Phony Web page stirs anger in Assembly race
Democrat campaign worker says material was posted by accident
BY KAREN E. BOWES
Staff Writer

A Democratic campaign worker who is a New Jersey publisher has been caught Web-handed.

A Web site that posed as the campaign home page of Republican 13th District Assembly candidates Amy Handlin and Sam Thompson was discovered this week to have been set up by a political rival.

An e-mail marked as being sent from “Amy Handlin” was recently sent to Greater Media Newspapers with a link to a press release criticizing Monmouth County Sheriff Joe Oxley for hiring an inexperienced spokesperson for a $62,000 salary. The message invited readers to check out the site, handlin-thompson.org, and reminded them to “Remember to vote in the June 7 Republican primary.”

The site claimed that the incumbent Thompson and Handlin, currently a Monmouth County Freeholder, were in favor of same-sex marriage and medical marijuana, among other campaign issues. The Web site also claimed that Handlin was in favor of merging Keansburg’s public school system with Middletown’s.

“They made that position up out of whole cloth,” said Handlin. “I have not studied that proposal and until I do, I reserve judgment.”

A reporter’s search for the Web site’s owner led to James Devine, a campaign worker for Democrat Assembly candidates William Flynn and Michael Dasaro.

According to the New Jersey Press Association’s membership directory, Devine is the publisher of Devine Media Enterprises Inc., of Rahway. According to the company’s web site, Devine Media Enterprises publishes five newspapers in Union and Middlesex counties. Those papers are the News Record, the Clark Patriot, Atom Tabloid, the Perth Amboy Gazette and the South Amboy Citizen. He is a member of the New Jersey Press Association.

Devine issued a press release May 17 on behalf of Flynn and Dasaro, calling Handlin a “hypocrite” and accusing her of awarding county contracts to campaign contributors. “Handlin accepted $750 from a consulting engineer and got three county contracts the same night she supposedly won approval of a ban on gifts,” the release said.

Handlin called the whole thing “wild” and “unimaginable.”

“I can’t imagine how they thought they were going to get away with it,” said Handlin. “This is wild. Absolutely wild.”

Devine admitted to posting the Handlin-Thompson Web site, but said that press releases on the site should not have been mailed to newspapers in Handlin’s name.

“You weren’t supposed to get that,” Devine said. “I don’t know what happened. I’m going to look into it.”

Devine added there was no malice in the creation of the Web site. The erroneous information surfaced because the Web site was not finished yet, he said. In the course of constructing the site, he said, a high school student who works for Devine made a mistake in posting data.

“And that’s what this was, a mistake,” Devine said. “Not something underhanded or intended to discredit anyone.”

Handlin is considering legal action.

“I’m not sure that First Amendment protections expand to fabrication of quotes in phony press releases,” Handlin said. “There may be grounds for legal action.”

Devine apologized for the misinformation that was posted, saying on May 17 “that will be cleaned up today.” A few hours later, the site was overhauled, and now proclaims that its mission is to teach readers about “these candidates, who hide a lot more than they show when it comes to controversial issues.” It also offers a disclaimer that the site is not affiliated nor authorized by any candidate.

“Someone exercised bad judgment,” Devine said. “It’s clear that the humor involved was inappropriate.”

Devine added that mistakes are apt to happen when constructing a Web site. The high school student, he said, will no longer be working on the site.

Dasaro said that he did not know the Web site existed, and had no part in its creation. He said he did not find the situation funny.

“If it happened to me, I’d be irate,” he said.

“It’s frustrating for me not to know about it and then have it become something. That’s not me. I hope it’s not representative of our campaign,” Dasaro said. “That’s not the path I want to go down. That’s not why I got into politics.”

“When a candidate begins their campaign with this kind of deceitfulness, how can voters take them seriously?” Handlin said.