Who Paid for the Outrage? Following the Money Behind Capone and Tobacco’s Attacks
Campaign finance records show payments to a political consulting firm linked to a local news outlet that published and amplified favorable coverage during an active school board race, raising new questions about transparency in Middletown’s political messaging ecosystem.
Local political influence doesn’t always arrive through ads or mailers. Increasingly, it moves through digital outlets that appear to be independent news sources while publishing content that aligns with campaign interests. Our review of publicly available records shows how that dynamic played out in one recent race: a media outlet linked to a campaign vendor published and amplified favorable content about a candidate during an active election period, without any public disclosure of that relationship.
In our first story, From Bumper Sticker to Ballot Box: Middletown’s Outrage Was No Accident, we examined campaign filings showing how the Monmouth County Republican Committee drew the Middletown School District into a broader, politicized debate over free speech.
Board president Frank Capone has publicly accused state lawmakers of representing “an administration in Trenton that cares far more for special interests and political agendas than putting children first [sic],” and has stated that Governor Phil Murphy “is consistently putting politics ahead of children.” At the same time, our research documents Capone’s connections to partisan political networks, suggesting a more complex relationship between his campaign activity and political influence in the school system.
A closer examination of campaign filings from Capone and Jacqueline Tobacco’s 2023 Board of Education race reveals how those manufactured dynamics appeared on residents’ newsfeeds during their campaign.
