Walsh and Whatshisname Wheeling and Dealing

By JJ Sullivan, III

Correspondent

The 2008 battle for Middletown will soon come to a close, with less than a week until voters decide the township's partisan fate. The political future of the county's largest municipality remains on hold until the results are tallied on November 4.

Yet, as both sides prepare for the last leg of a hotly-contested race, Republican candidates and party officials have taken the offensive, accusing their Democratic counterparts of intentionally circumventing a municipal pay-to-play [PTP] ordinance regarding campaign donations, allegedly disguising the contributions from potential vendors, "bundling" the funds from out-of-town allies under the guise of a political action committee.

The GOP candidates alleged that engineers from the Middlesex-based engineering firm of CME Associates formed the nucleus of a "wheeling" operation, an apparent to effort to dodge recently enacted restrictions which limit the amount of money a potential vendor can donate to a municipal campaign or candidate.

According to Republican Candidate for Committee Tony Fiore, "Middletown has a strict PTP ordinance that includes restrictions on wheeling."

The aspiring committee member said the actions were part of an effort to counter the new ordinance.


"The Democrats and engineers from CME Associates sent $8,500 to a PAC in Ocean County that acted as a conduit, allowing them to avoid detection. [OC-PAC] in turn wheeled that money back to Middletown [Executive Committee,]" he explained.

Fiore said the money was intended to go through a middleman, a bogus political action committee (PAC). In this case, Fiore identified the bogus pact as OC-PAC. This engineering firm, CME, has contributed to Middletown campaigns, but those gifts could essentially disqualify them because they "wheeled" it in, officials maintained.

Republican partisans also accused Democratic campaigners of disregarding laws that cap personal contributions, using the $7,200 contribution of Jon Corzine's former co-worker at Goldman Sachs, Philip Murphy, as an example of an municipal campaign violation.


Fiore classified Murphy's donation as "excessive." According to Republicans, the contribution should have been limited to $5,200, pursuant to local statutes.

"It is very disturbing to have Middletown's new pay-to-play ordinance violated so blatantly in the very first year it has gone into effect," said Mayor Gerard Scharfenberger. "While we are striving for transparency in all aspects of government, it is shameful that the Middletown Democrats have chosen to ignore the law in such a clandestine manner."

Engineers from CME Associates, which has offices in both Partin and Howell, and various other unions have accounted for the bulk of Democratic campaign finances, leading some Republicans to question the merit of donations, alleging them to be the result of political "packaging."


According to ELEC reports, on June 16, CME President David Samuel, Sayreville, gave the PAC $2500. On June 24, three additional CME engineers, Gregory Valesi, of Cream Ridge, Jay B. Cornell, of Sayreville, and John J Stefani, of Clarksburg, donated $1500 each. Samuel also donated an additional $1500, bringing the entire total dispersed by CME employees to roughly $8500.

On August 11, the executive committee received a contribution of $7200 from OC-PAC. On October 20, the executive committee sent the campaign of Democratic Candidate for Committee Pat Walsh $15,000. GOP officials do not believe this to be a coincidence.

OP-PAC

OC-PAC is designated as an independent committee in the official election filings. According to the ELEC files, the PAC aims to advance "responsible government and environmental issues."


OC-PAC solicited public funds for the state "election-related activity" from "both inside and outside New Jersey," election records revealed. The political committee stated that 15 percent of contributions would result

Unions and out-of-town engineers compose the entirety of OC-PAC, a first year PAC that was also the recipient of $5,000 from the DRIVE committee, of Washington DC. Based out of the US capital, the political arm of the Teamsters is among the foremost campaign contributors across the country. GOP officials maintain that the DRIVE committee was responsible for wheeling money to county democratic campaigns.


The ELEC records filed by OC-PAC on Oct 16 reported the receipt of $5,000 from the DRIVE committee. The report also listed OC-PAC's $7200 contribution to the Middletown Township Democratic Committee on Sept. 11. The remaining two donations were for "Kevin Clarkson for Sheriff," of Mercer County, and $1000 for the 2009 mayoral race in Los Angeles.

Alice Santangelo was designated as the PAC's treasurer, also employed by Ryan Funeral Home as the bookkeeper, according to ELEC records. Her address was also that of OC-PAC's apparent center of operations in Brick, Ocean County.

OC-PAC Chairpersons Mark Sarin and Todd Thompson are the funeral directors of Ryan Funeral Home, of St Catherine Street, Toms River. John Waters of Toms River was listed as the member charged with overseeing the legal process of the PAC.

According to Teamsters.org, the DRIVE committee is an extension of the national organization, the acronym standing for the Democratic, Republican Independent Voter Education program, "working hard to improve and protect the rights of Americans," the Web site said. "It provides the necessary support to candidates for public office, and is a powerful way for us to have an impact on the political and legislative process."



The law according to Middletown

According to the Mayor's Message from October 2007, "Wheeling is the practice of bypassing local campaign limits by funneling money through political action committees (PACs)...As a result of the wheeling restriction, a Middletown Township Committee candidate cannot accept a contribution of more than $500 per election from each of the following:


"A county committee of a political party outside of Monmouth County, from another candidate committee or municipal political party committee outside of Monmouth County a state political party, a legislative leadership committee, or a continuing political action or PAC.


"The ordinance also establishes rules and procedures for contracting with professional businesses. These rules and procedures are designed to work in tandem with the fair and open bidding process to ensure that no favoritism figures into the awarding of contracts. Businesses that have or seek a public contract to provide services can only contribute a maximum of $2,500 annually to all municipal candidates, municipal campaign committees, municipal or Monmouth County political committees, and political action committees. This includes contributions made by all principals who own at least 10 percent of the business, their spouses and any children living at home.


"Of this total: a maximum of $300 could be contributed to any municipal candidate, a maximum of $500 could be contributed to a Middletown political party committee, and a maximum of $500 could be contributed to the Monmouth County party committee or a political action committee."

Under the ELEC contributions limits chart, an individual making a contribution to a committee candidate is limited to $2600 per election. However, political committees are allowed to receive up to $12000 per election. A continuing political committee, like the OC-PAC was registered as on ELEC records, are also limited to a ceiling of $7200 per year.

Essentially, GOP officials believe the money, traveling either from Washington DC and outlying counties or municipalities into the Middletown election, was set on a deliberate course that would allow the continued contributions of vendors like CME to go unchecked by local laws, allowing outside influences to harness undue clout within the township.

Whether or not such allegations are deserving remained up for debate, but calls to OC-PAC treasurer and Samuels were unreturned, as did attempts to contact Pat Walsh.

The Republicans officials said it was difficult to fathom a logical reason for such substantial contributions to the Democratic campaign, unless the CME donors were expecting a public contract if the Democrats were to achieve a majority.

The absence of a comment does not infer guilt upon OC-PAC, the Democratic candidates or CME nor does it confer merit to the Republican assault.

Hopefully the parties involved will have time over the next few days to clarify or address the accusations of Fiore and the Middletown Republicans in order to resolve any potential disagreements.

Republican officials said election money was deliberately donated across state and county lines in order to escape the consequences of the antiwheeling ordinance enacted last October.

According to Scharfenberger, the more stringent limits takes precedent when state county and local laws are at odds. To his pride, the township has some of the toughest laws against wheeling in the state., the mayor said.

"They have been wheeling money in from the OC-PAC," Fiore reiterated. "We have strict PTP ordinances, and they have been forced to funnel campaign money through this committee in Brick and back into Middletown to avoid the PTP laws. That is neither ethical nor beneficial to the township in any regard."