Monday, October 08, 2007

The Monmouth GOP is going negative

There's less than a month to go before election day, yet it hardly seems like election season in Monmouth County. The GOP has some signs about, but not as many as in past years. The only place I have seen Democratic signs is in Middletown, and only for the municipal race. There are very few TV commercials. If there are any radio commercials I haven't heard them. The only political mail I'm getting is invitations to fund raisers.

I took an unscientific poll, and asked my employees if they knew what offices were up for election this year, when election day was (no, they are not getting the day off, in which case I'm sure they would have known) and who the candidates were for the offices that were open. As I expected, no one seems to be paying attention.

So it seems odd to me that the Monmouth GOP is preparing to go negative against their opponents that nobody knows.

Last week, 24 year old GOP spokesman John Raue sent out the following wireside chat:



D’Amico’s Flawed Reforms At NJ Parole Board



-- Led to More Criminals on our Streets – Not in Jail --


Freehold, NJ – The Monmouth County Republican Committee issued
the following statement today:

“In 2005, auto theft went up by 10-percent in Monmouth County and New Jersey recorded the highest number of murders in 15 years. During this time, John D’Amico as chairman of the State Parole Board adopted a policy to allow dangerous criminals to remain on our streets and in our communities – even after violating their parole agreements,” said Monmouth County GOP spokesman John Raue.

D’Amico loosened restrictions on parole violators and adopted a flawed ‘reform’ policy to discourage automatic parole revocations for “technical” violations, which are serious offenses such as flunking drug tests or failing to report to parole officers. D’Amico told a gathering of the New Jersey Community and Corrections Working Summit that the board was “changing how it deals with parole violations. Rather than a... lock-'em up approach, it is coaching and sanctioning parolees... rather than return them to prison.” (Bergen Record, 07/07/04)

What were the results of his ‘reform’? 2,500 fewer criminals who violated their parole were sent back to prison while D’Amico was in charge. (New Jersey Lawyer, August 2005)

“At the parole board, John D’Amico was busy instituting radical soft-on-crime policies that released dangerous criminals back onto our streets,” said Monmouth County Republican Spokesman John Raue.

For example, in 2005 the Star Ledger reported that Bruce Burns, a leader
of the Sex, Money, Murder chapter of the Bloods street gang was arrested while
on parole for aggravated assault for running a drug-and weapons-trafficking
operation from his home.

“When you judge D’Amico on his record, you’ll find he is unfit to serve as freeholder,” said GOP spokesman John Raue.


The Sheriff's race is about to get really ugly, with the GOP alleging that Democratic candidate Jack Hill committed crimes that could result in jail time. The new website, JackHillLied.com uses Hill's own sworn testimony against him. Hill apparently admits to lying to a police officer under his command, falsifying a police report and falsely altering police officers' time cards. The website is paid for by the Monmouth GOP and the domain name was registered by John Raue on behalf of the Monmouth GOP on October 3, 2007.

Other than making sure I knew about it, I have not seen any effort by the GOP campaign to promote this site yet. Will this result in Jack Hill being prosecuted? I doubt it. Will it hurt his chances on November 6 or backfire on the GOP?

Time will tell, but this much seems certain...we're in for a month of ugly politics in Monmouth County, as Puharic's GOP moves from using the ugly tactics it practices against Republicans against Democrats as well.

They must have polling data that shows they need to resort to this.

10 comments:

Teddy Roosevelt said...

I admit I have been underwhelmed by most of the negative attacks launched this year. My reaction has been who cares about that.

But this stuff on Hill is dynamite.
This guy wants a law enforcement job and this crap is going on in his department and he is lying to protect his good old boys. Thais goes directly to his qualifications to hold this office as well as raising real issues about his fitness to hold any public office. I can't believe the Dems let this guy run. No wonder none of them are going near him.
Of course you would think the Republicans could have found somebody else to register the website. Good grief, I hope this guy never gets a political appointment with the CIA. If you are going to do black ops do it right.

Anonymous said...

Did anyone think that the Stalinista Puharic run Monmouth GOP wouldn't resort to this? Everyone on my side knew this was coming. We didn't expect anything less from them They play dirty with their own, so its only natural that they would sling the mud our way. Hopefully, the voters will see through this for what it is. A desparate attempt to keep hold of the power in Monmouth County.
You also have the allegedly non-partisan position of Clerk sign her name to a deceiving piece of mail concerning the bogus "Monmouth County Vote at Home Program", which is a completely republican farce, and the usually Republican endorsing machine, the APP, called her out on it.
It will only get worse in the coming weeks, so we should all be prepared for the disgusting display of dirt coming from the GOP. It really isn't surprising at all.

Barry Goldwater said...

I felt that Hill was not the right guy for this job from Day One, but this is as Mr. President said, "dynamite".

When will they roll this out? Or do they need to wait until after the 15th, to make sure Hill is not cleared in the trial?

Barry Goldwater said...

Yes, Bro, and the dems have played it soooo clean.

Becks a lobbyist and O'Scanlon has cell tower scams.

Give me a break with the "holier than thou" of the dems. From Farmer Karcher on down, they are all hypocrites.

Anonymous said...

You are absolutely correct Barry and I totally agree with you...Beck's a lobbyist and O'Scanlon does Cell Tower scams. Very true. Hopefully, they will just go away once they lose, never to be heard from again. Beck will get her VP of Lobbying back and O'Scanlon will continue to get paid by the taxpayers and by the communications companies. I promise I won't feel too sorry for them.

Barry Goldwater said...

The Jack Hill email hit newstands today

Anonymous said...

Art, when are you going to run next and will you go negative?

Art Gallagher said...

Anonymous said...
Art, when are you going to run next and will you go negative?

Who knows? Maybe I'll run against Bonehead Bully Barham, in which case I will won't have to go negative, the APP will do all of that for me.

Anonymous said...

If it is the truth is it really negative? This isn't half as ugly as the attacks you and the Anna Little crowd used agains DiBella.

Art Gallagher said...

Anonymous said...
If it is the truth is it really negative? This isn't half as ugly as the attacks you and the Anna Little crowd used agains DiBella.

Show me something negative I wrote about the Mayor. I've said he was the choice of the party bosses.