Belmar voters overwhelmingly reject “Matt’s Law”

Belmar Mayor “Lawless Matt” Doherty

By a margin of 829-292, Belmar voters repudiated the hubris of Mayor “Lawless Matt” Doherty on Tuesday.

In a special election to decide the validity of the pay to play/ethics law that the borough council approved shortly after Doherty became a candidate for Monmouth County Freeholder last Spring voters said NO to the mayor’s attempt to change the rules for his own ambitions.  Doherty, a Democrat, had claimed that the new law had nothing to do with his candidacy for Freeholder. Rather, it was designed to make it easier for Belmar Republicans to raise money.

The law, which had it been approved by the voters, would have allowed Doherty to conceal contributions to his campaign for Freeholder in the amount of $300 or less and to accept donations from liquor license holders, developers and other vendors and professionals with business before the Borough and still take official action on that business.  The existing pay to play/ethics ordinance in the borough prohibits those activities.

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Gopal blames County Republicans, MoreMonmouthMusings for Middletown High School North controversy

Monmouth Democratic Chairman “Goofy” Gopal and Belmar Mayor “Lawless Matt” Doherty also blamed a protest at a campaign fundraiser on the Monmouth GOP and this website

In an email to the members of the Middletown Board of Education and Superintendent of Schools Dr. William George, Monmouth County Democrat Chairman Vin Gopal blamed the controversy about his candidates for Surrogate and Freeholder campaigning in a Middletown High School North honors Government, Law and Public Policy Program (GLP3) seminar on the Monmouth County Republicans and this website.

“I feel sorry for the school district that the County Republicans and a local blogger are trying to create a witch hunt and create an issue that does not exist,” Gopal wrote in his email last evening.

There he goes again. Whenever things go wrong for Gopal he blames the Republicans, this website and the boogeyman. 

That’s one of the reasons why we call him Goofy.

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Belmar’s San Gennaro Festival Cancelled

Belmar Police Chief Andrew Huisman has cancelled the San Gennaro Festival which was scheduled in the borough on Sunday from 11 a.m. till 6 p.m.”in light of recent events,” according to a post late Saturday night on the Belmar Police Department facebook page.

The recent events are likely the pipe bomb explosion in Seaside Park along the route of a 5K race for a military charity on Saturday morning and an explosion on the streets on New York City’s Chelsea neighborhood on Saturday night that injured more than 20 people.

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Maggie Moran denies working for AshBritt post-Sandy

Maggie Moran

Maggie Moran, the only Democrat political consultant/campaign manager to lose a statewide race in New Jersey in the last twenty years and the wife of Monmouth County freeholder candidate, Belmar Mayor “Lawless Matt” Doherty, denies that she did work for AshBritt Inc. during the aftermath in Superstorm Sandy, as has been reported by MoreMonmouthMusings and many other publications.

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More Lawlessness from Dirty Doherty

Belmar Mayor “Lawless Matt” Doherty just can’t stand the fact that residents of his community had the audacity to gather in front of his home to protest the fact that his administration is screwing over one small business in town while he his arranging for a major donor to his freeholder campaign land a helicopter in a borough park while patronizing another business.

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Sunday is GoTopless Day

By Art Gallagher

Not a transgender person

If a pre-op transgender person with boobs and male parts goes topless in public, is that person violating anti-nudity ordinances?

I’d ask Congressman Frank Pallone, but he couldn’t tell me if a woman with all the parts she was born with should have the right to go topless wherever a man does when I caught up with him three years ago.  Since then, the president of the GoTopless movement has publicly chastised the congressman and he runs the other way whenever he sees me.

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Ethics Complaint Filed Against Doherty Over Helicopter Landing

Belmar Mayor “Lawless Matt” Doherty commemorates the anniversary of Hurricane Sandy. photo by Tim Larsen/Governor’s Office

Former Belmar Councilman Jim Bean filed an Ethics Complaint with the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs’ Local Finance Board against Mayor “Lawless Matt” Doherty  on Friday, August 19, alleging that Doherty did not have the authorization of the Borough Council to grant a campaign donor permission to land a helicopter in the Borough or on Borough property.  Additionally, Bean alleges that Doherty did not provide public notice nor notify Monmouth County officials of the temporary landing permit, as is required by the Department of Transportation when applying for said permit.

On July 7, a $2500 donor to Doherty’s campaign for Monmouth County Freeholder landed a helicopter at Silver Lake, a park in the Borough.

A copy of the Ethics Complaint can be found here.

Bean said that Dirty Doherty used “public resources to allow a campaign donor special privilege to land a helicopter in Belmar’s small but very populated Green Acres Silver Lake Park.”

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Goofy Gopal Denies Accusing Monmouth GOP, MoreMonmouthMusings of Paying Belmar Protesters

photo via facebook

Monmouth County Democrat Chairman Vin Gopal drew more attention to the grassroots uprising of Belmar residents against the policies of their mayor, “Lawless Matt” Doherty, yesterday with a post on the Monmouth Democrats facebook page denying the Observer (formerly PolitickerNJ) article that reported that he and Doherty accused the Monmouth GOP and this website of paying protesters to demonstrate outside Doherty’s house during a campaign fundraiser last week featuring Senator Cory Booker.

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Appellate Court Rules That “Matt’s Law” Referendum Will Take Place

Belmar Mayor “Lawless Matt” Doherty and Governor Chris Christie walk the Belmar boardwalk. Photo Credit: Tim Larson, Governor’s Office

Belmar Mayor “Lawless Matt” Doherty got spanked in Court again yesterday.

Stating that Belmar’s argument was “unavailing” and that Doherty, et al had not demonstrated a likelihood that their appeal would succeed, New Jersey’s Appellate Court denied an emergency motion to stay the referendum on the ethics/pay to play ordinance passed last February.  The referendum will take place on September 27 per Monmouth County Superior Court Judge Katie Gummer’s July 15th Order.

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BELMAR COUNCIL COVERS FOR MAYOR’S ACTIONS

Dirty Doherty

By JIM BEAN

With regard to the “a proposal, a helicopter and a conspiracy theory” story, the public needs to understand that Mayor Doherty used his official capacity to grant a favor to a friend “of many years.” This favor was paid for by us, the taxpayer. It involved using multiple employees’ time, police resources, a green acres park, and the risk of liability in which the town shouldered the insurance. This risk is why the NJDOT believes landing a helicopter somewhere other than at an approved heliport is considered a sufficiently dangerous operation that requires special approval.

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