The leaders of Phillipsburg can agree on at least one thing: Keep kids out of the town’s nasty politics.

The town’s mayor, Stephen Ellis, a Democrat running for re-election in the June primary, this week sent out an eight-paragraph news release publicly calling on local authorities to investigate what he called “a cyber-bullying campaign” targeting his 11-year-old son.

A screenshot of the Facebook post in question was provided to lehighvalleylive.com by Parano & Associates, a public relations firm retained by the mayor. It appears to be part of a longer thread, though it’s not clear where and when it was posted.

The post reads: “Ellis does suck though and his kid is an asshole too. Walks around going my dads the mayor I can do whatever I want and hes a jerk to other kids.” A subsequent reply says: “... don’t need to worry about the kid being bullied when he’s nothing but a loser bully to begin with.”

The Facebook user’s page is private and he did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment. The user is an adult and a second cousin to Council President Bobby Fulper, a Republican opponent of the mayor.

Ellis -- who is currently facing a municipal court trial for allegedly harassing and threatening a resident -- said he did not know if the council president was involved in the post. He said that as mayor he is “fair game” for public criticism, but his children are not.

“These despicable attacks against my children are intended to intimidate me and my family and discourage me from seeking re-election, but my family and I are united in believing we must stand up to bullies,” Ellis said in his statement Monday.

"Phillipsburg does not want to be governed by bullies who target children,” he continued. “If they will do this to us, they will do this to the children and families of anyone they decide they don’t like. My wife and I will always protect our children, but we feel we have to stand up to this on behalf of others who might become targets.”

In emailed responses Tuesday copied to both the police chief and local media, Fulper and Council Vice President Frank McVey, a fellow Republican, said they would support an investigation, if authorities find the situation warrants one.

“I absolutely agree with the mayor: Children should be off limits,” Fulper told lehighvalleylive.com. But he questioned how the mayor was handling this situation. Both Fulper and McVey said the mayor is guilty himself of making threatening statements about opponents’ families.

"The mayor didn't have to send out a ... paranoid statement suggesting I was behind it," Fulper said. "He could have called me, he chose not to do that. For someone who's tired of being in the media all the time, he's doing this to himself."

Phillipsburg Mayor Stephen Ellis confronts resident Blaine Fehley over a Facebook post ahead of an April 4, 2017, town council meeting. (YouTube screenshot)

This is not the first time Ellis has warned critics to stay away from his family.

In April 2017, the mayor publicly confronted a local gadfly for posting an altered photo of the mayor and his son on Facebook -- the boy had been removed and replaced with a pregnant woman’s body and the face of the council president at the time.

The resident, Blaine Fehley, claimed Ellis poked him in the chest during the confrontation and pursued charges of threats, assault and harassment. The charges were ultimately dismissed.

In another instance of social media trouble last fall, Phillipsburg police launched an internal investigation after an officer posted what sounded like a threat on his private Facebook page: “Town council member sleep tight tonight..... might be your last,” the officer wrote.

The post was deleted, the officer apologized and within a few weeks, the matter was closed.

Steve Novak may be reached at snovak@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter@SteveNovakLVL and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.