美国国家公共电台 NPR N.J. Activist Says GOP Congressman's Complaint Forced Her To Quit Her Job

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RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Lawmakers never really stop campaigning even when they're in office. Politics and public perception dictate¹ a lot of what they do and how they think. Our next story is an example of that. The congressman² at the center of it is Republican Rodney Frelinghuysen of New Jersey³ and one particular letter Frelinghuysen sent to some of his supporters. Nancy Solomon from member station WNYC reports.

SAILY AVELENDA: Is it OK to kind of say what happened?

NANCY SOLOMON, BYLINE⁴: The story unfolded during a meeting around a dining room table in Montclair, N.J., in Rodney Frelinghuysen's 11th Congressional District. The steering⁵ committee of NJ 11th for Change was discussing who was available for a morning event.

AVELENDA: I'm remarkably⁶ free now to attend a lot of these events, thanks to my congressman.

SOLOMON: Saily Avelenda was a senior vice⁷ president and lawyer for Lakeland Bank, which has 53 branches in the state. Last month, she was called into her boss's office and handed a fundraising letter that Congressman Frelinghuysen sent to a member of the bank's board of directors. It asked for donations to help him fight organized opposition⁸ to the Republican agenda. At the bottom of the letter, scrawled⁹ in pen next to his signature, it says, P.S., one of the ringleaders works in your bank, exclamation¹⁰ point. Avelenda was not fired, but she says she had a lot of explaining to do. And for that and other reasons, she ultimately decided¹¹ to resign.

AVELENDA: I had to write a statement to my CEO. It was a - it was not something that I expected. And I thought that my congressman put them in a situation and put me in a really bad situation as a constituent¹² that used his name and used his position and used his stationery¹³ to...

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Punish you.

AVELENDA: ...To try to punish me.

SOLOMON: NJ 11th for Change began with one Facebook post after the election and quickly grew to more than 7,000 members who live in Frelinghuysen's district. He's been in Congress 22 years and is heir to a political dynasty that dates back to the Revolutionary War, but he's experiencing a new level of political opposition. He complained about it during a town hall last week.

(SOUNDBITE OF TOWN HALL)

RODNEY FRELINGHUYSEN: For people who have jammed our line, it made it difficult for us to meet our constituent needs. It would be nice for you to back off. I'm not suggesting that people don't have the right to speak and let their views be known, but this is - some of this is highly orchestrated, and it's unfortunate.

SOLOMON: Jordan Libowitz, spokesman for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics¹⁴ in Washington or CREW, says the letter is unusual and noteworthy because members of Congress don't usually turn to businesses in their district to do damage to their political opponents.

JORDAN LIBOWITZ: It's certainly troubling. Whether or not it breaks a criminal statute¹⁵ is one issue, but the very clear issue is that it appears that a member of Congress might be using his power to threaten someone's employment because of their political activities.

SOLOMON: CREW is calling for an ethics investigation¹⁶. In an email, Frelinghuysen's campaign spokesman called the letter innocuous and said the congressman was unaware¹⁷ of any of the particulars about Avelenda's status with the bank. Lakeland Bank released a statement saying it encourages and fosters the political activity of its employees. For NPR News, I'm Nancy Solomon.