Donors to Sen. Bob Smith & Piscataway Dems urged to reject Anti-Muslim flyer

Mayor of Teaneck joins growing list of 400 elected leaders, public officials and NJ residents calling for an apology

Piscataway, NJ — Central Jersey Progressive Democrats (CJPD) today identified over 125 contributors to the Election Fund of Sen. Bob Smith, which Sen. Smith used to pay for an anti-Muslim campaign flyer signed by local Indian-American politicians in Piscataway and circulated by the wife of Township Mayor Brian Wahler.  The group called on these donors to reject the hateful flyer, and announced an additional signatories to its statement urging Sen. Smith and the Piscataway Democratic Organization to issue an apology, including the Mayor of Teaneck, bringing the total to over 400 people.

“These donors may not have realized their contributions could be used by Sen. Smith and the Piscataway Democratic Organization to foment anti-Muslim sentiments in our diverse community. But they may have paid for it and should publicly disavow it,” said Mindy Goldstein, CJPD Treasurer.  “Many of the top contributors and PACs, including PSE&G, the NJ State Police Benevolent Association, the Realtors, the Operating Engineers and the Developers serve and do business with all of NJ’s residents. They owe it to the public, their members and clients to ask for their money back so there is no chance they are funding hate and fear in our community.”

Sen. Smith’s Election Fund received its largest contribution of more than $22,000 from another campaign fund, the Piscataway Democratic Election Fund of 2016, which supported the election of Mayor Wahler and Councilman Kapil Shah, one of the signatories to the flyer. CJPD’s donor list identifies all of those contributors individually.  Donations to Sen. Smith’s Election Fund totaled over $350,000 since the 2017 Democratic Primary and came mainly from real estate developers, architects, engineers and employees in related industries. The contribution records, including employer information, are publicly available on the state’s Election Law Enforcement Commission website.

“Sen. Smith called Dr. Nazir ‘radical’ as a dog-whistle, and tried to hide behind our policy positions as cover. Getting corporate money out of politics is a very mainstream idea, but we can see why Smith loves his campaign cash,” said Herb Tarbous, a Piscataway committee member of the Middlesex County Democratic Organization. “He’s built a war chest that he is using to divide our neighbors and inflame tensions. These donors should know what he is doing in their name.”

The Mayor of Teaneck, Mohammed Hameeduddin, was one of the additional 100 NJ elected officials, public leaders and residents to join the growing chorus of people calling for Smith to apologize, which now tops 400 people, including:

Kamran Quraishi, Committeeman, Montgomery Township*

Jimmy Small, Muslim League of Voters*

Leila Amirhamzeh, Committeewoman, Bergen County Democratic Committee *

Ayaz Aslam, Muslim Community Center Union County*

Mustafa Abdi, Muslims4peace.org*

Nada Alzoubi, Democrat Female Leader, District 21, Maplewood, NJ

Sakina Jaffari, Imam-a-Zamana Foundation of North America*

Catherine Hunt, Progressive Democrats of America, NJ Chapter*

Sam Khan, American Muslim Council*

Ehsan F Chowdhry, Esq., NJ Muslim Lawyers Association*

Ginny Caputo

Rashid Mahmood

Khyati Joshi

Frances O’Toole

Jade Holden

Basim Ahmad

Afsheen Shamsi

Mohammad Khan

Margaret Doyle Ball

Mir M Quadri

Shakeel Shafat

Susan Lopez

Barbara Cooke

Michael Crockford

Muhammad Waseem

Salaheddin Mustafa

Khalida Aftab

Bob Fenster

Rabia Amer

Ibrahim Quadri

Ivy Tu

Sabahat Mazhar

Eman Khalil

Adil & Sabeen Abubakar

Omar Shallan

Shazia Saif, MD

Saif Qureshi

Nancy Love

lubna Imran

Zahid Hussain

Rupande Mehta

Salwa Kashif

Lauren Skowronski

Abdulrahman Ahmed Hegazy

Syed Sabahuddinh

Erum Shakir

Syeda Amir

Muhammad Amir

Junior Romero

Sarwat Malik-Hassan

Syed Sabahuddin

Talat Sabah

Brandon Hull

Muhammad Hashmi

Nayeem Mian Siddique

Sara Cullinane

Mahejabeen Kathawala

Kesha Johnson

Gina Louis-Ferdinand

Fahim Abedrabbo

This list continues to be updated.

*Organization is listed for identification purposes only

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