Dem leader questions lack of reports by ex-candidate
BY KATHY BARATTA
Staff Writer

MANALAPAN - Manalapan Demo-cratic Chairman Gerard Ward has lodged a complaint with the state's Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC) re-garding former Republican Township Committee candidate Nikole Pezzullo.

Pezzullo ran unsuccessfully for a seat on the committee in the November 2006 election. She lost to Democrat Richard Klauber.

Ward told the News Transcript he filed his complaint with ELEC due to Pezzullo's failure to file any financial reports regarding how her campaign was financed. The financial reports are required to be filed by candidates at specific times during and after a campaign.

ELEC officials informed Ward they will look into the matter.

Noting that on Election Day 2006 a plane towing a banner that read "Vote for Nikole Pezzullo" flew over Manalapan, Ward said, "I don't think I'm the only person in Manalapan who wants to know who paid for that."

Repeated attempts to reach Pezzullo, who is an attorney, were unsuccessful. Messages left requesting comment for this story were not returned.

When contacted by the News Tran-script, Debra Gurrieri, who served as Pezzullo's campaign treasurer, tersely told a reporter she had no comment and hung up the telephone when asked for details regarding the election reports after stating that she did not want to be called again regarding the matter.

Martin Mabe, who was Pezzullo's campaign manager, said he could not account for the failure to file the appropriate reports with ELEC. He said it was his understanding from the beginning of the campaign that his job was mostly overseeing the campaign.

Mabe said Gurrieri and Manalapan Republican Party Chairman Steve McEnery were "basically in charge of that (filing all reports)."

McEnery acknowledged that there had "been a problem" regarding Pez-zullo's timely compliance with ELEC regulations. He said he expected her to make the appropriate filings this week.

McEnery attributed the delay to a personal matter as well as the demands made on Pezzullo as a working mother who runs her own law practice.

He said although it "should not be an excuse," there were, "unfortunately, a number of personal problems that seemed to happen all at once. We expect she will be filing this week."

Ward filed his complaint about Pezzullo's failure to file any financial reports in November. He received a letter from ELEC dated March 30 in which he was informed that although the commission has a heavy work load, it will be looking into the matter as quickly as the work load permits.