NJ Democrat Operative Advocates Hunting Republicans

James Devine, a well known New Jersey Democrat operative and local newspaper publisher from Union County, responded to the shooting of Congressman Steve Scalise and three others yesterday by creating the hashtag #HuntRepublicans and #HuntRepublicanCongressmen on his social media accounts.  Devine declared that Democrats are “in a war” with Republicans.

New Jersey Democrats will hopefully condemn Devine as a disturbed whack job…which a great case can be made for.  But maybe they won’t. It is disturbing that Deborah Howlett, a faculty member at Rutgers University, the former Executive Director of NJ Policy Perspective and former Governor Jon Corzine’s Communications Director in 2008 and 2009, “liked” another of Devine’s offensive posts which was made at about the same time yesterday but did not include the “Hunting Republicans” hashtag.  Howlett is a member of the NJ Democrat elite and should know better than “liking” a whack job’s social media posts.

As we have seen recently in the case of former Brookdale Community College Trustee Joe DiBella, “liking” offensive social media posts is grounds for banishing a Republican from public life.

In 2015, then Monmouth Democrat Chairman Vin Gopal, now a candidate for State Senate in LD 11, went after two prominent Monmouth County Republicans for “liking” questionable posts on facebook.  The Asbury Park Press participated in Gopal’s witch hunt at that time.

Howlett will likely get a pass because she is a LGBT activist with powerful friends in the NJ media and Democrat establishments.

Back to Devine who was a troll before Al Gore invented the Internet.

His Monmouth County connection goes back to at least 2005 when he ran the Democrat Assembly race in LD 13 against Assemblywoman Amy Handlin and then Assemblyman (now LD12 Senator) Sam Thompson.  Devine blamed his loss in that campaign on The Asbury Park Press for giving Handlin, a Monmouth County Freeholder at the time, favorable coverage because of her religion.

“It’s incredible someone could say such a thing,” Handlin said of a Web site (Devine’s) that alleges she was handled with kid gloves by the region’s major daily newspaper because she is Jewish. “It’s so sick, you have no idea how many people have been calling me about this…. He’s chosen to make my Jewishness an issue.”

In 2014 when he was a candidate for mayor of Rahway, Devine was convicted of shoplifting two bags of prewashed lettuce, a protein supplement and hair conditioner, value $22.47, from a local Shop Rite.  Devine said he was going to appeal the conviction.  MMM can’t find a record of the appeal.

On his website, JamesDevine.org, the Democratic operative is soliciting “donations.”

The donation page includes official appearing language warning that donations are required to be reported to State and federal authorities and are not tax deductible.  The only use of the word “campaign” on the donation page is in the name of the company that processes the donations, Trail Blazer Campaign Services Inc.

Devine’s website includes a disclosure that it is “Paid for by Rahway Democrats for Change  PO Box 1061, Rahway NJ 07065
(732) 762-8455 Copyright © 2014 James J. Devine.

Searches for Rahway Democrats for Change on the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission website and the Federal Election Commission’s website came up empty.

According to GoDaddy’s whois service, jamesdevine.org is owned by James Devine and the site’s Tech Organization is Devine Media of Rahway.

We’re not publishing the physical addresses of Devine’s home or business, nor his email address or phone numbers.  GoDaddy published them.