Noticias

A nineteen-year-old New Jersey man who died as a defender of The Alamo in 1836 will now be honored with a state flag at the Texas historical landmark thanks to the sharp eye of Assemblyman Jay Webber (R-Morris Plains) and the help of Gov. Phil Murphy.

Webber was in San Antonio visiting his daughter, an Air Force officer, when he decided to tour The Alamo and noticed a series of state and global flags honoring those who served didn’t include New Jersey.  The nine-term lawmaker found out that one New Jerseyan, Richard Lucius Stockton, the scion of one of the state’s most prominent families, had protected The Alamo.

So Webber contacted Murphy, who got on it quickly, and made sure a state flag was sent to The Alamo.   They added it to their collection this week.

Stockton was from Princeton; his grandfather’s half-brother was Richard Stockton, one of five New Jerseyans who signed the Declaration of Independence.

The younger Stockton was a teenager when he enlisted in the Texas Volunteer Auxiliary Corps and was sent to San Antonio along with a man named Davy Crockett.  After his death, his sister was able to claim land in Texas based on her brother’s service. She married Edwin Ward Moore, who became the commander-in-chief of the Republic of Texas Navy.

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New Jersey joined a lawsuit against the Trump administration Tuesday, arguing the new GOP budget bill “unconstitutionally blocks” Medicaid funding from being used for essential medical services at Planned Parenthood health centers.

Attorney General Matt Platkin joined a coalition of 22 states suing over the provision, which they say will unjustly block Americans from receiving cancer screenings, birth control, and STI testing. The provision, included in the Trump-heralded One Big Beautiful Bill Act, would affect 20 health centers across the state and tens of thousands of patients, according to the attorney general’s office.

The U.S. Department of Justice has argued “the bill stops federal subsidies for Big Abortion,” though federal law has largely prohibited federal funds from going toward abortions since the 1970s. A federal judge in Boston, in a separate but related lawsuit, has already blocked the provision from taking effect. The White House has called that ruling “absurd.”

“The Trump Administration and Congressional Republicans’ blocking of Medicaid funding from Planned Parenthood health centers is a direct attack on individuals who rely on accessible, affordable healthcare,” Gov. Phil Murphy said. “This decision strips away essential care—including comprehensive family planning services, cancer screenings, sexually transmitted disease testing, and more—for some of our nation’s most vulnerable populations. In New Jersey, we will continue to fight to ensure all have access to the healthcare services that they need.”

The lawsuit, led by California, was filed in federal court in Massachusetts. The lawsuit argues the provision exceeds Congress’ authority to limit Medicaid spending.

“It’s frankly outrageous that Congress and the Trump Administration have targeted essential reproductive health care services for millions of women as part of their radical anti-reproductive freedom agenda. We will not stand idly by as this Administration recklessly threatens access to lifesaving medical care,” Platkin said. “New Jerseyans rely on Planned Parenthood health centers to receive cancer screenings, STI testing and treatment, birth control, and wellness exams. This unlawful attempt to block federal Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood would make those services much harder to access for many of our state’s low-income residents.”

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law by President Trump earlier this month, is unpopular in the Garden State, according to one poll. A Fairleigh Dickinson University poll found 27% of likely voters in the state approve of the bill, while 61% disapprove. The wide-ranging bill is expected to knock hundreds of thousands of New Jerseyans off of Medicaid or food stamps, though many tax bills will likely go down across the state.

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Election officials disbursed $43,731 in public matching funds to Newark Mayor Ras Baraka’s gubernatorial campaign on Wednesday, according to a release. 

Candidates could receive a maximum of $5.5 million in the primary under the matching funds program. Baraka has received $4,663,026, or about 85% of the cap. Rep. Mikie Sherrill, former Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli, Rep. Josh Gottheimer, former state Senate President Steve Sweeney, and Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop have hit the cap.

State Sen. Jon Bramnick has reached about 60% of the cap, while conservative radio personality Bill Spadea sits at about 52% of the cap.

ELEC has now disbursed a total of $38.3 million in public matching funds for the primary.

Under New Jersey’s public financing program, first enacted during the state’s 1977 elections, candidates for governor are eligible to receive $2 for every $1 they raise, as long as they both meet a minimum threshold of $580,000 raised and don’t go over a spending cap of $8.7 million. (More public funds are available for Sherrill and Ciattarelli, who won their respective primaries.)

Candidates have until Nov. 5 to file for additional matching funds. Candidates don’t have any more spending to do in the primary, but there are sometimes campaign debts to pay off. At the end of last month, Baraka’s campaign reported $99,275 in debt; since that filing, he’s received about $88,000 in matching funds.

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A former aide to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie agreed to a plea deal that could put him in prison for ten years after admitting that he paid to engage in a sexual act with a six-year-old child.

Kevin Tomafsky, 43, said he paid the victim’s father, who is also under indictment. The New Jersey Globe is withholding the other defendant’s name to protect the victim’s privacy.

The former governor’s office staffer pleaded guilty to first-degree Endangering the Welfare of a Child.  Under the terms of the plea agreement, Tomafsky must serve at least five years before becoming eligible for parole, and will spend the remainder of his life on the Megan’s Law list of sex offenders.

He is scheduled to be sentenced on September 12 before Superior Court Judge John Eastlack, Jr.

An investigation into Tomafsky began in October 2022 after Snapchat reported the uploading of an incident of alleged child sexual abuse to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which was then sent to the Gloucester County Prosecutor’s office.

According to court records obtained by the New Jersey Globe, Tomafsky was identified as the original recipient of a photo of a young female engaged in oral sex with an adult after the Gloucester prosecutor’s office reviewed records supplied by Snapchat as the result of a warrant.

Detectives found multiple devices belonging to Tomafsky containing child sex materials after executing a search warrant of the Washington Township home where he lived with his mother.  A forensic review determined it was Tomafsky who downloaded and transmitted the images online.

A grand jury indicted Tomafsky in July 2023, and he was arrested on August 15.  Superior Court Judge Renard Scott rejected a bid by Gloucester County Assistant Prosecutor Bryant Flowers for pretrial detention, perhaps making Tomafsky the beneficiary of Christie’s bail reform initiative.

Christie hired Tomafsky to work in the governor’s office in June 2010 after spending eight years working on Republican campaigns in South Jersey, including as campaign manager for Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R-Vineland).    Tomafsky held a state government job, which he resigned immediately following his arrest.

Several days later, a Superior Court judge authorized a search warrant of the home Tomafsky shares with his mother.  The search was conducted on December 14, 2022, and an examination of devices belonging to him revealed his possession of less than 1,000 items of child sexual abuse material.

The other individual was charged with six criminal accounts, including knowingly committing the act of sexual penetration on the six-year-old and photographing a child engaging in a sex act.

Tomafsky worked in Christie’s scheduling office, managing surrogates representing the governor at events.  According to his resume, he also maintained “surrogate satisfaction charts” and tracked events that Christie attended in each county and other states.

“I am 100 percent on Team Christie, and I want to make sure that I do all that I can to serve him in the best way possible,” Tomafsky said in an email to a top Christie aide in 2013.

In 2012, at the recommendation of Christie’s office, Tomafsky was hired as a government and community relations representative at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, where he worked for eleven months.

Tomafsky was the field director for Republican legislative candidates in the 1st district in 2013.  He served as legislative director for Assemblyman Sam Fiocchi (R-Vineland) from 2014 to 2016.   He began working on political campaigns while attending Rowan University and served as Washington Township GOP vice chairman and president of the Washington Township Republican Club.

Editor’s note: This reporter hired Tomafsky to work at the PANYNJ in 2012 at the direction of the Christie administration.

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