Republican candidate caught on camera stealing rival's campaign mailer

A New York State Assembly candidate stole a rival's campaign mailer and then abandoned his own political pitch, video of the incident shows.

Recordings from Newsweek shows Republican hopeful Joseph Mastroianni approaching a home in upstate New York and removing ballots mailed by incumbent Democratic Rep. Angelo Santabarbara.

Mastroianni, who currently serves on the Rotterdam city council, then folds up Santabarbara's mailer, puts it in his pocket and replaces the message with his own, the Ring doorbell video shows.

“Bad, bad, bad,” Mastroianni then says in the clip.

A message seeking comment from Mastroianni's campaign spokesman was not returned early Thursday.

A homeowner in Scotland notified Santabarbara's campaign after the Oct. 17 incident. Schenectady County Democratic Committee Chairman Frank Salamone then filed complaints with the U.S. Postal Service, state election officials and local law enforcement.

“It’s crazy that someone would reach into a mailbox like that and put it on video,” Salamone said Newsweek At the same time, he called on Mastroianni to stop his campaign activities and resign from his current position.

The clarity of the video was “amazing,” Salamone said.

“You can actually see the mail,” he said of Santabarbara’s distant mailman. “You can actually see the images.”

The homeowner also filed a police report in Scotland, according to Salamone, who called Mastroianni's behavior outrageous and illegal.

“We're just days away from Election Day and it's pretty important to know that your candidate for public office – who currently holds public office – has done this,” Salamone said.

Salamone accused Mastroianni of making the situation worse during a news conference Wednesday at the Schenectady County Board of Elections, where the Republican candidate declined to directly address the incident.

“The press conference last night really confirmed that,” Salamone said. “If I had gone in and begged for forgiveness and said that my emotions had gotten the better of me and I had done something really stupid and please forgive me, I don't know, it would have worked and it probably would have hurt him legally, but .” Maybe voters could say, 'Hey, at least he admitted what he did.'”

But the refusal to answer questions about the recordings was untenable for Mastroianni, Salamone said.

“Doing what he did just underscores the fact that there is no judgment there,” he said. “There’s no character.”

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service early Thursday would neither confirm nor deny that an investigation had been opened into the incident.

“The Inspection Service continues to use its technical capabilities and professional staff to protect the critical infrastructure of our processing and distribution networks, as well as the employees who will deliver to voters across the country,” the agency said in a statement.

Messages seeking comment from police in Scotland and city officials in Rotterdam were not immediately returned Thursday.