McCain Hires Our Sock-Puppeteer

by: JRB

Thu Dec 21, 2006 at 12:42:42 AM EST

Jill Hazelbaker, battle tested in New Jersey this year as Tom Kean Jr.'s Communications Director, is headed to John McCain's presidential campaign. She will serve as Communications Director for McCain's campaign in New Hampshire.

'Democrats for Kean' may actually vote for Menendez

by: Juan Melli

Wed Oct 04, 2006 at 08:59:20 PM EDT

The Republican candidate for U.S. Senate appeared alongside two people identified as "Democrats for Kean" on Wednesday in an effort to show that he can attract voters of both parties. Trouble is, Tom Kean Jr. might not get the vote of either one.

The two Democrats who appeared with Kean thought the event was a chance to publicize their own beef over local corruption. Kean, however, staged the event to advance his own campaign.

Daisy Vega, a member of the parents' group Families United for Students of Elizabeth, said Wednesday she was a lifelong registered Democrat who has never voted Republican. She said she had not yet made up her mind whether to vote for Kean or his Democratic opponent, Sen. Robert Menendez, on Nov. 7, before adding, "I've never crossed over before."

The other "Democrat for Kean," former Elizabeth Councilman Bob Jaspan, said he, too, had not yet decided whom to vote for in the Senate race. He said he "was asked to attend and say a few words about my feelings on corruption. I did not know the label of the press conference."

Vega, 45, said she appeared with Kean after he responded to her invitation to support Elizabeth school children. She said the group, known by the acronym FUSE, invited Kean in the hope of triggering an investigation into the sale of two city properties to a private developer at a discount. The group believes the parcels should have been deeded to the Board of Education for construction of new schools.

She said she did not know the Kean campaign dubbed the event "Democrats for Kean" in its press release, but said she did not feel as if her group was being used. "Did it bring out the press? Good. What I had to say was heard," she said.

Fun Facts on Fake Democrats for Kean Jr

by: Juan Melli

Thu Sep 28, 2006 at 12:00:47 AM EDT

Last Thursday, Tom Kean Jr held a press conference with a bunch of "Democrats" who, like the internet and radio "Democrats", said they're crossing party lines to support his campaign. They included Ramesh Sawhney, Jill Sawers and James Geron.

In fact, neither Ramesh or Sawers are registered Democrats in their respective towns. Both are unaffiliated (unless they registered within the last few weeks), and Sawer's husband is a Republican who voted in last year's Republican primary. She also appeared in an ad for McGreevey in 2001 where she said she had voted for Ronald Reagan and Christie Whitman.

And then there's James Geron who challenged Menendez in the primary for Congress last year, lost and then ran as a Republican. He also ran for mayor of Guttenberg as a Republican in 2001.

Tom Kean Jr's strategy to prove his moderate credentials and bipartisan support relies on a giant, transparent lie that permeates every aspect of his campaign. Mr Ethics Reform Junior talks a big talk about ethics, but he can't even run an honest campaign.

Another "Democrat" for Kean Jr

by: Juan Melli

Tue Sep 26, 2006 at 12:06:02 AM EDT

Now, they're taking their deception campaign mainstream - with a new 60 second radio spot featuring Larry Giancola - yet another "Democrat" that doesn't like Bob Menendez. Here's what Larry has to say:

My name is Larry Giancola. I'm a lifelong resident of Hudson County. I'm a registered Democrat. I would not want to see Bob Menendez representing New Jersey in the Senate.

Astrogate News Roundup

by: Juan Melli

Fri Sep 22, 2006 at 07:47:45 AM EDT

The Star Ledger: Kean defends aide accused of trashing Menendez on blog

Asbury Park Press: Kean aide denies posting notes

The Record: Kean says aide didn't blog against Menendez:

Hazelbaker denied posting the messages Thursday and said it wasn't worth checking to see if anyone else on the campaign did so.

"It's the silly season," she said. "I did not go around to everybody's computers and check them. Anyone who knows me knows that when I have something to say, I say it."

One message that Melli said linked Hazelbaker to the anonymous posts concerned Menendez's relationship with a non-profit group that leased office space from him and is now the subject of a federal investigation.

On Tuesday, Hazelbaker had sought to downplay a contention by Ellen Weintraub, former Democratic lawyer for the House ethics committee, that Menendez's lease did not violate House ethics rules.

In doing so, Hazelbaker directed a Record reporter to another political Web site, the National Center Blog, on which a writer suggested that Weintraub did not deserve her current job on the Federal Election Commission. The writer asserted that Weintraub had a conflict of interest because her husband was on the Senate Democratic staff.

An ironic twist

Later that evening "cleanupnj" posted the same information on bluejersey.net, a day before the article appeared in The Record.

There's Some Things Money Can't Buy

by: Juan Melli

Thu Sep 21, 2006 at 11:54:43 PM EDT

The new version of Firefox that hides your IP address: Free

Getting your ass handed to you by the Eyewitness News crew: priceless.

It's the Coverup, Stupid.

by: Juan Melli

Thu Sep 21, 2006 at 06:42:07 PM EDT

This shouldn't have been a 2-day story....

Update: The AP article was corrected. It used to say that I alleged that the Kean campaign emailed me comments, which I never did. I received the email sent by Hazelbaker from a third party, not from Jill or anyone else in the campaign. The UPI article still says I said the "e-mail messages attacking Menendez claimed to be from "an ardent Democrat" and were sent under two names registered within 15 minutes of each other." Obviously, they confused emails with comments on the blog. Jill may keep talking about her not having emailed me to try to confuse the issue, but it's completely irrelevant.
Update 2: 88.1 FM (NJ public radio) had the story around 6 pm tonight.
Update 3: UPI corrected their story.

The Sockpuppet Has No Sock

by: Juan Melli

Wed Sep 20, 2006 at 09:39:19 PM EDT

The Kean campaign’s technical adviser said that the Internet protocol, or I.P., address that linked the posts to the Kean headquarters was an old one, “from over a month ago.” But an e-mail message Ms. Hazelbaker sent to a reporter on Wednesday shares the same I.P. address.

Deborah Howlett at the Star Ledger:

Hazelbaker argued that the address Melli published -- 70.90.20.85 -- is not the campaign's IP address. It is, however, the same IP address that appears on numerous official campaign e-mails sent by Hazelbaker to The Star-Ledger through the course of the campaign.

Hazelbaker said last night that she could not explain why that IP address shows up on her e-mail, but that the campaign's technical staff assured her Melli had it wrong. She declined to say what the campaign's IP address is.

Confirmed: Kean Jr Campaign Behind Astroturfing

by: Juan Melli

Wed Sep 20, 2006 at 09:01:35 AM EDT

Return-Path:
Received: from tomkean.com (mail.xquizit.com [66.194.148.20])
        by XXXXX with ESMTP id XXXXX;
Received-SPF: neutral (XXXXX is neither permitted nor denied by best guess record for domain of jill@tomkean.com)
Received: from KFS05 [70.90.20.85] by tomkean.com with ESMTP
  (SMTPD32-8.15) id XXXXX;
From: "Jill Hazelbaker"
To: "XXXXX"

This is the same IP address that several troll comments last night were posted from. It's pretty obvious that those comments were posted by Hazelbaker herself. The content of the comments is a dead giveaway. In one comment, "cleanupnj" says:

"What happened to Mr. Mark Davis, the counsel who apparently gave Boss Bob "verbal approval" to line his pockets with tax-payer funded federal money."

"Menendez said it was another person that originally gave him approval, now his corroborating witness doesn't remember the act of approval."

Also, you guys are upset about the attacks on Menendez, but isn't it a little bit hypocritical to then attack his press secretary.

And perhaps the most damning evidence, again from "cleanupnj" (emphasis mine):

She is also married to Russ Feingold's legislative director.  Unbiased source?  A conflict of interest certaintly. And the woman isn't even sure if she gave Boss Bob approval anyway.

Jill - your campaign has been exposed. You're nothing but a bunch of liars, and sadly, you can't even do that well.

Update: More Amateur Hour at the Kean Jr Campaign - Jill Hazelbaker strikes again in the comments below.

Tom Kean Jr Campaign Astroturfing Blogs?

by: Juan Melli

Tue Sep 19, 2006 at 10:51:09 PM EDT

Almost without exception, these trolls have pretended to be Democrats, confused Democrats, wavering Democrats or former Democrats who just aren't so sure Menendez is up to par. They're actually all Republicans. Yesterday we pointed out that one user, who "wonder[ed] about the direction of our party" is the president of the NJ College Republicans.

Today, a pair of users (cleanupnj & usedtobeblue) whose accounts were created within 10 minutes of each other posted nonsensical comments just 15 minutes apart from the same IP address, meaning - it's the same person.

It looks likely this person was posting from Tom Kean Jr's headquarters. The IP address (70.90.20.85) is from a Comcast business account, and can be traced all the way to ge-5-1-ur01.union.nj.panjde.comcast.net - a GigabitEthernet interface 5/1 Comcast node in Union - before hitting a firewall. Tom Kean Jr's headquarters in Mountainside is 5 miles from Union. Even more interesting is that this same IP address has a history of making partisan changes to Bob Menendez's wikipedia entry in July.

New Jersey Republicans see their smear campaign collapsing before their eyes, and they're wetting their pants. So they've resorted to astroturfing blogs to try to stop the hemorrhaging. And they're doing a really sloppy job of it. Pathetic.

Update: AmadeusNJ, who calls himself a "lifelong liberal", is at least the third user who posts from the same IP address as the other two.