TOMS RIVER, NJ (OPINION) – Bill who?
New Jersey 101.5 shock jock and political activist Bill Spadea spent the past few days promoting a questionable candidate for mayor in Toms River and never disclosed his own financial and political connections to the candidate.
Geri Ambrosio ran for mayor in Toms River and lost. She was backed by Ocean County GOP Chairman George Gilmore, who went against both of his own organization’s incumbent candidates. Spadea and Gilmore operate a political action committee that has raised over $100,000 and according to New Jersey election law enforcement reports, hasn’t donated a single penny to any candidates.
Spadea touted Ambrosio as the clear choice and a solid leader, knowing the candidate was flawed, but he shilled for his new master anyway. In campaign mailers, Ambrosio reportedly had two bankruptcies and multiple court actions against her for not paying her debts. Gilmore, Spadea’s partner in political crime was convicted by the IRS of not paying over a million dollars in payroll taxes at his law firm and lying on a bank loan application.
He was convicted and sentenced to prison but later pardoned by former President Donald J. Trump.
If that all wasn’t bad enough, Ambrosio was involved in a hit-and-run crash in Lacey Township in 2020 and fled the scene of an accident, avoiding police for more than 24 hours after the incident, claiming, and this is no joke; she had to poop.
This week Spadea paraded around Toms River with Ambrosio because Gilmore told him to do it. There really is no other explanation here. Spadea went against an independent Republican with a strong conservative record and a well-documented path of standing up for the little guy against big government and political bosses.
Spadea represented his PAC, in which his own partner is a paid lobbyist for one of New Jersey’s largest Democrat political bosses.
He backed the wrong candidate, but Toms River is just another day on another radio show where the host can say what he wants and move on to the next topic without ramifications. It’s the business he’s in, but luckily, Toms River voters didn’t fall for it.
Ambrosio ended up getting just 24% of the total vote in Toms River, and the voters didn’t buy Spadea’s PAC-motivated propaganda and lies about the race.
In hindsight, Spadea’s move in Toms River might end up doing more damage to his aspirations to become governor because he has alienated most Republicans in one of the state’s largest Republican strongholds and made Jack Ciattarelli look like a more viable option, even for conservative-leaning voters.
If Spadea continues traveling the state shilling for dark-money special interests funded by Democrats, he might start polling in Chris Christie territory. Right now, he doesn’t even have the name recognition he thinks he has. He’s a commentator on radio, one of the last technology holdovers from the early 20th century, about as effective today as the print newspaper thanks to CarPlay, Spotify, XM Radio and Bluetooth speakers being standard in most automobiles today.