Bellew Needs To Come Clean On Her Credentials

State Senate primary candidate Leigh-Ann Bellew owes her supporters, and the voters of the 13th Legislative District, the truth about her resume.  Any candidate’s educational and employment history is an important consideration for voters to take into account when choosing their nominees and elected officials.  Bellew is asking Republican voters to fire an long term and distinguished incumbent in Senator Joe Kyrillos, and to hire her instead.   In order for her candidacy to be taken seriously, she needs to be transparent about her education, career and character.

Bellew has gone into hiding since the questions about her resume and education have become public.  When the questions about her legal education arose in early April, Bellew told MMM that she graduated from law school in Texas but never took the bar exam.  She said she went to work in customer service for American Express rather than pursue a career as a lawyer, and then exited the work force to raise her children.

However, since PolitickerNJ questioned the veracity of her resume, Bellew has stopped returning MMM’s repeated phone calls.  Her campaign manager, Dwayne Horner, has not been able to provide answers.

Bellew, her running mates and campaign volunteers have been distorting Kyrillos’s record. Kyrillos is a moderate, but he is not a tax and borrow liberal as the Bayshore Tea Party Group backed ticket is claiming.  Kryillos does not support partial birth abortion and death panels, as the duplicitous literature the BTPG backed campaign has been distributing claims.

If a candidate or campaign is going to take liberties with the truth about their opponent’s record, they at the very least should have the decency to be transparent about something as basic about their own education and career.

Leigh-Ann Bellew can put an end to all of this nonsense over her past by simply proving she has the degrees she has claimed she has.  She should do that immediately.  If Bellew has embellished her past, she should come clean about that and explain herself.

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Bayshore Tea Party Attacks MMM Over LD 13 Coverage

Bayshore Tea Party co-founder Barbara Gonzalez sent an email to her members this morning accusing MoreMonmouthMusings of basing its coverage of the LD 13 primary based upon who advertises on this site.  Gonzalez posted an identical message on two Tea Party facebook groups and then blocked from MMM publisher Art Gallagher from the conversation after he responded.

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What Gonzalez falled to mention, is that MMM offered her candidates, through Gonzalez personally and through Leigh-Ann Bellew, the same advertising rates offered to the Monmouth County GOP candidates who advertise here.  Bellew said she wanted advertise here, but has yet to do so.   MMM welcomes all advertisers of legal products, services or campaigns.

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Bellew’s Credentials, Conservatism Questioned

By Kelly Ann Hart

In 2010 I was a manager in Anna Little’s campaign for Congress.  I worked with Leigh Ann Bellew, who was the campaign’s initial manager and then became the campaign’s Chairman.  I am a conservative Republican who has been active with the Tea Party.

During that campaign Leigh Ann Bellew led me, as well as and all the rest of us who were working on Anna Little’s campaign, to believe that she was “a lawyer who didn’t practice”.  We also got the impression from what she told us that she had studied law and had a degree of some kind in Constitutional studies.  None of this has turned out to be true.

Leigh Ann Bellew also misled us about her involvement with national conservatives like Dick Morris, telling us that she had been his “communications director”. This isn’t true either.

I wasn’t aware of her answers to a Project Vote Smart (http://votesmart.org/candidate/political-courage-test/59968/leigh-ann-bellew/#.UYeWJXzD-M8) questionnaire in 2006, none of us were, but have had the opportunity to read it since.  I am concerned by a number of her answers and most concerned by her answers to the questions on the 2^nd Amendment and Abortion.

On the 2^nd Amendment, if Leigh Ann is a “constitutionalist” as she claims, how is her support for the federal licensing of all firearms in line with the 2^ndamendment?

On Abortion she claims to be Pro-Life, but told Vote Smart that an abortion should be legal when the mother’s life is involved.  How this fits with her “Pro-Life, Christian” values?  You are either for the death of a baby or you are not.

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I Know Leigh-Ann Bellew

By James C. Granelli

But first, please understand that I thought long and hard about writing this commentary. After all, Bellew is running in a primary in another district than my own and I have my hands full rebuilding our home after Sandy. I would have loved some peace and quiet right now; instead of what I expect will be coming; harsh criticism from some Tea Party people who will attack me as a faux Conservative. I could have simply sat this out. But then, people that know me; know most of all that I am indeed a Conservative and I would feel ill at ease for not doing the right thing. I will let my resume and references speak for themselves should those attacks come.

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Bayshore Tea Party Offering Free Tax Returns To Campaign Volunteers

The Bayshore Tea Party group is recruiting volunteers to canvass for their candidates in the LD 13 and Monmouth County primary races by offering free personal 2013 tax returns.

In an email with the BTPG logo and a Bellew for Senate paid for disclosure, potential canvassing recruits are offered a tax services if they canvass for the candidates for 10 hours between now and the primary on June 4.  The offer is limited to 5 returns and expires on April 15, 2014.

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Mystery Robo Call In LD 13

Someone commissioned ‘phone ID’ calls in LD 13 that went out yesterday asking Republican primary voters if they planned to vote for Republican Senator Joe Kyrillos, Tea Party challenger Leigh-Ann Bellew or if they are unsure.

Listen to the recording here.

It was left as a voice mail at an MMM reader’s home.  The caller ID said the call came from 602-357-5922, a Phoenix, AZ landline listed to Danny Crosby.

None of the competing campaigns or candidates will cop to paying for the call. There was no ‘paid for’ disclosure.

‘Phone ID’ calls are not polls, per se.  The data collected is used for get out the vote (GOTV) planning.

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Bellew Hires Texas Gov Rick Perry’s Campaign Consultant

townhall.com photo

LD 13 State Senate challenger Leigh-Ann Bellew announced today that Dwayne Horner of Texas will lead her campaign against Senator Joe Kyrillos in the GOP primary.

Horner lead the Dallas area field operations for Texas Governor Rick Perry’s 2010 re-election primary campaign against U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, according to a press release from the Bellew campaign.  He was named “one of the best field directors in Texas” by the Dallas Morning News.

More recently, Horner ran the field operations for Texas Congressman Roger Williams’ victorious 2012 campaign in the new 25th congressional district.

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Bellew challenges Kyrillos to debates as questions about her educational background arise

LD 13 Challenger told MMM she graduated from law school

Leigh-Ann Bellew, the Tea Party backed candidate running against State Senator Joe Kyrillos in the 13th legislative district GOP primary issued a debate challenge to the incumbent yesterday just as simmering questions about her educational background surfaced in the press.

Bellew said that Trenton has changed Kyrillos over the last 26 years and that 13th district Republicans should learn where the candidates stand on the Constitution, Tax Policy and Gun Rights.

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Bellew Comes Out Swinging

LD 13 GOP State Senate challenger Leigh-Ann Bellew wasted no time in kicking off her campaign to unseat incumbent  State Senator Joe Kyrillos.

“Negative” is not a strong enough word for the press release Bellew sent out this afternoon. “Scathing” is a more accurate description.

IN OFFICE SINCE THE 1980s, KYRILLOS TAKES HEAT FROM CONSERVATIVE PRIMARY CHALLENGE

Union Beach, NJ — State Senator and defeated 2012 U.S. Senate candidate Joe Kyrillos, a leading GOP “moderate” who has broken with most Republicans on taxes, abortion and gun control, is facing a conservative primary challenger backed by a full slate of candidates.

“Joe Kyrillos has been in office since the 1980s – that’s nearly 30 years – and his  ‘accomplishments’ have included tripling state spending, endorsing new and expanded gun control laws, and  supporting abortion,” said Leigh-Ann Bellew, a Union Beach educator and conservative activist challenging Kyrillos in the June 4 Republican Primary.

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