Call it a May surprise.
Political fliers targeting mayoral candidate Tony George and mailed to Wilkes-Barre residents just days before the municipal primary election appear to have been bought locally and a Texas-based company provided only the return address, the company’s general manager said Wednesday.
Raul Elorduy, general manager of USA2Me.com, said the mail forwarding company sold a Houston, Texas mailbox address to an online customer from Wilkes-Barre last week, but said the company was not involved in printing either of the ads.
“We don’t offer the service of sending. We offer the mailbox address,” Elorduy said. “These guys printed and sent those things from wherever.”
Because the account holder did not provide a copy of U.S. Postal Service form 1583, an application for mail delivery through an agent, or provide copies of their ID’s, the account has been closed, Elorduy said.
“Right now it’s closed. We sent them an e-mail,” he said.
A city councilman and former police chief, George won the Democratic nomination for Wilkes-Barre mayor in Tuesday’s primary election over George Brown, Brian Kelly and Darlene Duggins-Magdalinski. He will face GOP candidate Frank Sorick Nov. 3 in the general election.
The two fliers, received in several city mailboxes Monday, make references to George inviting members of the Nation of Islam to train Wilkes-Barre police in 2001 and making “fraudulent” and “untrustworthy” statements during the primary campaign.
The latter of the two, colored bright yellow and titled ” Fraud Alert,” warns of a scam being perpetuated in the city of Wilkes-Barre. Both have the same return address but feature different senders, the “Fraud Service Center” and “Concerned Citizens for Transparency and Equality.”
George said he did meet with representatives of the Nation of Islam, but only as a courtesy. The group was invited by a community activist, the late Stan Hamilton. George said he “wasn’t going to throw them out.”
“They said they wanted to teach some diversity classes but I told them I didn’t handle training decisions,” George said Monday.
After the ads surfaced Monday, George denounced them as “dirty politics.” He also compared them to ones purchased by Brown’s campaign committee in another local newspaper.
“That’s my opinion. I’m assuming that because the format of the card seems like a couple of the ads that were in the other paper. From my perspective, from what I did for 30 years, everything seems like the same.”
On Monday, Brown released a statement denying a role in either of two political fliers, saying he was “offended and outraged” by them. Brown encouraged voters to “ignore this third party propaganda” and vote based on candidates’ qualifications.
Following the primary, Brown further denied involvement.
“Tony has misconceptions that some things that I’ve done are wrong,” said Brown at his campaign headquarters Tuesday night. “There’s no way I had anything to do with these last two things.”
To open an account, Elorduy said a customer is generally charged a $15 set up fee and a $5-$15 monthly fee.
Due to privacy issues, Elorduy said he can’t share the identify of those who opened the account but said he was “concerned” to hear to about the ads.
A call to the U.S. Postal Service Eastern Division was not immediately returned Wednesday afternoon.