Usually we leave the posting of video from the Middletown Township Committee meetings to MiddletownMike or the Middletown Democrats.
This week we received several phone calls about Township Committee candidate Linda Baum’s remarks to the Committee. Since Mike hasn’t posted the video yet, we ran over to Town Hall and requested an audio of the meeting to hear what all the fuss was about.
Baum and Deputy Mayor Steve Massel face off in the November election for a three year term on Middletown’s governing body.
Vin Gopal, Candidate for Monmouth County Democratic Chairman in the upcoming June election, has selected State Committeewoman Mary F. Foster as his running mate. Foster, a lifelong Democrat, is a retired retail and textile executive. In addition to being an appointed State Committeewoman, she is also an active county committeewoman as the District 29 female representative in Middletown, representing the district alongside longtime county Democratic Party Chairman Victor Scudiery, who is the male representative for the district. For the past 12 years, Foster has been an elected member of the Middletown Democratic Party Executive Committee, serving as Corresponding Secretary. In recognition of her lifelong dedication to the Democratic Party, Foster was recently selected as a District Delegate to this year’s Democratic National Convention. She will go to Charlotte this summer to cast her vote in support of the Obama/Biden ticket.
“I am excited to join Vin as his running mate and build on the successes that Vic Scudiery built throughout this county. Nobody can fill Vic’s shoes but together we can build on what he has started,” stated Foster.
“Mary Foster will make an outstanding Vice-Chairwoman. She has worked hard for Democrats here in Middletown and is well-respected throughout the Bayshore. Vin’s commitment in challenging Republicans throughout this county is complimented in his choice of Mary Foster,” stated Middletown Democratic Party Chairman Joe Caliendo and Middletown Democratic Club President Don Watson in a joint statement.
“I am honored that Mary has accepted my offer to run on the ticket with me. Together, with so many Democrats around this county, we will continue to fight to elect Democrats at the municipal, county, state and federal levels,” stated Gopal.
Along with her husband Mike, Mary volunteers at her church. She is also involved in other community organizations.
Earlier this week the Middletown Democratic Executive Committee reported to the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission that they received a $2600 contribution from Bookazine Inc, a Bayone based book wholesaler.
Bookazine specializes in the wholesale distribution of homo-erotica. Their catolog includes such titles and Handjobs Anthology, Volune 22, Tug Harder 2, and Bustin’ a Nut. I’m not going to write the sub-titles.
Reached for comment, Middletown Democratic Chairman Joe Caliendo said, “What’s your problem?” Asked if knows what Bookazine sells, Caliendo said, “No comment on anything,” and hung up.
Democratic Township Committee Candidate Carol Fowler said, “I wouldn’t know about that,” when informed that Bookazine had contributed to the campaign. When informed about what Bookazine sells, Fowler said, “That’s too shocking to even process.”
Fowler’s running mate, Jim Grenefage, could not be reached for comment.
Mayor Tony Fiore, who is being challenged by Grenafege and Fowler said, “The Middletown Democrats should return that donation. If they have any sense of decency and what is right, they will return the money.”
Fiore’s running mate, Stephanie Murray, a book seller herself, said “The Democrats should know where their money is coming from. This contribution shows a lack of judgement and insight.”
The Middletown Democrats have selected a replacement for Alex Desevo on their Township Committee slate, according to Middletown Mike and RedBankGreen.
Now that the news has made it to MMM, the APP will probably get around to reporting it.
Middletown Mike said the candidate was not even known to him prior to her introduction to the Middletown Democratic Committee, so MMM is not about to boost her name recognition at this point.
She seems like a nice lady who has no clue about how municipal government works. Mike says she spoke about how upset she is with Middletown’s bonding. Excuse my skepticism, but I highly doubt bonding has been keeping her up at night. Sounds to me like she was tutored on the Middletown Dems talking points before she addressed the committee.
MMM will eventually report the candidate’s name and background. For now we’ll refer to the Middletown Democratic slate as What’shername and What’shisname.
Alex Desevo officially resigned his candidacy for Middletown Township Committee this afternoon, less than 8 hours after MMM reported that he was still a candidate despite press reports to the contrary.
According to The Asbury Park PressMiddletown Democratic Chairman Joe Caliendo faxed Desevo’s resignation letter to Monmouth County Clerk of Elections Bertha Sumick at 3:30 this afternoon.
Caliendo told the APP that the Democrats have three volunteers to choose from to replace Desevo and that a decision will be made on Thursday evening.
The headline in the Asbury Park Press print edition said “Candidate Quits” but as of yesterday afternoon, Alex Desevo was still a Democratic candidate for Middletown Township Committee, 10 days after his arrest for possession of crack cocaine at the Holmdel Motor Inn.
Bertha Sumick, Monmouth County Clerk of Elections, said she has not received a letter of resignation from Desevo.
Desevo might have been able to save his family the embarrassment of his troubles being front page news had he resigned his candidacy as soon as possible…like the Monday morning after his arrest. However, judging by the reaction of Middletown Mike, the Middletown Democrats didn’t learn of Desevo’s situation until after the APP published the details.
This could be great for business. The longer Desevo drags this out in a Weineresque style, the more traffic and silly comments from Middletown Democrats this site will get.
Maybe Anna Little will launch a DESEVO MUST RESIGN ad campaign.
Word on the street is that Desevo was always intended only to be a “place holder” candidate, while Middletown Democratic Chairman Joe Caliendo searched the township for “a candidate who can really represent Middletown well.”
Caliendo’s problem is that all of the people who represent Middletown well are Republicans.
Just to be neighborly (and to demonstrate to awesome reach of MMM) I’d like to help Caliendo out. Any Democrat who wants to run for Township Committee, should contact Joe Caliendo at [email protected]. Hey Joe, even Mike didn’t do that for you! No charge this time.
Leaders of the Middletown Democratic Party met last night to select a new running mate for Jim Grenafege on the ticket for Township Committee, according to a report in the Asbury Park Press.
Even though the Dems have 92 members of their party committee, including Grenafege, there was no announcement of who will replace Alex Desevo on the ballot. The APP article indicates that it could take the Dems until September to select a candidate.
Municipal party chairman Joe Caliendo said, “We believe we have a good chance of winning this November, so we want to find a candidate who can really represent Middletown well,” according to the APP.
The Neptune Nudniks’ coverage of Middletown Mayor Gerry Scharfenberger’s job as Director of the Office for Planning Advocacy, and the fact that he did not announce the job with great fanfare during the Middletown campaign for Township Committee demonstrates just how unfair and biased the Asbury Park Press is when you compare their coverage, or lack there of, to other stories of far more consequence.
All media outlets are biased. It is impossible not to be. We’re all human and have our point of view. MMM proudly declares that we are fair and biased in our logo welcoming readers to the site. Newspapers like the Asbury Park Press are disingenuous when they claim to be unbiased. The APP even claimed that they and other “real journalists” work hard to be unbiased in a editorial bashing the owners of FoxNews for donating $1 million dollars to conservative causes last summer. I say FoxNews is more trustworthy. At least they disclosed their owner’s bias. The APP, and many many others persist with their facade that they are unbiased when their behavior clearly demonstrates otherwise.
With their article and editorial today, combined with Friday’s article and Bob Ingle’s blog post on Sunday, APP.com has published 2547 words in four pieces on three separate days to the story of a volunteer Mayor who was appointed to a State job over the summer and did not make it an issue in his reelection campaign.
Contrast this to the news that Congressman Frank Pallone and three of his colleagues used their political influence to get the FDA to approve an unsafe medical device in exchange for campaign contributions. The FDA reversed itself after an internal investigation. The issue was national news for a few days. But not for the Asbury Park Press and their sister papers that cover the 6th congressional district. Three days after the Kansas City Star published the story of Pallone and his crooked cronies putting Americans’ health at risk in exchange for campaign cash, the APP published one articleof 619 words with a pro-Pallone spin. Ingle added 194 words with the appropriate slant two days later.
The APP is unfair and biased in what they cover and it how they cover it.
The same reporter, Kevin Penton, wrote the Pallone/FDA story and the Scharfenberger stories.
Referring to the report that exposed the Pallone/FDA scandal, Penton wrote “The report — the result of an investigation requested in May 2009 by three congressmen, including Pallone — does not specify who in Congress made the persistent inquiries.” There was no further follow up published by Penton or anyone else from the APP.
Yet, Penton spent all day yesterday on the phone and on his computer keeping the Scharfenberger story alive. All those people Penton quoted in his article today…do you think they called him? Do you think they were even aware that Scharfenberger is the Director of the Office for Planning Advocacy? Of course not. Penton made thestory. At least we know he has it in him to do some follow up. It is too bad that he, and his bosses, are unfair and biased about the stories that they actually decide to put work into, as opposed to what they often do, which is regurgitate what the subjects of their “news” tell them.
Penton’s article and the editorial state that Scharfenberger was asked about his employment in October and did not mention the State job. Neither Penton nor the editorial name the reporter. Scharfenberger denies this. He told MMM that he had not spoken to Penton about his job since July, before he was hired by the Christie administration. Penton has not responded to a phone call and an email from MMM to either verify or dispute Scharfenberger’s account. Scharfenberger said he was very careful to be truthful during the campaign in how he answered inquiries about his employment with reporters and members of the public in general.
Scharfenberger knew his state job was common knowledge in certain circles but he did not want it to become a campaign issue. “What was I going to do, go around town saying ‘vote for me, the Governor thinks I’m so great he hired me’?” “I did not want to use the job in my favor and I did not want the Democrats to use it against me. I wanted the campaign to be about Middletown issues, not who I work for.”
Scharfenberger’s account is consistent with my experience. I knew about Scharfenberger’s job in late August or early September. I chose not to report it. I did not find out about the job from Scharfenberger. He was not happy when I asked him to confirm it. He assumed I would report on it.
I’m not a full time journalist. I haven’t taken a journalism course since I was in high school writing for Bear Facts, the Bergenfield High School newspaper. Why did I know about Gerry’s job and full time journalists didn’t? Google has this neat service called “Google Alert.” Penton and the folks over in Neptune should check it out. I received anecdotal confirmation of Gerry’s job before I asked him about it.
I chose not to report about Scharfenberger’s job until after the election because, after observing the Middletown Democrats over the last 13 years I suspected they would distort it and make the campaign about it, rather than the issues facing Middletown. Feel free to criticise me for not reporting it. I told you I was fair and biased the moment you got here. If you’re going to criticise me, please also credit me for my competence. The APP and the Middletown Democrats, and maybe even you, still wouldn’t know about Gerry’s job if I hadn’t reported it.
To prove that I am fair as well as biased, I now disclose that I am aware of two elected officials in Monmouth County, one Democrat and one Republican, who have full time state jobs and are still collecting their stipends from the municipalities that they serve. The Democrat I found about last week. The Republican this morning. I’m not going to tell you who they are, at least not right now. Now that they know that I know, they have a few days to do the right thing and heed the spirit of Governor Christie’s call for reform and only collect one government salary. I also want to see if the Neptune Nudniks have what it takes to find out what I already know, or if they care.
There’s a video on YouTube which is a good analogy for how Scharfenberger handled his job during the campaign. You may have seen it already as it has over 6 million views. Here it is:
In the video, consider Scharfenberger the quarterback and the Middletown Democrats and the Neptune Nudniks the yellow shirted defense. Did the quarterback do anything illegal? No. Did he do anything unethical? No. Was he clever? Yes. Is clever bad? If you laughed at the video, you don’t think so.
Had the yellow shirted defense been rigorous and paying attention, the quarterback would have looked like a fool. As it was, and as it is in the case of Middletown and the APP, the nudniks are foolish.
It is come to MoreMonmouthMusings’ attention that the same Russian mob that looted Middletown’s bank accounts over Labor Day weekend could be funding the township committee campaign of Sean Byrnes and his running mate, Whatshername.
If the Middletown Democrats filed their October ELEC report, it was not published on ELEC’s website this afternoon. Byrnes’ ELEC report says he’s only raised $150.00 for his campaign. Whathername has raised only $3000. So who’s paying for all those signs? It could be the Russian mob!
I know. I’m being ridiculous. About as ridiculous and David Axelrod and President Obama are when they say that the U. S. Chamber of Commerce and Americans for Prosperity are funding their anti-Democratic incumbent ads with foreign money.
I’m being as ridiculous as the Middletown Democrats were last year when the alleged that the Middletown GOP bribed and coerced Steve Massell into running for township committee last year. I’m being as ridiculous as the Middletown Dems were last year when they claimed that the GOP township committee raised their salaries, after they gave up their stipends.
