Freeholder Graham's anonymous blog

After spending much of the last few years complaining about anonymous blogs that persisted in calling him out on his less than savory activities, Freeholder George Graham decided to start one of his own -- and it is a real doozy. 

We all knew that George Graham was the master of "whisper" campaigns, those under-handed attempts to spread unsubstantiated rumors and outright lies about people, but give this guy a computer and he really goes ape!  And he had some help too.  A reporter from the Herald, a big-shot member of the Tea Party, and whoever else he could scam. 

The Tea Partier allowed Graham to use the group's name for his blog.  This was done within memory of a stormy lawsuit that the Tea Party had to go through in which they lost the use of their original name.  Why place the group in jeopardy again?  Normally it is older women who fall for George's sweet-talk, but this time it appears to have worked on a guy. 

This blog -- which is trying to corrupt a Tea Party group by using its name -- has spread rumors that Gail Phoebus had an inappropriate relationship with her consultant, Bill Winkler, and that other elected officials had taken bribes.  The blog was publicly admonished by the State of New Jersey for claiming that the Office of Legislative Services was conducting a criminal investigation in Sussex County.  It simply wasn't true.  They totally made it up.

Now they are trying to claim that someone who did the right thing, did the wrong thing.  Freeholder George Graham is trying to claim that simply by following Ethics rules to the letter that makes someone a suspect.  This is one of his whisper campaigns, converted to social media. 

And who is pulling Graham's string?  After all, he is a political consultant.  That is his only source of income... or is it?  His LinkedIn page provides connections to vendors and contractors that do not appear on his Ethics filing: 

Freeholder

Sussex County

April 2013 – Present (3 years 5 months) | Sussex County Board of Chosen Freeholders

Construction Project Manager

LaRocca Construction

1991 – Present (25 years) | Jersey City, NJ

Various positions from project timeline oversight, customer relations to complete supervision of multi-

million dollar public bid construction. Work on a project by project basis.

Owner

York Strategies

2003 – Present (13 years) | Jersey City, NJ

York Strategies is a Strategic Planning and Public Relations with experience in government and

corporate marketing.

I have also produced media for private companies and organizations including direct mail, radio and

television, newspaper, magazine and internet ads.

Owner

Skylands Business Services

1987 – Present (29 years)

Small business support for bookkeeping & marketing.

Secretary/Treasurer

Sussex County League of Municipalities

January 2012 – Present (4 years 8 months) | Newton, NJ

Former President and Vice President 2009 -2010

But his Personal Financial Disclosure is another thing entirely:

 

Why the discrepancy?

The taxpayers of Sussex County should demand to know who George Graham's clients are?  Who does York Strategies take money from?  Besides Hudson County Democrats, of course.

We all should know the Graham story by now.  A local yokel Democrat political consultant gets pushed out of Hudson County by the bigger fish.  Does odd jobs for some of the politically-connected construction firms out that way.   Moves on the Sussex County market.  Says he's in the "paper business" and a few local businesses get taped and screwed.  Gets elected in Stanhope as a Democrat, switches to Republican, back to Democrat to vote for Barack or Hillary, then back to Republican again. 

Takes over the Sussex County League of Municipalities (which almost immediately experiences "financial irregularities"), one of nature's "ham and eggers" so he needs to play underhanded, he lies and spreads over-the-top rumors in an attempt to push out incumbent Republican political consultant in order to get his business, when that fails, becomes a candidate and wins a Freeholder seat, promptly turns on those who helped him and destroys them (just ask Freeholder Dennis Mudrick). 

As a Freeholder, he is always on the lookout for a dime.  Gets others to pay his bills, fund his campaigns.  Suckers, he calls them.  He participates in every vote to make the solar project worse and then, turns on the board, points the finger, and blames them.  Wrecks any attempt to rationally work a way out of the solar mess by heavily politicizing the issue BUT he does elect his cronies and takes control over the Board.  Promptly hires NYC leftist and forces out long-time, local Republican.  Hires politically-connected NYC law firm to handle solar review -- which goes from a money recovery operation to a therapy session costing half a million dollars.  Gives a no-bid contract to the very lawyers he said were to blame for the solar mess. 

Moves on to state politics.  Sows seeds of discontent between District 24 legislators.  Targets Gail Phoebus, the unstable one, and gets her to spread outrageous rumors about BOTH her running mates and their families.  Horrible, low as dirt stuff they spread, but hey, this is George.  Is there to undo every attempt at reconciliation.  Meanwhile, he is using his political consulting business to cash in.  Claims to be working in other races around the state, claims to be working for a gubernatorial campaign... is he working for some of the firms that do business in Sussex County?  We would need a more detailed ethics filing to find out. 

This is who is running your county government.

This is why Sussex County needs an Ethics Committee.

Suswikileaks: Lawyer does other lawyer dirty

This is the first in a series of email dumps.

SCMUA Commissioner Dan Perez is a politically connected Sussex County lawyer who counts Freeholder George Graham, Assemblyperson Gail Phoebus, New Jersey Herald attorney Kevin Kelly, and New Jersey Herald reporter Eric Obernauer among his confederates. 

Obernauer has a very close relationship with Phoebus, and during her 2015 legislative campaign he wrote some very damaging pieces against her opponents, including Marie Bilik, Richard Vohden, and a number of career civil servants working for Sussex County. 

In June of 2015, John Williams was in the process of being appointed to fill the vacancy left after the retirement of longtime Sussex County Attorney Dennis McConnell.  Phoebus, then a county Freeholder, just days before had won the Republican primary for Assembly over Marie Bilik and Nathan Orr. 

Phoebus was urged to oppose Williams by Perez, who dug up the dirt to do it, as this email shows:

Perez had wanted Phoebus to openly oppose Williams, but a friend of Phoebus had been dating Williams, so they used Obernauer to put out a rumor about Williams and who some of his clients had been.  They even came up with a nasty name to mock Williams by:  "Juice Bar Johnny."  It was expected that the rumors against Williams, spread by Obernauer, would do their work and eventually undermine the County Attorney and force him out. 

Subsequently, the inside joke they shared with Herald reporter Obernauer became such that they became reckless and Obernauer included someone on an email to Phoebus that he shouldn't have.  The "Juice Bar Johnny" reference was questioned and brought to the attention of the Herald's management, resulting in a reprimand of some sort for reporter Obernauer but no ramifications for politician Phoebus or lawyer Perez.

This is the power of rumors and "whisper" campaigns.  It is how politics is sometimes conducted in close-knit communities -- when smiles are lies and honesty is at a premium.  It almost destroyed the career of County Attorney John Williams as well as those of several county employees.