Assemblyman Gary Chiusano (R-Franklin) is upset about a flyer from the Passaic County Republican splinter group GOP Strong that he says took a quote of his wildly out of context.
At issue is a flyer that accuses Assemblymen Scott Rumana (R-Wayne) and Dave Russo (R-Ridgewood) of refusing "to support a bill to prevent sex offenders from having their criminal records expunged."
The campaign piece includes a quote from Chiusano, a conservative, saying "to vote against this bill means you are allowing the expungement of sex crimes."
Rumana abstained from voting on the bill. Russo voted no. But Chiusano also voted no.
Chiusano said that the bill was actually in two parts: one that cut down the amount of time it took for certain types convicted criminals to have their records expunged, which he opposed, and one that excluded terrorists and child abusers from the new law.
Republicans proposed splitting the bill in two, but were unsuccessful. It passed by a margin of 45 to 18, largely along party lines, with three members not voting and 14 abstentions.
Chuisano said that he did not think terrorists or child abusers should have their records expunged faster. But he also opposed earlier expungement for the other types of convicts, so he voted against the whole thing. His quote was actually a complaint that, because of the way the bill was structured, a vote against the bill could be twisted for political purposes.
"They put it in there so that anybody who votes against this will later be criticized for voting against not allowing expungement for abusers of children," he said. "I'm upset that folks who don't know me, and didn't use the entirety of my comments, would use it against two honorable colleagues of mine."
The flyer also drew the ire of Republican state Assembly candidates Joseph Caruso and Anthony Rottino, who are running against Russo and Rumana, even though the flyer was intended to help their campaign.
"There was a little bit of a fight about the flyer. I'll leave it at that," said Caruso.
