By Tim Binnall
A candidate for a town council position in New Jersey saw his fitness for office called into question by his opponent, who took issue with his role in a rather infamous UFO hoax. The unexpected intersection of the paranormal and politics reportedly came about during a recent Democratic primary race for a town council seat in the community of Morristown. Facing off against challenger Chris Russo, incumbent Sandi Mayer took issue with her opponent having participated in a UFO hoax that spawned national headlines fourteen years ago.
The incident in question, now known as the Morristown UFO hoax, saw Russo and his friend, Joe Rudy, stick flares to several helium balloons which were then sent aloft over the town on five separate evenings in early 2009. The faux UFOs caused something of a stir in the region with area police departments being inundated with calls from concerned residents and the seemingly unfolding flap even garnered the attention of the Mutual UFO Network. The duo eventually came clean a few months later, claiming that the hoax was designed to "show everyone how unreliable eyewitness accounts are, along with investigators of UFOs."
The pair were understandably lambasted by local officials after the hoax was revealed and they were each fined $250 dollars for the scheme. While many people in the community had likely largely forgotten about the weird incident, his opponent in the town council race this year clearly had not as Mayer made a point of using Russo's UFO hijinks as evidence for why voters should have doubts about his fitness for office. "I think a lawmaker should not be a law-breaker," she cleverly declared to a local newspaper.
For his part, Russo responded to the hoax being revisited by saying that it was "a long time ago" and, ironically, asserted that the scheme "was actually an experiment to expose charlatans." Conceding that "it was a silly thing," he went on to insist that "we didn't do it with any malcontent," while noting that the pair had paid the rather meager fines that were handed down for their antics. Fortunately for Russo, it would seem that the UFO hoax did not derail his candidacy as a preliminary count from Tuesday's primary election found him besting Mayer by a mere 30 votes.