Birkner and Falotico Slam Opponents For Running a “Campaign of Deceit”

LD-39 Challengers Call Out Opponents for Sign Theft, False Claims

EMERSON, NJ — Westwood Mayor John Birkner Jr. and Emerson Council President Gerald Falotico, candidates for Assembly in the 39th Legislative District today sharply criticized their opponents, incumbent legislators Holly Schepisi and Robert Auth, for engaging in dishonest and juvenile campaign tactics as this competitive race enters its final days.

“Our opponents are running a deceitful campaign,” said Birkner. “We criticized our opponents’ voting records on LGBTQ equality and women’s healthcare and they responded by calling us ‘knuckle-dragging cro-magnons.’ We talked to voters about our achievements, our visions for the district, and our opponents’ voting records, and they responded by sending out wave after wave of mailers lying about our positions on the issues. And now, just this weekend, we caught a crew of their volunteers red-handed on camera stealing our lawn signs.”

Added Falotico “Running to represent the people of this district is responsibility John and I take very seriously. We strive every day to run the best, cleanest, most honest campaign we can. It has been incredibly disappointing to see our opponents resort to name-calling, to lying, and now to actual theft. Character should count when it comes to holding public office, and what Assemblymembers Schepisi and Auth are showing of their character in this race is not very impressive.”

Mailers sent to voters in support of the Auth and Schepisi campaign were recently criticized by the nonpartisan organization Project VoteSmart (which very rarely comments on particular election campaigns) for “deliberately deceiv[ing] voters” and “cheating the public out of their need for trusted, abundant, accurate information.”

The Birkner and Falotico campaign also provided both video footage and still images they captured on Saturday, October 27th when they happened upon a group of apparent Republican campaign operatives removing Democratic campaign signs from public property in Montvale and replacing them with Republican signs.

(Editor’s Note: a GOP campaign spokesperson responded that the signs were on GOP campaign HQ property at 285 W. Grand Ave in Montvale, not on “public property”.  See Schepisi’s and Auth’s response here.)