TRENTON -- In a hand-written note, U.S. Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen outed a member of an activist group opposing the 22-year incumbent Republican to her employer, according to a report by WNYC.

Saily Avelenda of West Caldwell was still a senior vice president and assistant general counsel at Lakeland Bank in March when Frelinghuysen sent a fundraising letter to a member of the bank's board of directors informing him that Avelenda was one of the "ringleaders" of NJ 11th for Change.

"There's only one reason he did that," Avelenda told NJ Advance Media. "It wasn't innocuous. It was done to cause me trouble."

The NJ 11th group formed in response to the election of President Donald Trump and has been pressuring the GOP congressman to meet with constituents in his district and to oppose Trump's agenda.

Frelinghuysen, who has held several meetings with constituents by phone but none in person in four years, had recently changed his position and voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act, angering many constituents in his largely moderate Republican district.

The fundraising letter was sent to Joseph O'Dowd, a Lakeland Bank board member, who according to FEC records donated $700 to Frelinghuysen in previous elections. A newspaper article about Avelenda was attached to the letter.

In a hand-written post-script to the campaign fundraising letter to O'Dowd, Frelinghuysen wrote, in blue script, "One of the ringleaders works at your bank!"

As the chair of the House Appropriations Committee, Frelinghuysen exerts enormous control over where and how billions in federal funding dollars are allocated, including capital grants and equity investments to and in community development banks.

O'Dowd and several other managers at the bank also donated to the New Jersey Bankers Association, which in turn gives most of its money to the American Bankers Association, which has 54 paid lobbyists in Washington DC, according to OpenSecrets.org.

According to WNYC, Avelenda was forced to write a "statement" explaining her actions to her CEO, and said the "pressure" she received over her political activism figured into her decision to resign from her position.

By writing and complaining about her political beliefs and activities to her employer, Avelenda told WNYC that Frelinghuysen "put me in a really bad situation as the constituent, and used his name, used his position and used his stationery to try to punish me."

"As an attorney, I recommend never putting anything in writing," Avelenda told NJ Advance Media. "It just seemed like such an amateurish move that I could not believe that it happened. That a congressman is willing to do something like that."

"It tells a lot about his character," she continued. "He tries to come off as the 'aw shucks' sort of guy from your town, but this does not fit with that image. Somebody had to have taken the time to Google my name and find my employer. This was a very deliberately planned, not very well thought out, action."

Frelinghuysen's letter asked O'Dowd to donate two years ahead of his next election because he is under attack.

However, the 11th District has been so solidly and reliably Republican that in 2000, the liberal documentary filmmaker Michael Moore tried to run a ficus plant against him to showcase the lack of competitiveness in the district.

Covering parts of Morris, Essex, Sussex and Passaic counties, the 11th is now rated by the Cook Political Report as "likely" Republican, which means while it is not considered competitive, it has "the potential to become engaged."

Staff writer Justin Zaremba contributed to this report.

Claude Brodesser-Akner may be reached at cbrodesser@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @ClaudeBrodesser. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.