A school employee’s “8647” bumper sticker and an image of Rutgers football coach Greg Schiano in a guillotine shared by former Middletown mayor Tony Fiore. Composite by PRNJ.
A Bumper Sticker Sparked Republican Outrage. Then One of Their Own Shared a Bloody Guillotine.
Monmouth County GOP treated an educator’s “8647” sticker as a call for violence. Will they apply that same standard to former mayor Tony Fiore’s post?
In June 2025, a photo of a Middletown high school guidance counselor’s bumper sticker became the subject of a Turning Point USA post, accusations of advocating assassination and, eventually, police questioning.
The sticker showed flowers arranged to form four numbers: “8647.”
Monica Paige, a correspondent for Turning Point’s Frontlines outlet, called it “Very alarming and concerning.” She accused the employee of advocating President Donald Trump’s assassination and tagged the FBI, Director Kash Patel, Podcaster Dan Bongino and Middletown Township Board of Education president Frank Capone.1
Weeks earlier, former FBI Director James Comey had posted an Instagram photograph of seashells arranged as “8647.” The expression combines “86,” slang for throwing out or getting rid of something, with a reference to the 47th president. Critics treated Comey’s post as a threat; Comey said he had understood it as a political message and disavowed violence.2
In Middletown, the distinction between political disapproval and a threat quickly disappeared from the public denunciations. Coverage highlighted the employee’s union membership, turning a bumper sticker into an indictment of the people working in public schools.
Mayor Tony Perry confirmed to NJ 101.5 that police had investigated and questioned the employee. He defended that response as necessary when someone was promoting harm.
“No person should ever be wishing or promoting harm on any other person,” Perry said, extending that standard to students, teachers, parents and the president.2
Central Jersey Newswire, which presents itself as an independent outlet, amplified the outrage. Capone said: “It is deeply disturbing for anyone to wish harm or death upon another person, including the President of the United States.”
Assemblywoman Vicky Flynn, who represents Middletown in Legislative District 13, demanded an investigation and action. “Students must be shielded from this kind of demented behavior,” she said.3
Tony Fiore joined in. The former Middletown mayor, Monmouth County Republican vice-chair and current chairman of the county Board of Recreation Commissioners shared Central Jersey Newswire’s coverage on June 5, 2025. His contribution was one word: “Alarming.”4
Some readers adopted the same interpretation. Comments on NJ 101.5’s Facebook post included “It’s a call for death,” “What a great role model. This is who teaches children.” and “what a disgusting person.”5
Four numbers on a car had become grounds for questioning an employee’s character, fitness to work with children and willingness to commit political violence.
Now, fast-forward.
September 4, 2026.
Rutgers had opened its football season the night before with a 37–21 home loss to UMass.6
A self-described “Long suffering Rutgers alumni” posted a question on X: “Any guesses on what the date will be? I am betting around Columbus Day or shortly after.”
The accompanying image showed Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano with his head in a guillotine. Blood marked the blade and the wood beneath his neck. Across the image were the words “CHOP 4 CHANGE.”
Mike Crispi, president of the Italian American Civil Rights League and failed Republican congressional candidate, replied: “Overdue!”7
The account belonged to Tony Fiore. The same Tony Fiore who called the bumper sticker “Alarming.”
When PRNJ captured the post on October 31, it showed more than 3,000 views, 21 likes and four reposts. PRNJ has not identified a public condemnation of the post by Perry, Capone or Flynn, or public reporting of a police investigation into it.7
The contrast does not require pretending that Fiore wanted Schiano physically harmed. The hashtag supplies an ordinary explanation: a frustrated fan wanted the coach fired.
But that is exactly the consideration the school employee deserved. The bumper sticker alone did not establish a wish for anyone’s death. Officials nevertheless treated that interpretation as grounds for condemnation and police questioning.
Fiore used an image of a bloody execution to express dissatisfaction with a football coach. He had already helped cast four numbers on a school employee’s car as something alarming.
The political context
The bumper sticker controversy broke days before New Jersey’s June 10, 2025 gubernatorial primary. Perry called on NJEA president Sean Spiller, then seeking the Democratic nomination, to condemn it.2
Spiller’s campaign had substantial support from the teachers’ union. NJ Spotlight News reported that the union spent more than $40 million supporting his unsuccessful bid. The employee’s bumper sticker became another occasion to attack the union and demand a response from its president.
On June 11, after Jack Ciattarelli won the Republican primary, the New Jersey Globe included Perry on its own list of potential lieutenant governor candidates. That was a published assessment of possible running mates, not evidence that Ciattarelli had offered Perry the position.8
The timing does not establish that anyone staged the controversy for electoral gain. It does show the political setting in which a school employee’s bumper sticker became a platform for Republican officials to denounce violence, attack the union and command public attention.
How did Turning Point get the photo?
PRNJ first examined that question in November 2025, in “From Bumper Sticker to Ballot Box: Middletown’s Outrage Was No Accident.”
That reporting identified two payments by the Monmouth County Republican Committee on June 24, 2025, less than three weeks after the controversy began. One was $3,000 to Archangel Strategy Group LLC, classified as “Social Media & Marketing.” Archangel is the political consulting firm linked to Central Jersey Newswire.9
The second was an $898.65 payment classified as “Payroll” to an individual publicly identified as a Turning Point USA field representative.9
Those records establish financial connections between the party, the consultant linked to the outlet amplifying the story and an individual associated with the organization whose correspondent circulated the photo. They do not, by themselves, establish who took the photograph, who supplied it to Paige or whether either payment covered that work.
Our subsequent reporting, “Who Paid for the Outrage?”, documented payments to Archangel during Capone and Jacqueline Tobacco’s 2023 school board campaigns, alongside favorable coverage and distribution through local Facebook groups. The articles did not disclose the campaign-vendor relationship.10
PRNJ’s broader research into campaign spending and undisclosed political media examined more than $280,000 in payments to the vendor and patterns between payments and favorable coverage. That analysis identified relationships and timing, not proof that a particular payment purchased a particular article.11
The bumper sticker controversy therefore sits within an already documented network of political spending, consulting and media amplification.
The standard they set
PRNJ’s reporting has followed these questions beyond school board politics. Our recent examination of Perry’s campaign contributions and Middletown development interests identified $12,500 in donations from contributors with indirect ties to local land-use matters. Those records did not establish that donations influenced official decisions. They did make the relationships a matter of public interest.12
Here, the accountability question is more direct. Officials publicly defined a standard for other people’s speech. Fiore joined them, then shared imagery far more explicit than the sticker he condemned.
Perry said no person should promote harm. Capone called wishing harm on another person deeply disturbing. Flynn demanded action. Fiore called the sticker alarming.
Their words were sweeping. Their application appears selective.
If context explains Fiore’s guillotine, context should have mattered for the guidance counselor’s bumper sticker. A public employee should not have to hold a position in the Republican Party to receive that consideration.
The question is not whether Fiore should be subjected to the same overreaction. It is why a school employee was subjected to it in the first place, and whether the officials who helped fuel it can defend the distinction now.
Notes
- Monica Paige (@MonicaPaigeTV), X post, June 4, 2025, reproduced in the Central Jersey Newswire composite shown above.
- Dan Alexander, “Bumper Sticker Scandal: NJ School Employee Accused of Promoting Anti-Trump Violence,” NJ 101.5, updated June 6, 2025, https://nj1015.com/8647-controversy-middletown/.
- Central Jersey Newswire, June 2025 coverage, as quoted in PRNJ’s supplied reporting materials. See also Shore News Network, “Alleged NJEA Teacher Parks Car with Call for Assassination of Trump at Middletown South Parking Lot,” June 5, 2025, https://www.shorenewsnetwork.com/allleged-njea-member-parks-car-with-call-for-assassination-of-trump-to-middletown-south-parking-lot/.
- Tony Fiore (@tfiore07), X post, June 5, 2025, screenshot captured October 31, 2026; Monmouth County Republican organization, “Monmouth Republicans Dominate in 2024 General Election,” November 6, 2024, https://www.monmouthrepublican.org/blog-posts/monmouth-republicans-dominate-in-2024-general-election; Monmouth County Board of Recreation Commissioners, annual meeting minutes, January 12, 2026, https://www.co.monmouth.nj.us/documents/132/January-12-2026-minutes-and-resolutions.pdf.
- NJ 101.5, Facebook post, June 6, 2025, public comments reproduced in PRNJ’s supplied composite.
- Rutgers University Athletics, “Football Loses to UMass,” September 4, 2026, https://scarletknights.com/news/2026/9/4/football-loses-to-umass.
- Tony Fiore (@tfiore07), X post, September 4, 2026, https://x.com/tfiore07/status/2095880286063968560, screenshot captured October 31, 2026; Mike Crispi reply as recorded in PRNJ’s supplied draft.
- David Wildstein, “Next Up: Choosing a Lt. Governor,” New Jersey Globe, June 11, 2025, https://newjerseyglobe.com/campaigns/next-up-choosing-a-lt-governor/.
- Public Record NJ, “From Bumper Sticker to Ballot Box: Middletown’s Outrage Was No Accident,” November 4, 2025, https://www.publicrecordnj.com/reporting/from-bumper-sticker-to-ballot-box-middletowns-outrage-was-no-accident/, including reproduced NJ ELEC expenditure records.
- Public Record NJ, “Who Paid for the Outrage? Following the Money Behind Capone and Tobacco’s Attacks,” November 18, 2025, https://www.publicrecordnj.com/reporting/who-paid-for-the-outrage-following-the-money-behind-capone-and-tobaccos-attacks/.
- Public Record NJ, “New Research Examines Overlap Between Campaign Spending and Undisclosed Political Media in Monmouth County,” November 12, 2025, https://www.publicrecordnj.com/reporting/new-research-examines-overlap-between-campaign-spending-and-undisclosed-political-media-in-monmouth-county/.
- Public Record NJ, “Billboards and Belford: $12,500 in Perry Campaign Donations Linked to Development Interests,” October 29, 2026, https://www.publicrecordnj.com/reporting/tony-perry-campaign-contributions-middletown-redevelopment-billboards/.