PARSIPPANY — NJ Insider reporter Fred Snowflack published an article about a mystery payment by the Dinsmore campaign to a “consultant” based in Wyoming. As reported by Mr. Snowflack, the address given for the “consultant” is a mail forwarding business.

Dinsmore sent a $42,000.00 payment to an entity named “Checkmate Strategies” for consulting services. The funds in question were listed as a loan from Dinsmore to the campaign on February 4, 2019. The same day the report lists a check for $42,000.00 to Checkmate Strategies located in Wyoming. There is no indication what services the payment was used for, only a reference to “consultant”. (Click here to view ELEC report)

A review of the Wyoming Secretary of State corporate filings reveals that there is no company registered under the name Checkmate Strategies at the address. In fact, there is no business registered in Wyoming at all under the name Checkmate Strategies.

This would appear to be a violation of the NJ ELEC filing guidelines. The  ELEC instructions for filing state:

“Enter the payment date, the check number, the name and address of the payee, and the purpose of the disbursement. When describing the “purpose” of the expenditure, the specific election-related reason for the expenditure must be provided, such as “newspaper advertising,” “postage,” “printing of campaign – 5 – R-1 Instructions Revised: 03/03/2017 fliers,” etc. Unsatisfactory descriptions of “purpose” would be “campaign expense,” “reimbursement,” or “operations” (NJ ELEC R-1 Forms and Instructions, Page 4-5).

Freeholders Doug Cabana, Tom Mastrangelo and Kathy DeFillippo called for an immediate investigation by ELEC of Donald Dinsmore’s deceptive April 15, 2019 report.

“ELEC reporting is intended to allow the public to see the sources of candidate funding and the places candidates are spending those funds. ELEC should immediately investigate Dinsmore’s payment to a shadow company from Wyoming” stated Doug Cabana.

When contacted by Snowflack, the Dinsmore campaign would not provide any additional information about the expense.

What is Dinsmore hiding? Why is Dinsmore concealing the true recipient of these funds and their actual purpose? NJ ELEC should demand these answers immediately.

Editors Note: There is a similar company Checkmate Action Group, LLC., at the listed address in Wyoming, and was formed on January 28, 2019, just 6 days before the $42,000 check was issued. (click here for official documentation). The address listed in Wyoming is also the address of a mail forwarding service, and a corporate registration service. Checkmate Action Group isn’t listed in a Google search, and there is no website for the company. There is a New Jersey political consulting firm named Checkmate Strategies located in Jackson. Checkmate Strategies was co-founded by Chris Russell and won numerous awards for its work. On a subsequent ELEC filing report by Dinsmore, Felegi and Winterfield for Freeholder dated May 6, 2019, an additional $13,461.94 was sent to Checkmate  Action Group, LLC at the Wyoming address for “Campaign Consulting.” Checkmateactiongroup.com was purchased on January 25, 2019, with a private registration, to hide ownership, and no website was ever built. Checkmate Action Group is not listed with the Better Business Bureau.

MORRIS COUNTY — The arts are alive in Morris County! County College of Morris (CCM) hosted the 39th annual Morris County Teen Arts Festival on Friday, May 17.  Over  1,500 students and a staff of 40 professional artists participated in performances, critiquing seminars and workshops in every discipline.  The festival disciplines included art, dance, design, drama, graphic design, music, music recording, musical theater, photography, video and writing.

The focus of the Teen Arts Festival is not on competition but on celebration. The goals of the activities is to help students: develop perceptual, intellectual, social and technical skills; gain cultural awareness and understanding; develop personal cultural and aesthetic values; and learn self-discipline, critical thinking and problem solving through analyzing, interpreting and making assessments.

Funding of the event was made possible in part by grands from Morris Arts through the  New Jersey State Council on the Arts, Department of State, Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts, a gift from the Mayo Performing Arts Center and further support was made possible due to a generous contribution from Home Depot.

PARSIPPANY —Representative Mikie Sherrill (NJ-11) voted in favor of H.R. 5, the Equality Act, to extend the anti-discrimination protections under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to LGBTQ Americans in housing, education, employment, credit, public accommodation, federal funding, and federal jury service. Representative Sherrill is an original co-sponsor of H.R. 5.

“New Jersey recognized the gaps in current federal law and took steps to ensure equal treatment for our LGBTQ community,” said Representative Mikie Sherrill. “But in more than 30 states across the country, LGBTQ individuals can still be fired from their jobs, or evicted from their homes, because of who they are. The Equality Act brings federal law into alignment with what we’ve done in New Jersey, and is an important reflection of our American values. I am proud to see the bipartisan support for this measure in the House.”

“While LGBTQ New Jerseyans enjoy commonsense legal protections against discrimination, 44% of LGBTQ Americans still live in states where it is legal to fire, deny housing, or refuse service to someone simply because of who they are or who they love,” said Christian Fuscarino, executive director of Garden State Equality. “Today’s passage of The Equality Act in the House is a historic step forward to ensuring equality under the law truly means equality for all, and I am proud that New Jersey’s congressional delegation is leading the way in championing civil rights for LGBTQ Americans across the nation.”

BOONTON — Seventy-one babies have been legally surrendered since New Jersey’s Safe Haven Infant Protection Act was passed in 2000; however, moms abandoning or killing their newborns continues to make headlines.

Most recently, an 18-year-old Neptune High School student suffocated her newborn before the baby’s father threw him in a dumpster and a Little Ferry mother killed her five-day-old daughter because, according to reports, “she didn’t want her child.”

“Had these new mothers taken advantage of the Safe Haven law, these babies would be alive today,” said Assemblyman Anthony M. Bucco.

His bill (A1380) requiring school districts to provide students in grades 9 through 12 with information on the Safe Haven law is up for a vote in tomorrow’s Assembly Women and Children Committee.

“We need to be able to reach young people before it’s too late. In the unfortunate event someone is expecting an unwanted child, they can anonymously surrender their baby and there are no repercussions” said Bucco (R-Morris).

The Safe Haven law allows parents to drop off their unwanted and unharmed infants who are younger than 30 days old at police stations, emergency departments, first aid squads and fire stations with no questions asked and without fear of prosecution.

Research shows the risk of being a homicide victim is highest during the first year of life and can often be the result of an impulsive decision to leave a baby in an unsafe location. Most infant homicides occur at the hands of new mothers on the day of birth. More than half of all illegal abandonments in the nation result in death.

“Education and awareness are so important. It empowers people to make the right decision,” said Bucco.

If the legislation clears the committee, it will head to the Assembly for a vote. A Senate version of Bucco’s bill (S1126) passed by a 35-0 vote in June last year.