Cartoon character used to undermine candidate

TOM CAIAZZA A staffer for Mayor Choi's slate of council candidates dressed up as Bob the Builder to represent council incumbent Rob Karabinchak.

Staffer dresses as

Bob the Builder, hands out anti-Karabinchak fliers

BY TOM CAIAZZA

Staff Writer

Rob Karabinchak doesn't think Bob the Builder is such a bad guy.

But the newly appointed Edison councilman running for the Democratic nomination with the rest of the council incumbents this June was disappointed that Mayor Jun Choi would use the children's television character as a political tool to undermine his personal character.

In a move reminiscent of 2005's George "The Chicken" Spadoro, Choi had Mike Barfield, a staffer for the campaign of Choi's slate of council candidates, dress up as Bob the Builder and hand out fliers claiming Karabinchak was a developer aiming to "pave your parks and bulldoze your backyard."

Barfield spent much of Sunday visiting township events as Bob the Builder and handing out the fliers that claimed Karabinchak had been "recklessly overdeveloping Edison since 1961."

Above: A staffer for Edison Mayor Choi's slate of council candidates dressed as "Bob the Builder" passes out anti-Rob Karabinchak literature on Monday in front of town hall. At right: "Bob the Builder" stands in front of a sign asking people to vote for the mayor's candidates in the June 5 Democratic primary.

"In a lighthearted way, we wanted to drive home a very serious point," Choi said while standing outside of the municipal building Monday morning, "that the council and the political culture is way too close to the special interest culture in Edison; especially the developers."

Choi said that one of the largest examples of the tie between the council and the developers is that Karabinchak, himself a developer, is on the ticket. Choi claims that Karabinchak, along with the rest of the "Column B" Democrats, have accepted $32,800 from a pro-developer political action committee, Edison First, and are responsible for the approval of the Wal-Mart store currently under construction on Vineyard Road.

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For 22 years, Karabinchak has been the owner of Triform Construction, a developer based out of Metuchen. He was the chairman of the Edison Planning Board before being upped to fill the vacant council seat, which resulted from Peter Barnes III's departure for a seat in the state Assembly.

Karabinchak said that he was disappointed the mayor would use the cartoon handyman to attack him and his family, which he claimed had lived in Edison since the 1930s.

"The mayor's personal attack was quite honestly silly and childish and quite honestly desperate," Karabinchak said.

Karabinchak refuted the accusations made in the flier that bears the line "paid for by Griffin-Ussak, Mascola, Perilstein and Prasad for Council" - the candidates on the mayor's slate - stating that, for them to be true, he would had to have started developing in Edison when he was 5 years old.

"To lie about what I do and to intentionally mislead the public is shameful," Karabinchak said. "The literature he gave out, there is not any truth there at all, it's all lies."

Choi said that a vote for the incumbent ticket on June 5 would be a vote for politics as usual and said that his slate of candidates are the "only team that has no ties to this."

The group Choi is supporting includes four people who have never served in an elected position before. Choi feels that makes them uniquely qualified to end the political culture that he says Karabinchak and the incumbents represent.

AnneMarie Griffin-Ussak is the principal of Washington Elementary, Wayne Mascola is an IT consultant and former grand knight of the local Knights of Columbus. Melissa Perilstein is a founding member of the Edison Township Education Foundation, and Dr. Sudhanshu Prasad is a former member of the Edison Advisory Committee on Economic Development.

Choi said that they are "four fresh faces" that do not have ties to the developer's culture in Edison, though they do have ties to developers.

Choi admitted that he and the campaign have taken money from what he called "real estate interest and investors," but only from ones that he said were "responsible" developers.

"We're not against development," Choi said, "we're against irresponsible development."

Karabinchak said that made Choi hypocritical.

"I'm a commercial developer," Karabinchak said, "he takes money from people like me. He can't say from one side of his mouth that he's there to stop it and then have his hands out."

Choi said the election was about the answer to one question.

"Do we want to end special interest culture, politics as usual in Edison," Choi said, "or do we want to keep it."

Karabinchak said that the mayor should spend more time governing and less time campaigning for others.

"He's not there to be running a campaign," Karabinchak said, "he's there to be running the town."