Toms River community members are calling for state education leaders to step up and respond to what they call Islamophobic and racist social media posts by Toms River School Board member Lisa Natale-Contessa. Her Twitter feed, where she posts as “Lisa C on the Right @jerzygrl4trump,”  champions election-deniers, Trump supporters, racists, and conspiracy theorists.

Natale-Contessa made news not only for her election to the Toms River school board but also for her connection with the Ocean County Republican machine. According to Jersey Shore Newsroom, a political fundraiser named Frank Sadeghi, the Commissioner on the Ocean County Utilities Authority who is closely aligned with Ocean County GOP Chairman George Gilmore, engaged in some pay-to-play schemes. Sadeghi has had “outsized influence over many local elections, most notably the 2020 Toms River Regional School District Board of Education election that thrust hair colorist Ashley Palmiere Lamb into the spotlight and saw Lisa Natale-Contessa elected as her running mate.”

Natale-Contessa, a self-described homemaker, was hired to a $95,000/year job and was chosen over the other 310,000 Ocean County residents who are of working age, who may have applied for the job if only they knew about it. Rumors have been swirling for months that Natale-Contessa will soon enter the race for Toms River Township Mayor, with Gilmore’s endorsement.

Here are some of Natale-Contessa’s tweets: