A South Jersey candidate’s website highlights a fake endorsement from a former local mayor who endorsed his opponent
Timothy Alexander said the post was a “mistake.”
A South Jersey congressional candidate’s website features a lengthy statement endorsing him that’s falsely attributed to the former mayor of West Cape May.
She didn’t write it. She didn’t even endorse him. Instead, she’s publicly endorsed another candidate in the race.
Carol Sabo, the former mayor of West Cape May, looked at Tim Alexander’s campaign website for the first time on Wednesday when contacted by The Inquirer. She was shocked — and irked — to see her name listed as endorsing Alexander alongside a statement attributed to her that topped 360 words.
Sabo had already released her own statement endorsing his opponent, Cape May Mayor Zack Mullock. The two candidates are running in the four-way Democratic primary to face U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew in the 2nd Congressional District, which covers much of South Jersey.
“As the Mayor of West Cape May, I have had the privilege of serving a community that values inclusion, fairness, and genuine public service,” the false endorsement statement begun. It goes on to list specific projects Sabo has been involved with and praises Alexander for having a “deep commitment to justice and accountability.”
“If you know me, that’s a lot of words for me to say,” she said on the phone. “I’m a little more succinct than that. My endorsement of Zack, which is my word for word endorsement, you’ll see is much shorter.”
Alexander, a civil rights attorney who is running in the district for the third time, said posting the statement was “a mistake, plain and simple.”
He said his campaign pre-wrote endorsement statements for his supporters to “get them started.” The candidate said his team prepared one for Sabo because they expected her endorsement before Mullock entered the race in February.
“When I’m endorsing somebody, I want it to be in my words … I don’t need somebody else to write that,” Sabo said.
Her name had already been listed on Alexander’s website before someone who works for his campaign added the falsely attributed statement last Wednesday.
“That one got lumped into the emails that went to the web designer to list all of the endorsements,” Alexander said. “It was not intentional and it certainly wasn’t trying to be misleading.”
Alexander said his campaign removed the false endorsement from its website when The Inquirer and Sabo brought it to their attention Wednesday. But while Sabo’s name was removed from the endorsement page, the post with her fake statement was still on his “news” page four hours after The Inquirer informed Alexander’s team.
Sabo said she attended one of Alexander’s early campaign events and “spoke of him in a supportive way,” but never actually endorsed him. She said Alexander’s team asked for a formal endorsement after the event and she declined because at that point Mullock had just entered the race. She said Alexander “was understanding and OK with it” at the time.
She said she would have endorsed Alexander if Mullock didn’t throw his hat into the ring, but she’s closest with the Cape May mayor and views him as the most qualified for the job.
“We have four candidates with a lot of qualifications between them and it’s a very competitive race,” she said. “And everyone is looking for every advantage they can.”
Sabo, a retired social worker who unsuccessfully ran for state Assembly last year, said she didn’t pre-write statements for endorsements when she was a candidate and called the situation strange.
“If you’re talking to people, whether it’s a county chairperson or another elected official, you’re asking them to commit the time to putting it in writing, why they would support you,” she said. “And if someone’s not willing to do that, is their endorsement really needed?”
