Elmont Online

Continued from Part 1

Another Johnson staffer also shed light on the Johnson campaign. “the campaign had no local people. Everybody was paid. We would go out knock on doors and it was hard. We had these bar code sheets and had to ID voters. The Johnson staff worked on no sleep and they were difficult a lot. The Albany people were arrogant and always knew better. We would go out and hear stuff about Craig all the time. Each time we brought it back we were afraid of what would happen. We kept saying Craig needs to get out there. They were afraid to put him in Floral Park and Elmont because we just didn’t have people to help him.”

One Johnson campaign staffer from Hofstra really opened up and noted, “the press guy for Johnson always seemed to be the story instead of Craig. He would be on the phone all day gossiping and playing reporters. He would get off the phone and laugh like he pulled the wool over their eyes again. A lot of us would leave there and say to ourselves that it was a job and all we want is to just get paid and leave. We were Hostra students and this wasn’t our life. Rich was one of those kind of guys that you knew was up to something all the time. Everything was nasty, dirty and attack. They hated Martins. Most of all, they hated Pat Nicolosi, Claudine Hall, Rafe Lieber, Asemblyman Alfano, Joe Cairo, John Ciotti, Aubrey Phillips, Sandra Smith, Scott Cushing and Barbara Donno. It was a little ridiculous. Some of us met these guys on the street walking door to door. One of them offered us pizza on Election Day. We were so stunned that these were the people that they attacked in headquarters. I kept thinking to myself are we playing for the right team?”

A local newspaper publisher was also on the receiving end of Johnson staff tirades as well. Johnson’s press spokesman on two occasions threatened the publisher who hung up on him regarding press stories. Another newspaper reporter from another chain newsgroup was forced from his job because he reported fairly on Johnson’s work. The Senator and his staffer contacted the news chain and pressured them to fire him. Elmont.org also came under pressure from Johnson surrogates as well to stop the stories about Craig.

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