Write-in Anna Little for Freeholder

By Art Gallagher

Those of you who follow Monmouth County politics know that Anna Little has been unceremoniously dumped from the GOP ticket this year because she has this pesky habit of looking out for the taxpayers at the expense of the financial interests of the GOP hierarchy. We can fix that by writing her in, with a bullet vote, in the Republican primary on Tuesday June 5.

By way of background, Mrs. Little was elected in February 2006 by the rank and file of the county GOP to take the Freeholder seat vacated when Amy Handlin was elected to the State General Assembly. Little was not the choice of the GOP bosses, who wanted Howell Mayor Joe DiBella to get the seat. Little was elected by at a convention governed by state law, Title 19. Because the election was to fill a vacancy, the GOP bosses could not rig the rules, but had to follow state law.

Little got into hot water with the bosses almost immediately when she refused to accept special interest "pay to play" campaign contributions. This made for headlines in the Asbury Park Press that the special interests and party bosses where not too happy about.

Little's problems with the party bosses got worse when she didn't just "sit back, learn the ropes and follow our lead" as she was told to do. She led an effort to reduce the out of control legal expenses that the county incurs and voted against the reappointment of County Counsel Malcolm Carton. Carton is a major GOP donor and fund raiser and has been county counsel for 2 decades. Carton was reappointed on a 3-2 vote, with Little and Freeholder Rob Clifton dissenting. At that time Little was very gracious, saying that simply that she believed it was time for a change, without raising any specific criticism of Carton's performance or billing practices.

This issue got her in more trouble with GOP bosses when during a debate among last year's Freeholder candidates before the Asbury Park Press editorial board Little refused to defend her colleagues reappointing Carton. She asked that the editorial board "judge her on her own actions, not the actions of others."

During the final weeks of last year’s campaign, Little learned that the money she had refused early on had been wheeled back into her campaign by the party bosses. The money was given to the GOP Assembly PAC, which gave the money to the campaigns of Little, and candidates Andrew Lucas for Freeholder, and Rose Marie Peters for Surrogate. Once again, Little made headlines and gave the bosses heartburn by returning the money.

On election night, Little won and her running mate Andrew Lucas lost. Despite a very tough year for Republicans throughout the country and in Monmouth County where Republicans lost in all but 19 municipal races, Anna Little won with 86,000 votes.

Emboldened by her victory, Little stepped up her efforts to reform county government. She demanded more accountability from Malcolm Carton on his billing practices. She questioned the business relationship between Freeholder Director Bill Barham and Benjamin R. Harvey, the contractor who was over time and over budget on the Hall of Records renovation project. She called for reducing the county budget and saving the tax payers from an increase. All the while, the GOP hierarchy was plotting to get rid of her.

First, there was an unsuccessful character assassination attempt. That didn’t work, but the party bosses had a trump card. Unconstrained by Title 19, they could write the rules for the nominating committee so that Little could not even get on the nominating convention ballot. That is exactly what they did. They created screening committee that was stacked with bosses whose financial interests Little’s actions were threatening. They required that candidates pay a poll tax to screen, and they required candidates sign a contract that exposed the candidates to identity theft and made them promise not to wage a primary campaign. Those who refused to comply could not screen and could not appear before the convention as a candidate. After Little publicly criticized the process and refused the participate, the poll tax and the contract where dropped as requirements for the other candidates who had played along with the ruse.

Little was offered the Democratic nomination for Freeholder. She refused because she is not a Democrat and she could not support their tax and spend ways or their social policies. She chose not to run a primary or independent race because she didn’t think she could raise the money to beat the machine.

Still, as unlikely as it would be, the people who elected Anna Little last year can nominate her for re-election by writing her in on the primary ballot.

Let’s do that. With a low turnout expected due to few contested races, reform minded Republicans can make a difference and send a message to those who view our tax dollars as their piggy bank.

Art Gallagher is a Monmouth County Republican Committee member from Highlands. He is a member of the Highlands Zoning Board, President of Gallco Entrerprises Inc. in Middletown, and the 1st Vice President of the Northern Monmouth Chamber of Commerce. Art is the blogger formerly known as William H Seward and writes about Monmouth County politics at MoreMonmouthMusings.blogspot.com. He can be reached at artvg@aol.com or 732-208-2240.