Backlash after Trump takes photos with Edison Democratic mayor, chairman

This article was published Aug. 31, 2015.

EDISON — Some Democratic leaders in this deep-blue township are fuming that their municipal party chairman posed for photos with Donald Trump during the Barclays tournament on Sunday.

Chairman Keith Hahn took several photographs with the Republican presidential front-runner, who made a surprise visit to the Plainfield Country Club in this township.

Further complicating matters is that Hahn also is a police officer for the township. He was part of a security detail of other Edison cops for Trump's visit.

In one photo, Hahn, in full police uniform, even gives a thumbs-up next to Trump, wearing his "Make America Great Again" campaign hat, alongside other Edison officers.

But Hahn wasn't the only top Democrat starstruck with the billionaire tycoon. Mayor Thomas Lankey, sporting black shorts and an untucked green polo, also took several smiling selfies with Trump — but no thumbs-up.

Hahn doesn't understand what the big deal is.

"He was very nice and respectful and at the end he asked if we wanted to take some photos," Hahn said Monday. "I wasn’t going to say, 'I’m not going to participate because I’m the Democratic chairman.' I wasn’t there in that capacity. Politics had nothing to do with the interaction."

Anthony Russomano, the campaign chairman for four Democrats running for Township Council, and Hahn's chief rival for the party chairmanship, this morning blasted the selfies in private messages to Democrats, calling Trump "divisive" on immigration.

“Photos of Edison Democratic Chairman Keith Hahn giving a thumbs-up to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump are very disturbing to me,” he said in an email to MyCentralJersey.com. “Most real Democrats do not support Trump or his anti-immigrant beliefs. Certainly, none of Edison's four Democratic candidates for Township Council support Trump.”

“Edison is fortunate to be a very diverse community of hard-working immigrants who make an immeasurable contribution to our town. Posing for pictures with a celebrity like Donald Trump would have been fine. But, I think it's inappropriate for our Democratic Chairman to pose in his police uniform and to give Trump a thumbs-up. That's a clear sign of support. If Officer Hahn really wants to get behind Trump's candidacy, he may want to switch parties.”

The township and police division were under fire this year for not firing a police officer who sent allegedly racist text messages.

The Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office found the texts so disturbing that prosecutors will refuse to take on cases in which the cop was involved.

Hahn declined to "comment on Trump's beliefs" in an interview with MyCentralJersey.com.

"I am going to support the Democratic candidates," he said. "My interaction with him was simply in the capacity as a police officer."

Hahn defended the selfies on Facebook and called Russomano, who works in the mayor's office as a community liaison, a "disgrace."

"I didn't know doing your job with respect and dignity regardless of one's political affiliation was a bad thing?" he wrote. "Mr. Trump was a gentleman and I appreciate his visit to Edison as did Mayor Lankey who greeted him at the door and posed for photos as well."