They’ve Got NOTHING To Run On, Not Much To Run With
By Art Gallagher
I didn’t feel too bad for Flippy’s team on Friday at the MODC candidates luncheon when they were sitting all by themselves in the back of the room.
Freeholder Amy Mallet, Sheriff Candidate Eric Brophy, Flippy, Freeholder Candidate Janice Whatshername
After all, this was a group of business people, why would Flippy’s team know business people?
I did feel for them a bit when I saw their handouts on the tables. Word on the grapevine is that they’ve been having a hard time raising money for their campaign. It must be true, because their handouts are embarrassing.
The handout was printed on flimsy office paper that you could see through and the disclosure reads “Printed in House, Labor donated.” Hey, I’m all for volunteer efforts in a campaign, but how are those union printing houses going to feel about the Democrats cutting them out? Didn’t they get the memo from Pallone and Rush? Democratic volunteers get paid $10 per hour.
I stopped feeling sorry for them when I read the content of their piece.
Their priorities.
* Cut waste. Eric, John and Janice will slash inflated county government department budgets.
This is why he’s called Flippy.
Freeholder D’Amico came into office advocating the building of a new court house. He blocked the closure of the Youth Detention Center in the year the Democrats had the majority and he voted against the closure this year when the Republicans closed it, saving taxpayers $2.5 million per year. Cut government?! Please these are Democrats. In the one year Flippy and the Democrats had power, they tried to increase the size of county government by creating an new level of bureaucracy, an Inspector General, and former State Democratic Chairman Joe Cryan was recruiting Democrats from Union County to come and take six figure jobs in Monmouth. Now they say they are going to govern like Chris Christie?
Well, not quite. Check out their next priority:
Spur job creation: Utilizing federal stimulus funds, our team will promote economic development by addressing critical road, bridge and mass transit needs.
How are Freeholders and a Sheriff going to allocate federal stimulus funds?! What if there isn’t federal stimulus funds next year? If there is another federal stimulus package next year it means the economy is still in the tank and Phoney Palloney and Rush and still in congress. Heaven forbid! It also means that Chinese will become the second language of choice taught in our schools.
I think this priority translates as a message to the trade unions: “Please give us money to fund our campaign. We’ll get you all the prevailing wage jobs that we can, really, we will.”
Environmental protection. Brophy, D’Amico and Venables oppose off-shore drilling and will reduce congestion and pollution through infrastructure investment.
Huh? What authority does a Sheriff or a Freeholder have over off-shore drilling? New infrastructure will increase congestion. Been to Middlesex, Union or Bergen Counties lately? How is building new roads going to reduce pollution?
Open, honest government. Our team will appoint an all-volunteer ethics board of citizens to ensure integrity in government and to make it transparent.
Does that mean we can’t trust you if we elect you? If you’re trustworthy, what do we need an ethics board for?
How are volunteers going to make paid staffers be transparent? I see costs for attorneys creeping into this all volunteer witch hunt.
That’s just one side of the embarrassing piece. Later in the week I’ll ridicule the other side.
Posted: September 19th, 2010 | Author: Art Gallagher | Filed under: Flippy, Holt, John D'Amico, Off Shore Drilling, Pallone, Road Work | 3 Comments »
Freeholder John D’Amico may have something to show for during his term in office, thanks to his close ties to Trenton Democrats.
Flippy, as he is affectionately referred to behind his back by everyone at the Hall of Records and on Republican leaning blogs, because of his ever changing positions, really doesn’t have much to run on as he asks voters for another three year term this fall. His attempt to transform Monmouth County into Bergen County with beaches and to increase the size of Monmouth County government so that he could hire friends of Joe Cryan to high paid low responsibility jobs was thwarted during the one year the Democrats had the majority in Freehold because former Freeholder Barbara McMorrow was more interested in doing the right thing for the taxpayers than she was in doing what she was told by the bosses.
D’Amico’s signature issues for his term as Freeholder were to be creating the office of County Inspector General, a new level of bureaucracy to do what the Freeholders and the Prosecutors office should already be doing and changing the name “Freeholder” to “County Commissioner.”
Fortunately, the Inspector General idea didn’t go anywhere. But now, thanks to Senate President Stephen Sweeney, Flippy might get his wish for a business card that says “County Commissioner” instead of “Freeholder.”
Sweeney is sponsoring legislation that would change “board of chosen freeholders” to “board of county commissioners” and “chosen freeholder” to “county commissioner” in new sections of law and revisions to current law. The proposed legislation would also require counties to change the terms on their websites.
Won’t that improve the quality of your life? Won’t that make New Jersey a better place to live? I wonder how much it will cost for this legislation to make its way through the legislature to the Governor’s desk. I wonder how much it would cost to implement should it become law. Hold off on ordering new stationary.
New Jersey is the only state with the office called Freeholder. D’Amico wants it changed so that when he travels on the taxpayers dime to national and regional conferences of county office holders he doesn’t have to explain what a Freeholder is. Democrats have said that they want to retire the name because it is antiquated and hearkens back to a day when only white men who owned land free and clear, Freeholders, could be elected to the Board of Chosen Freeholders.
While we’re at it maybe we should reconsider the names of other offices too.
Depending on their form of government, municipalities either have councils or committees. It should really be one or the other or another name all together. Another name is probably better because there are councils and committees in government that are not governing bodies of towns. In Chicago these office holders are called Aldermen. That doesn’t work any more than Freeholder does, maybe its worse because it is gender specific.
The office of Senator dates back to the Roman Empire. Thanks to the Star Wars movies we know the office will endure for many millenniums into the future, so it would really be a waste of time to change that one.
What about “Vice?” We have a Vice President. The Navy has Vice Admirals. But “vice” means activity that is immoral or degrading, like you would find people seeking in the Adult Services section. Clearly we should change the name of those offices. I mean if we can’t use the terms “idiot” or “retarded” in our laws, certainly we should not be calling such powerful people Vice. What should call them instead?
Chris Christie is the first Governor that I can remember that actually governs. Let’s leave that one alone until he becomes President.
This could go on and on and on. I don’t see the point in changing the names of these offices. What difference does it really make? After all is said and done, we are still going to call D’Amico “Flippy.”
Posted: September 14th, 2010 | Author: Art Gallagher | Filed under: County Commissioner, Flippy, Freeholder, John D'Amico | Tags: County Commissioner, Flippy, Freeholder, John D'Amico | 2 Comments »
