Belmar Mayor “Lawless Matt” Doherty had a bad couple of days in Court last week.
After hearings on Thursday and Friday, Monmouth County Superior Court Judge Katie A. Gummer Ordered that a referendum on Matt’s Law, the Pay to Play ordinance that Doherty and the Belmar Council passed earlier this year that would allow the mayor to hide the identity of donors to his campaign for Monmouth County Freeholder, be held in the Borough on September 27, 2016.
Judge Gummer reiterated her earlier ruling that Belmar’s current Pay to Play ordinance which requires the disclosure of all donations and requires Belmar officials who accept donations from borough venders, developers and liquor licensees to recuse themselves from decisions involving those donors’ applications and business with the town is “the law of the land.”
Matt’s Law“is suspended and has never been in effect,” Judge Gummer said from the bench on Thursday.
Belmar Mayor “Lawless Matt” Doherty and Governor Chris Christie walk the Belmar boardwalk in August 2011. Photo Credit: Tim Larson, Governor’s Office
Governor Chris Christie conditionally vetoed (CV) legislation that would have banned smoking at all public parks and beaches. Instead, he recommended that the legislature amend the bill to prohibit smoking at State parks and beaches, but not those governed by local governments.
The bill, which was Co-Sponsored by rookie Democrat Assemblyman Eric Houghtaling of Monmouth County’s 11th legislative district, passed in the Senate 25-6 with 9 Senators not voting and in the Assembly by 52-6 with 19 Assembly Members not voting.
Belmar Mayor “Lawless Matt” Doherty’s first order of business after winning the Democrat primary for Monmouth County freeholder was to promote his record of not raising taxes in the borough. He’s attempting to put his fiscal credentials up against Republican Freeholder Director Tom Arnone and Deputy Freeholder Director Serena DiMaso who, along with their colleagues on the Board, cut county taxes $4.5 million this year and have kept spending flat since 2008.
Former Asbury Park Councilman Jim Keady, left and Belmar Mayor Lawless Matt Doherty, also left
Former Asbury Park Councilman Jim Keady, the man who provoked Governor Chris Christie into his famous “Sit Down and Shut Up” rant and then asked him out to dinner was easily defeated in his bid to become the Democrat nominee for the House of Representatives in New Jersey’s 3rd Congressional District.
Frederick John LaVergne will challenge Congressman Tom MacArthur the November general election. Based on unofficial results, LaVergne was the choice of 62.7% of CD-3 Democrats with 32,493 votes to Keady’s 19,347 votes.
LaVergne, who had the backing on the Burlington County Democrats, reportedly spent $600 on his primary campaign. Keady is reported to have spent $55,000.
The Republican presidential nomination has been decided. On the Democrat side, Bernie Sanders and the FBI are still nipping at Hillary Clinton’s heels. A a national level, like most presidential years, the New Jersey primary will make little difference. However, this year Democrat voters have an important choice to make locally.
In addition to their presidential choice, voters in the Democrat primary next Tuesday, June 7, will choose two nominees for Monmouth County Freeholder.
Running on Hillary Clinton’s ticket with the support of Monmouth County Chairman Vin Gopal are Belmar Mayor “Lawless Matt” Doherty and Brenda Sue Fulton of Asbury Park.
Running on Bernie Sanders’ ticket are Laury Wills of Little Silver and Angelica Ashford of Manalapan.
We’ve been reporting for years on how Monmouth County Democrat Chairman Vin Gopal has been raising special interest money in Trenton as well as from Hudson and Essex Counties so that he can take over our beautiful county, pave it over and award contracts and patronage jobs to his benefactors. Fortunately, he’s had limited success.
Now, thanks to Hudson County View, we have the chairman on tape sharing the next step of his plan. The money is not enough, he needs to bring voters into the county courtesy of the Hudson County boss, Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto.
Lawless Matt Doherty addressed Belmar residents while Governor Chris Christie practiced his Trump sidekick routine
Lawless Matt Doherty, the mayor of Belmar, violated the civil rights of his borough’s voters last year with a “invalid and misleading” ballot explanatory statement regarding the $4.1 million bonding referendum for a beach pavilion, according to a ruling by Monmouth County Superior Court Judge Katie Gummer last week.
The ballot statement was not discussed and approved in public at a Council meeting, as is required. Rather, Belmar submitted the ballot question and statement to Monmouth County Clerk Christine Hanlon without any input from the public or from the citizens who challenged the bonding ordinance.
Republicans Sheriff Shaun Golden, Surrogate Rosemarie Peters, Freeholder Director Tom Arnone and Deputy Freeholder Director Serena DiMaso
The Monmouth County Republican Organization said that Belmar Mayor Matt Doherty, a candidate for the Democratic nomination for Freeholder in the June 7 primary, is bought and paid for by Trenton lobbyists, Wall Street executives and North Jersey political bosses “seeking to turn Monmouth County Government into their own Hudson County style patronage machine.”
In a press release distributed Monday afternoon, the Monmouth GOP organization said that Doherty’s latest campaign finance report indicates that over 60% of the $98,000 he disclosed the source of came from donors who reside outside of Monmouth County.
Mayor “Lawless Matt” Doherty speaks during the Two Year Hurricane Sandy Anniversary while Governor Christie practices his Trump sidekick pose(Governor’s Office/Tim Larsen)
In his latest campaign finance disclosure with the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission, Belmar Mayor “Lawless Matt” Doherty did not disclose the names of donors who gave his campaign $300 or less, as required by Belmar’s Ethics and Pay to Play Law.
Before he stopped talking to MoreMonmouthMusings, shortly after he declared his candidacy for Monmouth County Freeholder in January, Belmar Mayor Matt Doherty told us that his borough’s pay to play ordinance was unenforceable. Never-the-less, he pushed the Borough Council to pass a new ordinance that would allow him to take donations from people and entities who have business with or are regulated by the Borough and not to disclose donations less than $300.
Freehold-Monmouth County Superior Court Judge Katie Gummer ruled Wednesday that the new pay to pay ordinance in Belmar, dubbed “Matt’s Law” in honor of Mayor Matt Doherty who the measure would immediately benefit, is not law, has never been law and will not become law unless approved by Belmar voters in a referendum or unless the Court rules otherwise in coming weeks as a suit regarding a protest petition filed under the Falkner Act is further litigated.
For now, Doherty, who is running for Monmouth County Freeholder, and all candidates for office in Belmar are bound by the pay to play ordinances, passed in 2004 and amended in 2005 and 2011 (the current ordinance), that restrict campaign contributions from Belmar vendors, developers, liquor license holders and professionals to $300 and/or require that the office holders to recuse themselves from matters regarding the contributors that come before them.
Belmar Mayor “Lawless Matt” Doherty had a bad couple of days in Court last week.
