Virtually every anti-development bugaboo is included in the drawing. High-rise tenement buildings labeled “Affordable Housing” and “For Rent” tower over the familiar stores that ring around the Route 31 Pennington Circle. If the specter of development wasn’t enough, busloads of redistricted, and unwanted, school children pack the already clogged traffic circle. In the middle of it all, scratching his head, stands the mustachioed 2015 Hopewell township mayor.
“Tomorrowland, Courtesy of Harvey Lester,” reads the title. On the other side of the cartoon mailer, the text asserts “Tomorrowland” is a “nightmare for families who live in the Brandon Farms area,” as Lester’s Planning Board will leave the “southern tier of tomorrow over-developed and under-represented.”
The startling election mailer was sent out before Democrat Julie Blake defeated Democrat-turned-Republican Harvey Lester in the Nov. 3 race, a result which shifts control of the township committee back to the Democrats.
Who exactly is responsible for sending the “Tomorrowland” mailer has so far remained a mystery. Nobody is taking credit for it.
“I have no idea who sent that,” said Blake, who lives in Hopewell’s southern tier. She said it didn’t come from her campaign and wasn’t even sure she ever saw one of the mailers.
Lester also denies any involvement.
“The conclusion that money and effort were expended to create the mailer and hide its origin is inescapable,” Lester said. “To me, the drawing [on the mailer] bore a striking similarity to a drawing used by the Democrats in the 2011 election against a Republican candidate.”
Lester is referring to one of three 2011 postcards designed by D.C. McGowan, a freelance illustrator from Madison, Va. That year, two of McGowan’s postcard drawings portrayed Republican committee candidates Todd Brant and Ashley Kerr in a fashion similar to the “Tomorrowland” mailer. A third drawing shows a scale weighed down by G.O.P. elephants, and it urges residents to vote for Democratic committee candidates Vanessa Sandom and Allen J. Cannon. They were the eventual winners.
While the last year’s cartoon is signed “D.M.,” McGowan’s previous drawings include his full name. He emphatically denies any involvement in the most recent drawing. “I did not draw the [Tomorrowland] mailer cartoon,” he said.
However, he said he illustrated three cartoons “for a PAC in Hopewell Township [in 2011]… I have not produced any cartoons for any party since,” McGowan said.
McGowan, who also provided email correspondence from the time, said those 2011 cartoons were commissioned by Cyberbranding, a consulting firm owned by J.G. Sandom, who identifies himself on his website as a digital marketing consultant and author.
Neither J.G. Sandom nor Vanessa Sandom responded to multiple requests for comment.
Adding to the intrigue of the “Tomorrowland” mailer is photographic proof that indicates the fliers were mailed under permit 810 from Cleveland, Ohio.
According to Lester, the targeted mailer, paid for by “Heritage Coalition for American Values, P.O. Box 102, Fly Creek, NY 13337” did not identify a registered New York political action committee. Fly Creek is near Cooperstown, home of the baseball Hall of Fame.
“The box [in Fly Creek] is rented to an individual,” said Ray V. Daiutolo Sr., a representative from the U.S. postal service. He added it is not unusual for a return address to be that of an individual.
Since an individual rents it “a lot of information pertaining to that box is privacy protected,” said Daiutolo, who handles media inquiries for southern and central New Jersey.
“It is possible that a mailing vendor was used to prepare the mailing” and used “their permit with the individual’s return P.O. box address.”
After checking with the organization’s consumer affairs and industry contact team, Daiutolo said, “The team here does not see anything unusual with this mailing.”
W. Timothy Howes, an election law attorney based in Gladstone, wondered why a Political Action Committee in New York called “Heritage Coalition For American Values” would have any interest in a town like Hopewell.
He said there has been an increase in outside interest in local elections in recent years, although it is still considered uncommon in small towns.
There doesn’t seem to be any record of the PAC in New York.
While the Blake campaign followed New Jersey election law by making proper filings which allow for tracking where contributions are coming from and how they are used, the PAC in upstate New York appears to be hidden from public view.
Howes said a PAC would have to be registered so those things could be publically known.
“You have to exist,” Howes said. “There has to be a record. [In this case] that trail doesn’t exist. To me, that’s really the story.”
By not providing that trail, Howes said the PAC is in violation of New Jersey election law. “In this case, right now, you can’t really prove who [sent the mailers],” Howes said.
As of now, that is where the mailer mystery seems to stand.
Suspicions remain
“I would like to see an investigation conducted, whether by governmental agency or investigative journalism, to determine who perpetrated and financed the mailer, which was […] paid for or mailed by a political action committee that apparently does not exist,” Lester said. “At the end of the day, I believe that a local connection with an interest in causing my defeat will be found.”
Lester said he has always been for “limited development” and the mailer “grossly misrepresents” his positions.
How much the “Tomorrowland” mailer impacted the 2015 race is difficult to say. Lester’s party switch last March may have been another factor.
Lester initially ran as a Democrat, but he said he changed sides because he believed local Republicans were more closely aligned with his view of “holding the line on development.” Since changing sides, “Democrats have engaged in a year-long campaign to discredit me.”
He said the election campaign local Democrats ran was an extension of that.
For her part, Blake, who won 54 percent of the vote, does not want to look back.
“Now it is time for the members of the new committee to roll up our sleeves and begin working together to solve the problems that we face. I have already reached out to both the Democrats and Republicans on the committee to find common ground,” Blake wrote in a statement.
“I don’t feel like I have anything meaningful to say about the campaign,” she said, referring “post-mortem” campaign questions to her campaign manager Pete Sandford.
At Issue: Development
While the “Tomorrowland” mailer represents dirty local politics, it indicates the issue of development played a major role in the 2015 election.
Affordable housing obligations can be tied to more overall development, as it is common state practice for municipalities to rely on developers to build four market rate units for every affordable unit, also known as a 20 percent set aside.
It is currently unclear what the township’s affordable housing obligation for the period from 1999 to 2025 is going to be. The Mercer County Superior Court is expected to hold hearings within the next six months to determine the state-mandated figure.
Past development initiatives have fallen short. Before his first run for township committee, in 2011 Lester was a vocal opponent of a proposal to extend sewer service to the Pennington Circle. In 2013, the township committee opposed the Pennytown tract development, which would have included 70 affordable units.
Recently, Lester responded to questions on affordable housing.
According to Lester, based on affordable housing rules, only land in a sewer service area is a suitable area for affordable housing and the township’s sewer service areas are concentrated in the southern tier below Route 546.
Blake declined to comment on affordable housing.
“I am unable to answer direct questions about affordable housing as I will be on the planning board and we work as a committee,” she said. “My role now is to work together with my colleagues in finding the best possible [affordable housing] solution for the Township.”
Prior to the election, Blake told mycentraljersey.com, “I am worried about proposals to overdevelop the Route 31 corridor and the southern tier. […] Why has the township planned extensive housing developments that will clog the area between I-95 and the Pennington Circle?”
At that time Blake said that part of Route 31 is one of the most dangerous corridors in the county.
“Why would we feed more traffic into it?” Blake said. “In short, we do not want to create an ‘Affordable Housing District’ in Hopewell Township nor do we want to develop tracts of land that require expensive construction and sewers.”
In early December, the township submitted preliminary housing plans to Mercer County Superior Court that outlined how Hopewell could fulfill affordable housing obligations.
Township administrator Paul Pogorzelski emphasized the submitted plans were a draft “work effort.”
The intention is “to show the judge that Hopewell Township is working in good faith towards a plan that will pass [state] constitutional muster,” Pogorzelski said.
The township’s recent court submission includes a development scenario which mirrors a chart released by the township in mid-October.
The chart lists six sites and a total of 3,235 units, 1,010 of which are affordable. In the vicinity of Pennington Circile, there are are three sites comprising 940 total units.
Straddling the portion of Scotch Road between the municipal complex and the Capital Health campus is the former Merrill Lynch complex. CF Hopewell LLC owns 350 acres. According to the chart, 194 acres of those acres are developable, for a total of 1,946 units, which includes 468 affordable units. Currently zoned for office use, the Scotch Road area is within the township’s sewer service plan.
The figures listed above are preliminary, as the township’s undetermined affordable obligation will ultimately affect the extent to which various sites in the township will be developed.
The Planning Board will review any zoning or master plan changes. The township committee controls Planning Board appointments, and four Planning Board seats, plus one alternate, are up for appointment in January.
