Freeholders never took illegal contributions

John Bennett

By John Bennett, Monmouth County Republican Chairman

I am writing in response to the July 13 oped written by Monmouth County Democratic freeholder candidate Brian Froelich, “County purchasing still murky, post-Birdsall.”

From the first sentence to the last, I am disappointed that Froelich has chosen to take an opportunity as a political candidate to make not only misstatements but outright false statements concerning the actions being conducted in Monmouth County.

As to his first statement, that each Monmouth County freeholder received campaign contributions donated illegally by Birdsall Engineering Group, Froelich fully knows and understands that none of the contributions which he sets forth were illegal when they were received by either the Republican freeholders or the former Democratic freeholders who received similar contributions.

In fact, none of the Republican or Democratic freeholders (to our knowledge) received any illegal campaign contributions from any vendor in this county. Many of the Republican and Democratic councilmen and mayors throughout the county also received contributions that were not illegal to those who were receiving them.

There may have been inappropriate actions conducted internally within their office by those giving the money, but that knowledge could not have been made available to any person receiving the money, whether they were Democrat or Republican.

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Monmouth County Prosecutor Actively Investigating 4am Robocall

Despite waking up thousands of Monmouth County voters at 4am on primary day, the Bayshore Tea Party Group and the Bellew Brigade have apparently not lost any sleep over their crushing defeat last week.  The architects of the 20%-80% defeat in the Monmouth County and LD 13 GOP primaries have endorsed Dr. Alieta Eck in the Special U.S. Senate Primay and are angling to run that campaign.

Congratulations Steve Lonegan!

Neither BTPG nor Leigh-Ann Bellew’s campaign have admitted to commissioning the 4am robocall on June 4 that announced it was being made on behalf of Senator Joe Kyrillos , Assembly Members Amy Handlin and Declan O’Scanlon and faked the caller ID to a number belonging to the Monmouth County Republican Organization.  They are exercising their right to remain silent to the extent that they have yet to congratulate their opponents.

MMM first reported the call (click here to listen) and that it appears to have been recorded by the same person who recorded Bellew’s voice mail greeting. (Click here to listen to Bellew’s voice mail greeting.)

Kyrillos and O’Scanlon publicly accused the Bellew campaign of making the call. Monmouth County GOP Chairman John Bennett lodged a complaint with the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office. Bennett said yesterday that he will not let up on pursuing prosecution of the dirty trick.

Bayshore Tea Party Group co-founder Barbara Gonzalez complained about this website on facebook, saying she was going to report its owner to the FBI because he finds out, and acts on, what she is writing about on the social media site without the help of the NSA or the Obama Administration.

Charles Webster, spokesperson for the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office, confirmed that there is an active investigation into the 4am robocall.

Webster was not at liberty to discuss the investigation, so MMM’s investigative team got to work to find more evidence of the call’s origin.

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“An Amazing Moment”

~ Declan O’Scanlon

With remarkable teamwork on the part of the candidates, county and municipal leaders and key members of the legislative delegation outside of the 13th legislative district, the Monmouth County Republican Organization earned the resounding endorsement of a Republican electorate that has proven over the years that performance and integrity matter far more to them than party loyalty.

Big egos checked, big leaders pulled together to support each other.  A real team emerged.

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As the numbers come in, the incumbents continue to dominate

With 9% of the precincts reporting in LD 13, Senator Joe Kyrillos and Assembly Members Amy Handlin and Declan O’Scanlon are leading with 80% of the vote.

In the County race from Sheriff and Freeholder, Sheriff Shaun Golden has over 82% of the vote with 17% of the precincts reporting.   Freeholder Director Tom Arnone and Deputy Director Serena DiMaso also exceed 80% of the vote.

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Monmouth County Incumbents Have Early, Huge Lead

The first and early reports from the Monmouth County Board of Elections show Senator Joe Kyrillos beating Bayshore Tea Party Group backed challenger Leigh-Ann Bellew easily.

With 223 votes reported, Kyrillos has 195, or 87%.

The Assembly incumbents, Amy Handlin and Declan O’Scanlon are winning by a similar margin.

In the Monmouth County Sheriff’s race, incumbent Shaun Golden has 82% of the vote with four precincts of 458 reporting.

Incumbent Freeholders Tom Arnone and Serena DiMaso are likewise dominating their challengers.

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Wake up call

Dirty Trick Alleged in LD 13

A robo call went out to Republican primary voters in the 13th Legislative District at 4am this morning urging people to vote for Senator Joe Kyrillos and Assembly Members Amy Handlin and Declan O’Scanlon.

“You have four hours to get out and vote…” the call said.  The obvious impression was that the call was supposed to go out at 4PM.

The Monmouth GOP did not order the call.  Kyrillos, Handlin and O’Scanlon did not order the call. Both campaigns say they had no calls scheduled for 4PM.

The caller ID was a secondary number of Monmouth GOP’s, yet the call did not mention the county candidates, Sheriff Shaun Golden or Freeholders Tom Arnone and Serena DiMaso.

O’Scanlon said the call looks to be a dirty trick.

Monmouth GOP Chairman John Bennett is furious. He said the call was a crime. He’s gathering data and plans to file a complaint with the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office this afternoon.

“We’ve never had this from the Democrats and they have not had it from us,” Bennett said, “I’m not accusing anyone, but we will get to the bottom of it and file a criminal complaint. This was a dirty trick and attempted voter suppression, pure and simple.”

Both Bennett and O’Scanlon said they became aware of the call before 4:30 this morning when they received phone calls from friends who had been woken up by the call.

MMM left a voice mail and a text with Bayshore Tea Party Group cofounder Barbara Gonzalez asking if she knows anything about the 4am robocall.  Gonzalez has yet to respond. The Bayshore Tea Party Group is supporting the slate of challengers running against the LD13 and Monmouth County Republican incumbents.

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Primary Turnout

The weather is predicted to be beautiful on Tuesday, temperatures in the high 70’s and no change of rain.  If there is a low voter turnout in the primary, it won’t be because of the weather.

There will be no suspense in the GOP Freeholder races.  The incumbents, Freeholder Director Tom Arnone and Deputy Director Serena DiMaso ran a hard campaign.  Their opponents did not.  Tom and Serena will win easily in the county wide race.

Likewise, Sheriff Shaun Golden will once again easily defeat Dan Peters, and by a larger margin that he did in 2010.  Peters benefitted by the Tea Party wave in 2010 and by being bracketed with Anna Little in the 6th Congressional District and David Corsi in the 12th Congressional District.  Outside of the 13th legislative district, most of the county, Peters is bracketed with only his Freeholder running mates this time around. He’ll get no help from them.

Peters has run harder, and spent more money than his freeholder running mates, but he has made no justification for electing him to the job.  Shaun Golden is clearly qualified and is doing the job well.  Peters has not demonstrated that he is qualified. Hopefully Peters won’t need a job in 2016 and we won’t have to put up with a nonsense challenge to Golden again.

This entire primary race has always been about Joe Kyrillos and the 13th district.  Joe and his running mates, Assembly Members Amy Handlin and Declan O’Scanlon worked hard and spent the money necessary to win. The very likely will win comfortably.   If the turnout in the 13th is 10,000 or more votes (out of about 35,000 registered Republicans) Joe, Amy and Declan will win by a landslide.  If the turnout is between 7,000 and 10,000, their margin of victory will be comfortable.

If the turnout is 7,000 or less, there will be some nervous people at the Lincroft Inn tomorrow night.  If it is 5,000 or less, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Vote.

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SUPER MEGA ROADSIDE RALLY

The Bayshore Tea Party Group’s SUPER MEGA ROADSIDE RALLY inspired our friend Charles Measley to hold one of his own.

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Getting out the vote!

Freeholder Director Tom Arnone and Assemblyman Dave Rible in Wall Township on Saturday afternoon.

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Peters: If you think things are great in Monmouth County, DON’T VOTE–STAY HOME

Dan Peters: if you’re happy and you know it, don’t vote!

If you think Monmouth County is a great place to live, Bayshore Tea Party backed Sheriff Candidate Dan Peters doesn’t want you to vote in the primary on June 4, a week from today.

In a bizarre blog post on Middletown Patch, Peters, a former Middlesex County police officer collecting a disability pension and a former salesman for a red light camera company, said,

“If you think things are great here in Monmouth County then don’t vote — stay home. If you KNOW things can be better and want better vote for line 3. We are tea party approved!”

Voter suppression is the new credo of the Tea Party?

Peters is making his third attempt to direct the Sheriff’s Office, since he moved to Monmouth County. He withdrew his 2007 candidacy because he did not qualify under the three year residency requirement. Maybe the next time he runs, the Black Panthers will support him.

Peters said that the “sheriff’s department” (it is actually called the “Sheriff’s Office”) has not had a change in leadership in 25 years.

“The sheriff’s department has had the same leadership for over twenty five years. As a matter of fact until recently there has not been a Sheriff in Monmouth County that had any police or public safety experience. In that time there has been no change in its direction or vision.”

When he withdrew his 2007 candidacy due to not meeting the residency requirement, Peters called the “department” a “premier law enforcement agency.”

Our vision is clear for safety and security here in Monmouth County and enabling the Sheriffs Department to continue being a premier law enforcement agency.

In fact, Monmouth County has had four sheriffs in the last 33 years. William Lanzaro was elected in 1980 and served through 1995 after being defeated by Joe Oxley in the Republican primary.  Oxley, a former prosecutor, declined to seek a fifth term in 2007 as a protest over the direction then Monmouth GOP Chairman Adam Puharic was leading the Party. Oxley went on to replace Puharic as chairman a year later.

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