ID of person behind racist flyer in Edison election remains unknown

<p>The identity of the person or people behind a racist flyer attacking two Asian candidates for the Edison School Board election last year remains unknown after 10 months.</p>

News 12 Staff

Sep 22, 2018, 12:58 AM

Updated 2,260 days ago

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The identity of the person or people behind a racist flyer attacking two Asian candidates for the Edison School Board election last year remains unknown after 10 months.
Edison officials are now calling out the New jersey State Attorney General’s Office, who they claim refuses to confirm if the agency is still investigating the issue.
The Edison Town Council passed a resolution last week asking Attorney General Gurbir Grewal to investigate and, if appropriate, bring criminal charges against those behind the flyers, which were sent out during the school board election.
The flyers featured photos of candidates Jerry Shi and Falguni Patel with the words “deport” written underneath. The flyer also said “Make Edison Great Again,” in a reference to President Donald Trump’s campaign slogan “Make America Great Again.”
Township officials say it was a targeted mailer with a specific political mailing list since not all residents received it. They say that this is a violation of election laws.
"There’s a rule with them that says you cannot send out a political mailer without specifically writing who it's paid for by,” says Edison Councilman Sam Joshi.
The councilmembers say that the Edison Police Department initially investigated the flyers, but stopped when the Attorney General’s Office took over.
A spokesperson for the agency says that it is their policy to neither confirm nor deny investigations.
“We want to know who would do this so that if they want to run for public office in our town we know who we're dealing with,” says Councilman Robert Diehl.
The council says that they respect the attorney general follows specific protocols when handling cases like this, but they are also asking for transparency. A new round of voting is just weeks away.
“The fact that they're now getting away with it and the fact that they may still be influencing our government should be a concern for every resident,” Joshi says.
News 12 New Jersey reached out to the candidates featured on the flyer for comment, but did not hear back.