The campaign finance report landed like a dirty secret at a church social.
Three establishment candidates for the Bloomfield Town Council had raised $121,165.70 as of May 21, much of it from government jobholders and contractors who do business with the very town they seek to govern. That is a substantial amount of money for a local race. It is also, under New Jersey’s famously porous campaign finance laws, perfectly legal.
What is also legal — and what has people who track such things shaking their heads in a mixture of weary recognition and genuine alarm — is who appeared on the donor list.
His name is Antonio “Tony” Teixeira. He lives on North Avenue in Elizabeth. He is the former chief of staff to the president of the New Jersey Senate and a former chairman of the Elizabeth Democratic Committee. On May 7, he contributed $500 to the slate backed by Gov. Rebecca “Mikie” Sherrill.
That is the same Antonio Teixeira who, in July 2023, stood before a federal judge in Newark and received a sentence of eight months of home confinement and three years of probation.
The charges were conspiracy to commit wire fraud and tax evasion.
The details, drawn from the public record of the U.S. District Court, read like something from a Jersey crime novel, except the bodies were real and the blood was not spilled on paper.
Teixeira’s partner in fraud was Sean Caddle, a political consultant and convicted murderer. In June 2023, Caddle was sentenced to 24 years in federal prison for hiring two men to kill longtime associate Michael Galdieri.
The method was not subtle. On May 22, 2014, the two hitmen entered Galdieri’s apartment in Jersey City, stabbed him to death and set the apartment on fire. Caddle later met one of the men in a diner parking lot in Elizabeth and paid him thousands of dollars in cash.
That is not hyperbole. That is United States v. Sean Caddle, heard before U.S. District Judge John Michael Vazquez.
Teixeira did not order a murder. But he operated in the same political ecosystem.
From 2014 to 2018, while serving as state Senator Nicholas Scutari’s chief of staff, Teixeira conspired with Caddle to defraud political campaigns, political action committees, and tax-exempt organizations.
The scheme was straightforward.
Caddle’s consulting firms submitted inflated invoices for campaign work. The excess money was split between them. Caddle paid Teixeira part of his share in cash and funneled the rest through checks written to Teixeira’s relatives to avoid detection. In total, Teixeira pocketed more than $100,000. He did not report the money to the Internal Revenue Service.
He pleaded guilty. He was sentenced to home confinement. He paid restitution. Then, three years later, he wrote a $500 check to a municipal campaign in Bloomfield.
That campaign is the one Sherrill endorsed. She is backing incumbents Rosalee Gonzalez in the 1st Ward and Sarah Cruz in the 3rd Ward, along with Jason Martinez for the open 2nd Ward seat. The governor called them “an exciting team that represents the innovation and rich diversity of Bloomfield.”
On the other side of the same primary race are Stefanie Santiago, Greg Babula and Stef Bootwala, endorsed by U.S. Sen. Andy Kim, Rep. Analilia Mejia and state Sen. Britnee Timberlake. Kim called them “a new generation of leaders stepping up to bring transparent and accountable leadership to their community.”
Santiago, a mental health clinician, said the endorsements from Kim, Mejia and Timberlake were “a loud testament of our character and commitment to establishing a real democratic political apparatus in Bloomfield.”
The establishment slate said in a joint statement that its strength lies in its diversity and commitment to “fair representation, continuous infrastructure improvements, and open communication for every neighborhood.”
The statement did not mention the $500 contribution from a man who admitted helping a convicted murderer defraud political committees. Perhaps the candidates did not know. Perhaps they did not ask.
The rest of the donor list reads like a catalog of New Jersey political influence: government employees, engineering firms, law firms, lobbyists and charter school advocates. Contributors include Fairview Insurance Agency Associates, Antonelli Kantor Rivera, lobbyist Ed Farmer, Great Schools for All, Richard A. Alaimo Associates and T&M Associates.
Also listed is Joseph Kelley, identified in public reporting as a Murphy administration appointee who has faced criticism over misogynistic comments. Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo, who endorsed Republican Chris Christie for governor, also contributed.
Then there is Michael P. Dasilva, an AIG executive from Clark with no party affiliation. He gave $300.
Clark Township’s local government has faced longstanding accusations of discriminatory practices, according to public reporting. Dasilva worked as a financial analyst at AIG during the 2007-08 financial crisis, when the insurance giant’s exposure to subprime mortgage derivatives contributed to a global economic collapse and led to a federal bailout totaling $182.5 billion. That history is not necessarily a reflection on him personally. But it is part of his professional background.
The question in Bloomfield is not whether a $500 contribution from a convicted fraudster buys influence. In New Jersey politics, $500 is not an extraordinary amount of money.
The question is what the contribution represents.
Sherrill and the county party establishment have lined up behind a slate whose fundraising includes support from a man who admitted conspiring with a convicted murderer to steal from the political system he now helps finance.
The challengers have raised far less money. They do not have the engineering firms, the lobbyists or the former chiefs of staff to Senate presidents. What they do have is the endorsement of a U.S. senator and a promise to confront what Santiago describes as deep-rooted problems in local government.
The primary is June 2. Bloomfield voters will decide whether Teixeira’s $500 contribution is merely another campaign donation or something more revealing about the culture of political power in New Jersey.
The governor, at least through her endorsement, has already made her choice. The voters get the final say.
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