BRICK TOWNSHIP, NJ – The Brick Township Police Department has been alerted after a Brick Township resident, and voter in the upcoming Ocean County GOP Chairman’s Election received a threatening and harassing anonymous phone call from forces aligned with Sheriff Michael Mastronardy.
The caller told a the elected official that he should change his vote to Mastronardy if he “knows whats good for him”.
The intimidation of county committee members is nothing new in Ocean County as the heated election between Sheriff Mastronardy and former Ocean County GOP Chairman George Gilmore is set to take place in July.
Brick resident Mark Valesquez received a threatening text after the Brick Township Republican Club endorsed former GOP Chairman Gilmore.
“I got a phone call from an unknown number,” Valasquez told police. “It was a man that said I’m a ‘[expletive]ing nut job’ for supporting Gilmore and that people are watching me.”
Harassment like this has been ongoing since Ocean County GOP Chairman Frank Holman took office after Gilmore resigned the post a few years ago. Holman’s enforcers have threatened and intimidated party members who dare to go against the party line. Sometimes with threatening their jobs, their livelihoods and occasionally use the threat of charges with the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office as a threat to intimidate dissenters.
“I should go ‘[expletive] off’,” the anonymous called told Vasquez. “If I know what’s good for me.”
Vasquez reported the call to the police department to investigate the voter harassment and intimidation attempt.
If you are a victim of voter intimidation, you should immediately report it to the police, Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office and New Jersey Office of the Attorney General.