution be sent to Teaneck Township’s  attorney?

We do not have the answers but here are some additional facts of interest:

According to records readily accessible on the Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC) website (click here), Skylands Victory PAC is a identified as a Republican Organization of Sussex County though its official address locates its offices in nearby Succasunna, NJ in Morris County.
In addition to its being a steady supporter of the Sussex County GOP itself, Skylands has been a substantial supporter since its founding in 2010 of state, county and municipal Republican candidates almost exclusively for those running for office in Sussex County. Skyland’s founder – and apparently its continuous leader ever since – is Kevin Kelly, an attorney in Sussex who, in addition to his own practice, and being decisionmaker for Skylands, has been a municipal attorney and more recently been appointed as Sussex County Counsel. The alleged overlap in these areas of interest has resulted in criticism from watchdog groups as early as 2011 (click here) and as recently as 2019 an article with the title Should the Ciunty Counsel have his own SuperPac? (click here)

What will be of particular interest to Teaneck residents are these facts: The $900 Skylands contribution to MTF last March is apparently the only contribution to candidates running for an office other than in Sussex and Morris Counties, is larger than the average contribution made by Skylands to candidates, and apparently is one of just two in the decade contributions made to candidates in a non-partisan race.  One must ask, why this one??

One additional tid-bit: Skylands was tied for being first among four $900 contributions made to and accepted by MTF in March and April 2020 from organizations explicitly identified by ELEC as partisan PAC’s. The others are  the Bergen Irish Victory PAC and the Westwood and Emerson Democratic Municipal Committees.

What was the Karen Orgen email’s final line again?
“we [MTF] will not seek, nor will we accept partisan support from your group (or any other)“