Tea Party To Adler: Fire Campaign Manager

The Independence Hall Tea Party PAC is demanding that Congressman Jon Adler (NJ-3) fire his campaign manager, Geoff Mackler, for his role in planting a fake Tea Party candidate in the New Jersey 3rd Congressional District race in order to confuse voters and siphon votes away from Tea Party endorsed candidate, John Runyan (R-3).
Last Friday, Jane Roh of the Courier Post linked the Campaign of NJ Congressman John Adler
(D-3), and specifically, campaign manager Geoff Mackler, to the fraudulent Tea Party candidacy of Peter DeStefano--hatched in the late spring, 2010.
DeStefano's name is scheduled to appear on the general election ballot under the banner "NJ Tea Party."
"While DeStefano has no ties to the Tea Party movement, he does appear to have strong ties to the Democrat Party, Geoff Mackler, and John Adler," said Mount Laurel resident and PAC New Jersey Vice President, Bill Green. "It appears Mackler was involved in an obvious ploy to confuse Tea Party voters and take votes away from Jon Runyan."
According to the Courier Post, Mackler recruited volunteers to circulate petitions on behalf of DeStefano. The signatures, themselves, may have been fraudulently obtained.
While addressing the DeStefano scandal as a guest on this past Sunday's NBC10@Issue, Adler told host Steve Highsmith, "I did not know about it.... And when I heard about it in the newspapers, I went to my staff and said we're having nothing to do with that.... I would rather people, if they 're trying to help, that they work with me and follow my leadership."
During this week's debate in Cherry Hill, Adler said, 'I want nothing to do with it--and I told my people to have nothing to do with it.... As far as I know, we had nothing to do with it."
"We now know that Congressman Adler's Campaign Manager, Geoff Mackler, had a lot to do with it. According to the Courier Post, he orchestrated a petition drive in behalf of  DeStefano," said PAC President Don Adams. "He may have even recruited DeStefano to run in the first place.
"We need answers to these questions from Congressman Adler and, at the very least, he should immediately remove Geoff Mackler as Campaign Manager until the matter is properly investigated by the Federal Election Commission and the New Jersey Election Commission," said Adams.
"Unless Adler removes Mackler as Campaign Manager and gives 'we the people' some honest answers to our questions in a face to face meeting, there will be an ethical cloud hanging over the Congressman, and his re-election campaign, through the November 2 election."
Jon Runyan was endorsed by the Independence Hall Tea Party PAC in May, 2010, before the June 8 NJ primary.