EDISON, NJ — from www.nj.com – Go to YouTube if you want to find the first arrow fired in the Edison mayoral campaign.
The clip is called “Mayor Candidate Says YES to PORNO!” It shows Councilwoman Antonia Ricigliano, the Democratic nominee for mayor, at a recent council meeting, mulling over whether to support an ordinance that protests a pornography convention set to take place in town this weekend.
“No, it’s not something that I would personally approve of,” Ricigliano says in the clip, while Billy Joel’s “Pressure” plays in the background. “By the same token, I don’t think we should be foisting our personal values upon everyone else, unless they’re harmful.”
No one has taken credit for posting the video, but Dennis Pipala,[pictured] her Republican opponent, is using it to bolster his campaign.
While Ricigliano eventually voted yes for the ordinance, Pipala said her waffling poses a problem. His campaign sent out a press release saying the clip shows she’s unable to make quick decisions and unwilling to fight for family values in the state’s fifth-largest town.
“She seemed to be totally confused,” said Pipala, who notes that he hasn’t seen the clip but he was at the meeting. “It was weird.”
The Exxxotica convention, a trade show where fans can meet porn stars and buy erotic merchandise, is slated for Edison’s New Jersey Exposition Center for the second straight year. Edison officials have tried to block it both times.
Despite the council’s protest, town officials said, the event is still set to go on.
The YouTube clips shows about four minutes of the meeting, focusing only on Ricigliano wrestling with whether to vote for the resolution.
“It sounds like I’m stalling, and I am,” she says in the video.
Ricigliano said she laughed off the clip. She said her reservations stemmed from the fact that the convention will take place in the town’s Raritan Center business complex. She feared that hotels and restaurants in the area stand to draw business from the event and could sue if the convention is stopped.
“I didn’t want to see this trade show in Edison,” Ricigliano said. “But I also did not want to risk a lawsuit we could not afford.”