James G. Skoufis Is Playing Someone For a Fool, Is It You?
State Senator James G. Skoufis has spent nearly $5 million on a corporate lobbying and PR firm, The Parkside Group. Are they now doing his dirty work in the local Monroe and Woodbury elections?
Hey, just real quick before we get going here:
I’m posting on a Saturday, which means there won’t be a post on Monday.
More importantly, and this is something I’m sure Team Skoufis will enjoy — since constituents have told The Monroe Gazette that the Democratic State Senator’s team is sending them links to far-right media publications — The Supreme Court just made it easier to file a claim of reverse discrimination when Federal Law is violated. Particularly when it comes to employment.
I only mention this because South Blooming Grove’s Elon Musk Russell Vought is holding a rare Public Hearing on June 9th at 8:10pm over at SBG’s Village Hall (811 Route 208). Mr. Stern is using his FAKE State of Emergency to push through the creation of a Public Safety Department. We can say it’s fake because the New York State Department of Transportation told South Blooming Grove residents that it was. They also told those residents the DOT has turned the matter of the FAKE State of Emergency over to their legal division. The New York State Department of Transportation, as well as Mr. Stern, refuse to speak with reporters on this matter, including us and our friends at News 12. We talked to Blooming Grove Town Supervisor Robert Jeroloman regarding the situation involving the Public Safety Department, and will share a statement from him when one is provided.
One more thing on the FAKE State of Emergency in South Blooming Grove: The Monroe Gazette has filed a complaint with the New York State Attorney General’s Public Integrity Bureau. You know, the Attorney General being sued for not doing anything about the situation in South Blooming Grove?
The Intake #1-1061978942. You can call 800 771-7755 for updates as well as to provide their office with additional information on the FAKE State of Emergency. And yes, to nobody’s surprise given the $25,000 Mr. Skoufis has collected from Mr. Stern and Mr. Ekstein, he’s nowhere to be found on this FAKE State of Emergency problem.
But here’s why I mention all this, as it relates to the Supreme Court …
Let’s say, you applied for a job with Mr. Joel Stern’s South Blooming Grove EMS. Or Mr. Stern’s Fire Department. Or Mr. Stern’s new Public Safety Department. You may notice all of these entities, which he controls and potentially profits from along with a man who gave Mr. James Skoufis $15,000 — Isaac Ekstein, also under FBI investigation as confirmed by both the FBI and Orange County — only employ Satmar.
Under this new Supreme Court decision, if you applied for a job with any of these departments and were not hired because of your religion — or lack thereof if you’re a fellow Jew like me, whom Mr. Stern has publicly referred to as “Half-Jews” in his United Jewish Community of Blooming Grove newsletter, well you can now sue Mr. Stern and the Village of South Blooming Grove.
Whether or not you can sue South Blooming Grove’s Village Board and Mayor, George Kalaj, claiming “reverse discrimination” for not being Satmar is still questionable. But I know more than a few non-Satmar residents feel discriminated against by their un-elected Mayor and un-elected Village Board. As a reminder: Despite being required by law, the Village of South Blooming Grove did not hold an election for Mayor in 2024. They also did not hold an election for two Village Trustees in 2025. The last election held in South Blooming Grove was in 2021, which is what the FBI is investigating concerning the activities of Mr. Ekstein and his friend.
And if you’re thinking, “Well Gosh BJ. What does this mean if ACE Farm’s annexation request is given to the Village of Kiryas Joel by the State DEC? Can I sue them for Reverse Discrimination as well?” YES. I’d certainly consider adding it to your list of options when it comes to the ACE Farm situation.
For those of you upset about the Second Garbage collection in South Blooming Grove — to use another example — you might also want to consult with a local attorney about this new Supreme Court decision.
Now back to Mr. Skoufis …
Pictured Above: In a now-deleted Facebook Thread, Mr. Skoufis attempted to dox the Village of Woodbury’s former Ethics Committee Chair. A man who, as a former NYPD officer, used a pseudonym to post on Facebook to protect his family.
This Facebook Thread would vanish not long after Mr. Skoufis became aware of a New York State Commission on Ethics and Lobbying investigation into him. The details of which the state senator should not have been aware of. (He was definitely aware the complaint itself existed, because we’re the ones who filed it and said, multiple times here in our reporting, that we had done so.)
One of the specific details in the complaint — and I can share this with you now since it’s been over a year since the complaint was filed — involved Mr. Skoufis’s behavior. His attempt to dox a former NYPD officer and stymy the man’s efforts to form, and run, an Ethics Committee in Woodbury.
Another was Skoufis’s consistent refusal to acknowledge questions about South Blooming Grove or speak to South Blooming Grove residents who appeared in the thread.
If you recall, this thread was started by Skoufis to hype up his attempt to merge the Town and Village of Woodbury. Something that evolved from a total merger, as reported by The Monroe Gazette, to a hare-brained scheme of merging only the two governing bodies. (Had The Monroe Gazette not said anything, you very well could have seen Mr. Skoufis push to merge the Town and Village completely. Something absolutely nobody, both Haredi and Non-Haredi alike. You’re welcome, by the way. Now would be a good time to thank us with a subscription:
In a statement provided to The Monroe Gazette by now former Woodbury Village Ethics Board Chairman Carmine Mastrogiacomo, concerning Mr. Skoufis’s behavior, he told us:
It appeared Skoufis tried to muddy the waters, calling me "chairman" before I was appointed to the ethics committee. Obviously someone from within, Freiband or Fabbro, must have been communicating with the Senator. Skoufis tried to make it look like I was doing something wrong by having a Facebook account that wasn't directly under my name. Police officers and ex-police officers use aliases to their accounts out of safety for themselves and family. Law enforcement locks up some really bad people and obviously it would be pretty stupid to put your name out there for someone seeking revenge to get to you. What Skoufis did was irresponsible and dangerous which could have put myself and family in harms way. I have no proof of this but I believe their was a coordinated effort between some members of the Village Board and Senator Skoufis to try and stop my appointment as Ethics Chairman. The day I was appointed I came up to the podium to speak and make a statement about all of the obstructionist who tried to stop my appointment.
(Mr. Mastrogiacomo has since moved out of the area.)
The Facts About James G. Skoufis and Protect Monroe-Woodbury
This is a story we are still researching. But I think it’s important that we touch on what we know factually, given that Mr. Skoufis’s Protect Monroe-Woodbury Independent Expenditure Committee is potentially violating New York State Election Law, both through direct coordination with the candidates it’s endorsing — Assemblyman Chris Eachus’s Chief of Staff, David Rabbitts specifically — and through its lack of campaign expenditure reporting. We have a much longer article coming for you on this subject. Today I just wanted to provide a timeline to cut down the length of the upcoming story:
-As we told you on Thursday, James G. Skoufis and a former Door Dash Delivery Driver formed Protect Monroe-Woodbury on April 8th, 2025.
-On April 17th, less than ten days later The Monroe-Gazette received an “anonymous” email stating:
“James shared that the defamation lawyer he has engaged with feels that he has a strong case against you, even despite his being a public official, given your published attacks on his personal life and marriage. He also mentioned a few other items folks have brought to his attention from your reporting -- claims of phone calls with KJ leaders, coordinating with candidates, allegations about withholding state funding, reporting on state ethics complaints without disclosing they were submitted by you or were subsequently dismissed/ignored... there were a few others that I can't recall at this moment. He says these are all false, reinforce your intent to defame, and plans to file suit. (Emphasis added.)
He also mentioned that his lawyer feels confident damages would go for seven figures in a case like this. I'm passing this along because I grew extremely concerned for you.”
As you know, this is all bullshit. The Ethics Complaint is also still open. Mr. Skoufis would have had to break the law to know that it was dismissed, which again, it’s not.
So we responded in kind:
Hi.
Nope.
I stand by everything reported. We have witnesses. We have documents. You can tell that fascist Nazi to get fucked. :-)
-We suspect this email was sent from someone at The Parkside Group. Who’s that? We’ll get to them in a minute.
-Three days after we received our anonymous email, another anonymous email was (allegedly) sent to The Village of Woodbury.
The Facts About Mid-Hudson News
On April 20, 2025, Mid-Hudson News, which is owned by Trump EPA Region 2 appointee Mike Martucci, claims that an email was sent to Ethics@VillageofWoodbury.com.
And if you’re thinking, “Yeah that screenshot below looks shady as fuck” we agree. But hold on. That’s an upcoming story. For now, we’re just sharing the timeline.
(Also: We want to note here that Mid-Hudson News did NOT publish this screenshot, pictured below, in their initial story, which ran on May 3rd, 2025. Mind the date.
Mid-Hudson News only added the blurry screenshot after The Monroe Gazette contacted them about the authenticity of the email on June 6th, over a full month after publication.
We were made aware of the article thanks to a link to it on Mr. Skoufis’s Protect Monroe-Woodbury website. Which is why we’re talking about this at all.
Both Carmine Mastrogiacomo and Rey Torres, another former NYPD officer and member of the Village Ethics Board, both told us they’ve never seen the email posted by Mid-Hudson News. In fact, on June 6th, a full month after Mid-Hudson News published the alleged email, that was the first time they saw it.
We spoke with Mayor Andrew Giacozomma, who also told The Monroe Gazette that the updated version of the Mid-Hudson News article was the first time he saw the email.
Mid-Hudson News, at this time, has not answered questions concerning the following:
-Who sent the email? Not answering this is totally fine. We protect our sources too.
You may not like what we have to say. You may not like how we say it. But we always get to the truth, and we protect the people who help get us there.
We are currently conducting our own investigation into this alleged email, through FOIL requests. So don’t think, if this email actually does exist, we’re not going to find out who sent it.
And if it does exist, we’re also going to find out why nobody ever saw it.
FOILs submitted to the Village of Woodbury, so far, both state no such email exists, and no Ethics Complaints have ever been filed against Mayor Andrew Giacozomma this year, despite what’s stated in Mid-Hudson News’s story: “An ethics complaint was submitted to the Village of Woodbury Ethics Board on April 20, 2025” (Also, not to nitpick, but as a journalist, when you update a story, you are not obligated to, but absolutely should, inform reader when a story has been updated or altered after publication. Mid-Hudson News did not do that. They did; however, do that with other stories, such as this one. Note, also that this second article identified who wrote it, and put UPDATED in its headline. That didn’t happen with the Woodbury story, nor do we know who wrote it.)
-Did Mid-Hudson News speak to Woodbury Village officials prior to publication of their story? Mid-Hudson News Editor Hank Gross has not yet answered this question. The Village Officials we spoke with have all stated they were never contacted by Mid-Hudson News, either by Mr. Gross or by any of their reporters, prior to the publication of this story.
Not the Ethics Board. Not the Mayor. Not the Village Clerk.
At best, this is just a story of a busy news outlet looking to churn out stories in order to please the SEO Gods. Hey. I know how that goes. I used to write for the Eisner-nominated ComicsAlliance when it was owned by AOL. So, I totally get the need to do a short write-up on a sketchy email, get some page views, and move on with your life. That’s why I’m thankful The Monroe Gazette is funded by subscribers and not advertisers. We don’t have to worry about that shit.
At worse … Well, you could say one of three things:
Less Likely: You know how Local Bigot Brandon Calore and Woodbury Town Supervisor Kathryn Luciani are always going on about how we’re in the bag for Mayor Giacozomma — despite the fact that we’ve criticized his handling of the Woodbury Ethics Board, re-appointing MAGA Tom DeLuca to the Planning Board, and think his runningmate, CJ Graziano, sucks.
Well, a similar assertion could be made here concerning Mid-Hudson News and State Senator James G. Skoufis. I’m not there yet.
More Likely: If the email exists, then it’s just shoddy reporting. Do they have to speak to Village officials for comment? No. Should they have? Yes. We don’t like Tony Cardone, Monroe’s Town Supervisor, but if you FOIL Tony Cardone’s Town email account, you will find plenty of emails from us to him asking for comment on the constant flow of bullshit that comes out of his mouth. That’s our job. I don’t know about you, but if I was Donald Trump’s appointee to run the EPA Region 2 office like Mr. Mike Martucci? I’d make sure every single T and I is dotted on the stories my website publishes. I wouldn’t want Trump’s credibility problem to become my own.
Even More Likely: Mid-Hudson News got played by a PR Campaign from State Senator Skoufis’s Protect Monroe-Woodbury Independent Expenditure Committee. Why do I say that?
-Did Mid-Hudson News confirm the authenticity of the email, given that they only posted a blurry ass screenshot of it? As of this writing, Mr. Hank Gross did not respond to our questions concerning this. I also sincerely hope they’ve got a better screenshot than that one.
We’re going to get back to this story later in the week.
Again, I only mention it here in that, this email was sent — if it was sent at all — three days after The Monroe Gazette got a gaslighting and threatening “anonymous” email and less than a month after State Senator Skoufis formed his Independent Expenditure Committee, Protect Monroe-Woodbury.
(For the record: The Monroe Gazette has submitted a Freedom of Information Act request concerning Mid-Hudson News publisher, Mike Martucci, and his actions at the EPA in terms of implementing DOGE’s wishes, staffing reductions, budget cuts, and other regulatory reductions as advised by the Trump White House. We expect to start receiving those documents in July, according to current guidance from the EPA’s FOIA office. Mr. Skoufis declined to clarify his relationship with Mr. Martucci and Mid-Hudson News when asked. So, don’t think we’re done here with Mr. Martucci. The EPA Region 2 office would be the one overseeing the EPA’s investigation into South Blooming Grove’s failing municipal water infrastructure.)
Mad Maureen Richardson
On May 23rd, 2025, Mr. Skoufis’s committee launched its website. Somewhere between the creation of his independent expenditure committee and the running of Facebook Ads attacking Monroe Town Councilwoman Maureen Richardson on June 5th, 2025, State Senator Skoufis and his former Door Dash Delivery driver may have acquired the services of an Albany-based public relations firm. We say may have because here’s what we know about these Mad Maureen Richardson ads. And yes, we’re going to talk more about this in the upcoming article. Isn’t this thing long enough for you already?!
The Facebook ads are linked to the following phone number: 347-672-0393
If you call that number, you’ll hear it belongs to what sounds like “George.” We know because we called it:
But, when you search that number, you get the following information. Which we have to note here, is not always accurate. (And note that WhitePages blurred the 347 number, not us.
Why do we say this information isn’t always accurate? Because …
So, either Jorge Perez, a random New York City resident, has a BIG FUCKING PROBLEM with Councilwoman Maureen Richardson, or Mr. Stavisky used an old phone number or …
Just kidding. It’s this guy.
Meet The Parkside Group
Mr. Evan Stavisky is listed as the Founding Partner and President of The Parkside Group. Mr. Jorge Perez is their Digital Director. And not a very good one if he didn’t think to buy a god damn burner phone for his Facebook attack ads.
So, we reached out to Mr. Evan Stavisky and Mr. Perez to confirm if they are providing services on behalf of State Senator Skoufis and Protect Monroe-Woodbury. The Vice President of Parkside Group, Mrs. Alexia Holden, is also a former Legislative Aide for the State Senator.
At this time, we have not heard back from any of these three. We will update this post with a comment when or if one is received.
While we cannot say for sure that The Parkside Group is handling the work on behalf of Protect Monroe-Woodbury — because Mr. Skoufis hasn’t yet filed his campaign expenditures — I can factually share with you this: $4,813,057.39.
What’s that number?
That’s how much money State Senator James G. Skoufis has spent, according to the New York State Board of Elections, between 2018 and 2024 on services provided by The Parkside Group.
That’s right. That number again is …
$4,813,057.39.
When will we know what’s going on for sure? Well that takes us to the first election law violation potentially committed by Senator Skoufis’s Protect Monroe-Woodbury. You see, you’re supposed to be telling the New York State Board of Elections about large expenditures, like say, utilizing the services of The Parkside Group, or sending out campaign mailers like the following.
Thus far, Protect Monroe-Woodbury has not posted any information concerning their expenditures. Something we’ve reported to the New York State Board of Elections Law Enforcement Division.
The New York State Board of Elections mentioned to us that the Facebook Ads may not need to be reported because only $300 or so has been spent on them (so far.) But the Parkside Group and the mailers?
Well … Let’s Talk About Those Mailers
On Friday, June 6th, 2025, Woodbury residents started to receive hilariously bad mailers attacking Woodbury Mayor, Andrew Giacozomma. And yes, we will be fact checking these claims in the upcoming story. What we can say is that Mad Maureen Richardson and Greedy Giacozomma sound like William J. Alexander (Skoufis’s Director of Operations and fellow conspirator of Protect Monroe-Woodbury) and/or Mr. Skoufis asked ChatGPT to give them some insulting, Monroe Gazette style names. And this was the best they can do.
So, it could be said that State Senator James G. Skoufis can’t even use ChatGPT correctly. Do you really want that guy regulating Artificial Intelligence in the State of New York?
And now you’re caught up. Was this article super long? Yes. Is the upcoming article about Protect Monroe-Woodbury even longer? You bet.
But I hope you enjoy your weekend knowing that a State Senator may have absolutely stepped into some shit here, all because he wanted to get revenge on a woman who rejected his sexual advances (Maureen Richardson) and advance the political prospects of a man, Brandon Calore, who repeatedly has refused to renounce any connection or association with the Proud Boys, had a Let’s Go Brandon sign on his lawn, and thinks January 6th was a peaceful protest.
And to State Senator Skoufis, I just want to say, your move loser.