{"id":241643,"date":"2025-04-10T19:53:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-10T19:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thejerseypress.com\/?p=241643"},"modified":"2025-04-15T20:24:19","modified_gmt":"2025-04-15T20:24:19","slug":"breaking-common-sense-club-board-responds-to-coordinated-political-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thejerseypress.com\/?p=241643","title":{"rendered":"BREAKING: Common Sense Club Board Responds to Coordinated Political Attack"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>JACKSON, NJ \u2014 In a strongly worded statement released today, the Common Sense Club Board has addressed what they describe as \u201ccoordinated politically motivated attacks\u201d against their organization and its founder, Bill Spadea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The board\u2019s statement directly refutes allegations circulating in certain media outlets and political circles, characterizing the attacks as \u201cbaseless\u201d and \u201clies.\u201d According to their response, these attacks appear timed to coincide with Spadea\u2019s growing influence in New Jersey politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sources close to the situation indicate that former Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway, former and current perennial gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli, podcaster Mike Crispi, and Shore News Network operator Phil Stilton have been involved in propagating these claims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Common Sense Club, which describes itself as a grassroots organization focused on promoting common sense solutions to everyday problems, maintains that all financial arrangements have been conducted with full transparency and in accordance with relevant regulations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Link to their full statement here:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-common-sense-club wp-block-embed-common-sense-club\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"yMxJ3pItsF\"><a href=\"https:\/\/commonsenseclub.org\/the-common-sense-club-board-responds-to-attacks\/\">The Common Sense Club Board Responds to Attacks<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"&#8220;The Common Sense Club Board Responds to Attacks&#8221; &#8212; Common Sense Club\" src=\"https:\/\/commonsenseclub.org\/the-common-sense-club-board-responds-to-attacks\/embed\/#?secret=oU4RCxWufZ#?secret=yMxJ3pItsF\" data-secret=\"yMxJ3pItsF\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThese attacks are a desperate attempt to smear a growing movement of everyday New Jerseyans who are tired of the establishment politics that have failed our state,\u201d said a spokesperson for the organization. Of particular note is the involvement of Phil Stilton, publisher of Shore News Network. Multiple sources have indicated that Stilton\u2019s actions may be connected to previous interactions with Spadea. According to these sources, Stilton has a tactic of approaching people with what could be characterized as extortion attempts, demanding financial compensation in exchange for favorable coverage. When Spadea and others in the past have reportedly refused these advances, Stilton allegedly pivots to publishing negative content about them and their organizations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-cover\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" class=\"wp-block-cover__image-background wp-image-241646\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/thejerseypress.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/IMG_9767.jpeg\" data-object-fit=\"cover\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thejerseypress.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/IMG_9767.jpeg 200w, https:\/\/thejerseypress.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/IMG_9767-150x150.jpeg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><span aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-cover__background has-background-dim\"><\/span><div class=\"wp-block-cover__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-cover-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-large-font-size\">Phil Stilton<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>This pattern of behavior appears consistent with previous reporting about Stilton by the Patch, which described controversial tactics and questionable journalistic practices that have drawn criticism from media ethics experts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Link to their Patch article here:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/patch.com\/new-jersey\/tomsriver\/meet-controversial-figure-behind-fox-news-new-jersey\">https:\/\/patch.com\/new-jersey\/tomsriver\/meet-controversial-figure-behind-fox-news-new-jersey<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Common Sense Club board emphasized that they welcome legitimate scrutiny but condemn what they describe as \u201ccharacter assassination attempts designed to silence grassroots voices.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As this story develops, we will continue to investigate the claims and counterclaims, providing our readers with factual, balanced reporting on this unfolding situation in New Jersey politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[Editor\u2019s note: Our publication has reached out to all parties mentioned for comment. This story will be updated with their responses.]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>JACKSON, NJ \u2014 In a strongly worded statement released today, the Common Sense Club Board has addressed what they describe as \u201ccoordinated politically motivated attacks\u201d against their organization and its founder, Bill Spadea. The board\u2019s statement directly refutes allegations circulating in certain media outlets and political circles, characterizing the attacks as \u201cbaseless\u201d and \u201clies.\u201d According [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":241644,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,27],"tags":[18,21,19,17,16,23,22,20],"class_list":["post-241643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-jersey","category-opinion","tag-2025-nj-primary","tag-bill-spadea","tag-jack-ciattarelli","tag-new-jersey","tag-nj","tag-phil-stilton","tag-shore-news-network","tag-the-common-sense-club"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>BREAKING: Common Sense Club Board Responds to Coordinated Political Attack - The Jersey Press<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/thejerseypress.com\/?p=241643\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"BREAKING: Common Sense Club Board Responds to Coordinated Political Attack - The Jersey Press\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"JACKSON, NJ \u2014 In a strongly worded statement released today, the Common Sense Club Board has addressed what they describe as \u201ccoordinated politically motivated attacks\u201d against their organization and its founder, Bill Spadea. 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