ORANGE, NJ — Orange West Ward Councilman Harold J. Johnson Jr. is up in arms regarding two political action committees allegedly linked to Mayor Dwayne Warren’s re-election campaign that share the same post office box: the American Future Leaders and the Friends of Dwayne Warren.
American Future Leaders, which sent out an email blast March 21 to registered voters in Orange titled, “Can’t Trust Kerry Coley,” questioning the leadership and management experience of the mayoral candidate and East Ward councilman, shared the same post office box as the Friends of Dwayne Warren group as recently as Sunday, March 27. The latter group sent out a pro-Warren email blast March 18 titled “Keeping a Promise to Our Children,” touting the incumbent mayor’s record of “providing more recreation for children and families.”
On Tuesday, March 29, an email sent to a Record-Transcript reporter from the American Future Leaders group was no longer linked to P.O. Box 20 Orange 07050; the new mailing address for the organization is P.O. Box 284, Maplewood 07040.
Johnson said Sunday, March 27, that he was concerned about this abrupt change in address for the political committee because it originally shared the same address as The Friends of Dwayne Warren group, which is campaigning for the incumbent mayor. The most recent email from American Future Leaders hasn’t changed its content; it is still titled “Get the Facts About Kerry Coley,” and contains a link to www.wecanttrustkerrycoley.com.
Orange Municipal Democratic Committee Executive Director Anthony Salters is also crying foul. The current chairman of the Hillside Democratic Committee is also the manager of East Ward Councilman Kerry Coley’s mayoral campaign. The Orange Municipal Democratic Committee recently endorsed Coley.
“The human resources director of the city of Orange, Lena Taylor, is also the treasurer for American Future Leaders. Kerry’s entire personnel file is online. Is there something wrong with this picture?” asked Salters on Friday, March 25.
Salters worked on Warren’s first successful mayoral campaign in 2012, and later took a job in the Warren administration as a city spokesman before becoming the Orange Public Library’s spokesman. Salters was also involved with Shavar Jeffries’ unsuccessful 2014 Newark mayoral campaign against current Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and has ties to a number of elected officials in Hudson and Union counties and other parts of New Jersey.
But even a political veteran such as Salters said the apparent link between the two CPCs — as political action committees are known in New Jersey — sharing the same post office box and singing the same pro-Warren re-election tune, is fishy.
According to campaign finance reports filed with the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission, the American Future Leaders group had raised $22,000 as of October 2015, with at least $14,400 coming from city employees or contractors.
Johnson said the close ties between the Warren administration, his re-election campaign and the two CPCs sharing the same address is a concern because it seems to indicate that quid pro quo and pay-to-play deals are going on in Orange, to the detriment of the city’s residents.
“Where there is smoke, there is fire,” said Johnson on Friday, March 25.
Derrick Henry founded the Protect Orange Water advocacy group in response to the Warren administration’s plan to transfer the city’s water utility management from Suez to Pennsylvania-based newcomer Pennoni. Henry said the apparent election shenanigans illustrate why he and other Orange stakeholders have been questioning the deal to change the city’s water management without regard to state law requiring municipalities to obtain competing bids from service providers.
“It’s definitely not a good look for the Warren administration or the city,” said Henry on Friday, March 25. “It may not be illegal to have PACs founded and funded by city employees sharing a P.O. box and actively working for the benefit of Mayor Warren to do that, but it is unethical and immoral. How can we trust anything the mayor and this administration has to say?”
Attempts to obtain comments from Warren and his campaign about the shared P.O. box and the address change for the American Future Leaders CPC were not successful by press time this week.
According to ELEC guidelines, “no candidate or officeholder can establish, authorize the establishment of, maintain or participate directly or indirectly in the management or control of any CPC.”
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