Toms River Mess

The email below is from a slate of candidates -- the "Clean Slate Team" -- running in the Toms River school board election  next month. Three members of the "Team" won last year and now represent a minority on the board. A sweep by this slate would create a majority of school board members who share a platform for reforming a district undermined by the criminal acts of former Superintendent Michael J. Ritacco, recently sentenced to 11 years in jail for accepting bribes from a district insurance broker, conspiracy, and defrauding the IRS.

But now the 2012 candidates of the Clean Slate Team may be sued by the district for sending emails to district employees through the district mail system, a clear "no-no." The Board will meet in a special session tomorrow night to discuss potential litigation.  The Asbury Press quotes Ginny Rhine, one of the candidates (and also has a more legible version of the email):

Rhine, 32, resides at the Grand Avenue address cited in the email. She said the “Clean Slate” campaign contracted with a company that collects email addresses from third-party sources and then target-blasted the email to about 40,000 possible voters in Toms River. Of those, she has learned about 65 had trschools.com addresses whose owners must previously have used their employee email for personal use or to buy goods.
“I think what it is, is the incumbents are getting nervous and they’re resorting to these Ritacco-era tactics of trying to tarnish our reputations,” Rhine said. “I think the lawsuit is frivolous because it does not have any basis, what we did is actually not illegal.”