What will Bill Barham do, II?

All eyes turn to Freehold as the Monmouth County Board of Freeholders reorganize tomorrow, Thursday January 3.

As I wrote in early December, the biggest question is What will Bill Barham do?

Barham has treated the Freeholder Directorship as if it was his birthright. During last year's reorganization he literally declared the chambers "my room." His godfather, Harry Larrison, bestowed the Kingdom of Monmouth on Prince William when he retired. After a brief apprenticeship under Tom Powers, Barham snatched his inheritance away from the deserving and beloved Ted Narosanzik.

But Barham's ambitions of a long reign to match that of his mentor Larrison was thwarted by two women who would not keep their place; Lillian Burry, who has ambitions of her own, and Anna Little who was elected on her promise to reform the old way of doing things in Freehold and meant it. Barham and his co-horts were able to send Little into exile, but not before she "made and indelible mark on Monmouth County" in the words of Burry.

Part of Little's indelible mark is that Barham is no longer electable. Little didn't do this, nor did she set out to. Barham did that to himself. Little simply wouldn't cave to his bullying and intimidation, as bad as it got. And it got very bad.

As blogger "Barry Goldwater" so aptly put it today, "...Barham has the raw ability to be a good leader. Unfortunately, he comes off in the papers as rather pompous, and a poster-boy for old boy politics. Personal interaction with him has not dissuaded many from that same opinion. His potential effectiveness is therefore lost. If he runs in a general election, he will lose."

Last summer when the Freeholder Board passed a resolution that term limits Directors to two consecutive years, Barham openly speculated that he might not continue to serve past January. As "Goldwater" said, "The real question is, will his raw ability allow him to overcome his ego, and gracefully bow out of the race? Not likely."

Here are Barham's options as I see them:

A) Make a deal with the Democrats, John D'Amico and Barbara McMarrow to keep the Directorship and name one of them, most likely D'Amico, Deputy Director. This would actually be very Larrisonian. This would make sense in Barham's mind, because he keeps his inheritance and he thinks he can be re-elected. His tin eared political advisors tell him he's a lock for re-election on the presidential candidate's coat tails. This makes sense for D'Amico, because he knows that Barham will go down in defeat and that the Democrats would finally win control of the county government after 20+ years. By the time D'Amico is up for re-election, 2010, whoever was angry with him for making the deal with Barham would have gotten over it.

B) Support Rob Clifton for Director and announce that he is not seeking another term. This would be Adam Puharic's preference, as he wouldn't have to face a primary and wouldn't have to mount an unwinnable campaign in the fall. Burry is running for re-election, and she won't run again with Barham. Bill being a care taker of the seat for a year clears a field of landmines for Puharic, and allows Adam to write the rules for selecting the new candidate.

C) Resign. This is probably what Barham really wants to do when his temper and ego are not in control. Barham doesn't want to be one of five. He wants to be the boss like Larrison was. But in the post Operation Bid Rig, post Anna Little, Asbury Park Press watching your every move era, being the boss is just not what it was cracked up to be, for Barham.

In normal times and with a democratic (note the small d) chairman, this would be the best option for the Republicans. A convention would select Barham's replacement who would begin to serve immediately and have the benefits of incumbency going into the November election. But these are not normal times and Puharic is not a democratic chairman. A convention to fill a vacancy is governed under state law, Title 19. Puharic can't write the rules. There can be nominations from the floor.

So what will Bill do? He might not even know yet. Chances are he'll support Clifton for Director and buy some time before announcing his intentions regarding re-election.

Whatever he does, next year at this time, Barham won't be a Freeholder. That is a good thing.