Thursday, August 03, 2006

LENNY SINGS THE BLUES

"The internal dispute in the county Democratic Party likely will do little to improve its chances of breaking the more-than-20-year grip Republicans have held on the freeholder board." ...The Asbury Park Press.

UPDATE!
Today's (August 4th) Asbury Park Press reports that Inzerillo has filed his reports with ELEC. Now Lenny and Vic can stop fighting, sing Kumbaya, and go on to November and give a nice gracious concession speech.

In a severe blow to their hopes to gain a toehold on the Monmouth County Board of Chosen Freeholders, the Monmouth County Democrats, led by County Chairman Victor Scudiery, have withdrawn their support for candidate Leonard Inzerillo.
Inzerillo, a losing 13th District Assembly candidate in 2003, was criticized in this blog (here and here) for a lack of reports filed with the state Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC).
Lack of ELEC reporting appears to be a habit with the Democrats; some have even called it policy.
An angry Chairman Scudiery has called for Inzerillo's withdrawal from the race; Inzerillo has refused, accusing Scudiery of bossism.
The Monmouth County Democratic Party. The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight. Whatever. One would think that with the blogging explosion here in Monmouth County these people would be monitoring this blog, Seward's and others like ours. It's called opposition research.
As I've said many times before (Everybody, together. With feeling.):


IT'S NOT GOING AWAY, LENNY!

18 comments:

Art Gallagher said...

Congrats Mr. President.

Darn, we still can't get the APP to mention us. Guess they didn't like me scooping them. :-)

Where have you been? I was getting ready to post a milk carton.

Honest Abe said...

Looking for the girl with the laptop!☻

Art Gallagher said...

Honest Abe said...
Looking for the girl with the laptop!☻

Don't get burnt!, and watch out for the hairy arms!

Honest Abe said...

Looks like Lenny's pretty well burnt.

Art Gallagher said...

Honest Abe said...
Looks like Lenny's pretty well burnt

I hope so, but I wouldn't count on it just yet. I can think of at least two scenarios wherein this would not be good for my favorite Freeholder. I'm not ready to break the champaign out yet.

Downtowner said...

The dispute between Chairman Scudiery and Lenny is unfortunate. i hope it is worked out.

But in the scheme of things, how is Lenny solving his ELEC problems any worse than what Kyrillos calls ELEC reporting (see www.bayshorenews.blogspot.com) ... or Clifton (same) for that matter (who was accepting money from a PAC that Morris contributed to and extolled his campaign cleanliness during a race where he accepted the money!).

Hey, Lenny solves his problem when he files in my book. If he has to pay a fine then he should (though frankly Republicans I've seen so far treat ELEC problems like a joke). If there's another conversation about Lenny's contributions then great but if we're talking filing then what is the deal...Republicans can make mistakes (even purposeful ones?) and Democrats cannot (even honest ones to this point)?

If Lenny took bad money then he deserves what he gets but if we're talking about housekeeping I don't think it rocks the world.

Hey, how about a campign instead...you know, issues, that kind of thing? Like patronage, multiple office holding, pension padding, no bid contracts, eminent domain abuse, etc.

So far, the GOP has a state senator in the pocket of a developer and a beseiged former Democratic county boss for Middlesex County. You also have a freeholder who took $5K from a PAC who received significant contributions from someone that the freeholder was OK with appointing as the lead developer from his town when he was a mayor. and that freeholder believes that despite this he has unreproachable intergrity!? give me a break.

Anna Little and Andrew Lucas are absolutely not associated with any of that but the fact remains that if you want to compare ELEC "sins" the GOP has with the Democrats then the Republicans are still going to win by a lot of lengths at the finish line when it comes to doing the wrong thing.

I like the part in the Clifton campaign where he used this money to win in his "squeeky clean" campaign and then when Courier discovered his problem AFTER he won (using the rotten money) and he actually paid it back to the PAC then this is supposed to be a "moot point." Well, considering that Anna is going to be running with this guy next time out, I think the "moot logic" is questionable.

Anna is a great candidate, and Lucas seems to be OK. I know what Anna has to say, Lenny, Barbara... not Andrew but I am sure that will change in September. Meanwhile, I hope like heck the GOP isn't going to be wailing about the Lenny thing with the backyard they have in other races and with sitting elected officials.

Honest Abe said...

The lengthy dissertation above is called "Purcell overload." When in doubt, simply fall back into default mode and bash Kyrillos and Clifton. It's an adaptation of the old "so's your mom" routine. I get the impression that Purcell just doesn't like those guys.
Tell me some new news, Jim.
We're talking about Lenny Inzerillo here; Kyrillos and Clifton aren't even up until next year. Sure, Lenny screwed up, but so did Vic Scudiery and the rest of the Dem leadership in not researching their candidate and not keeping up with their candidates' ELEC compliance. I mean, come on, the issue was only out there since February. Wait a minute. Oh, yeah! That's right. They were too busy forgetting to file their own County Dem Organization ELEC reports to worry about anything else.
While there may be worse things than missing ELEC reports, it does reveal a pretty cavalier attitude towards bookkeeping by the County Dem leadership, which should be seriously taken into account by the voters this fall.
This will not help the Democrats, whether in August or October.

Downtowner said...

hey, i have done nothing but say good things about anna little... because she deserves it. i haven't said anything negative about barbara or lenny...or even scudiery for that matter. and when it comes to lucas...i don't know anything about the guy and neither does a lot of people outside the party so there's nothin to 'not like.'

i have no "favorites" in this freeholder race. all i'm saying is that it should be a race and not this political thumb wrestling match.

there are issues of substance to be dealt with, and as for kyrillos' and clifton's elec situation...to quote someone else... it's not going away.

it's not a matter of like...if you guys can't see the innate wrong in that situation i can't help you out there.

Honest Abe said...

It's not going away, Lenny!

Honest Abe said...

Dream on, prof.

Downtowner said...

wow howard, that was an incredible dig. i'm absolutely devastated. you really showed me good. more than anything, i think it's clear you're one of the brighest people on the boards and hey...you deserve it.

Downtowner said...

victor scudiery is a very good man, who believes in what he is doing and has done a lot for the bayshore and monmouth county.

he is a class act and someone who is in politics but does not play politics. there is not a better person i know and i know a lot of people.

if he does something it is because he believes in it and that is rare.

Honest Abe said...

JIM_PURCELL addressed...
"if he does something it is because he believes in it and that is rare."

Guess Vic must believe in accepting contributions from Union County (Lesniak/Cryan) and Camden County (Norcross/Roberts).

Art Gallagher said...

JIM_PURCELL addressed...
"if he does something it is because he believes in it and that is rare."

Like cutting his candidate off at the knees for doing the same thing the County Organization did.

Downtowner said...

ok rasta...

since it's "wheeled" i have a question. who got a job or who got work from this? where is the report that COMPANY X gave PAC X so much money and then PAC X gave CANDIDATE A that money. And then, how did CANDIDATE A get COMPANY X a job when she didn't have one to give and neither did Scudiery.

if a party isn't in office, they have nothing to give...bozo.

Downtowner said...

about anonymity:

i understand why abe and will and a few others have to be so anonymous. but why is EVERYONE in the gop anonymous?

is there no one aside from sue v. in howell, art g. in highlands or rich k. in hazlet who can actually state their mind squarely and in a public manner?

what does this say? now with the barbs, in lieu of anything rational...1-2-3-...begin...

Honest Abe said...

JIM_PURCELL addressed...
"if a party isn't in office, they have nothing to give...bozo."

Jim, we've been over this before. If it's raised outside the county and it's funneled into the county, it is wheeled. This includes the Union County Democrats, the Friends of Joe Roberts, the Central Jersey Democratic Leadership Council and so on.
It's not whether a party is in office or not or whether they have something to "give." Wheeling is wheeling. Period. It's about IOU's and influence. Say "Friends of Joe Roberts" contributes $37,000 to the Monmouth County Democrats. Now, I don't know who all of his friends are, but I do know that George Norcross is one. So if, hypothetically, Vic Scudiery's Democrats get a majority on the Board of Freeholders, they would have a loyalty to the Norcross wing of the Democratic Party.
It is what it is, Jim.

Downtowner said...

Hi Abe:

You said: "Jim, we've been over this before. If it's raised outside the county and it's funneled into the county, it is wheeled."

Yes, but I do not think the Monmouth Dems have the clout to get anyone appointed or elected anywhere. I could be wrong on this one, but I do not think so. The money would have to be for something...a job, a contract and appointment. I do not believe the Monmouth Dems could make that happend for anyone.

You: "This includes the Union County Democrats, the Friends of Joe Roberts, the Central Jersey Democratic Leadership Council and so on."

Joe Roberts is head of the state pac, abe. of course he is going to distribute money. would you turn down donations from your state pac? but the central jersey democratic leadership council...that is john lynch. whoever takes that money is a lynch person and i can onbly hope whoever has that kind of relationship with lynch gets beaten, regardless of party or any other affiliation or factor. i think he is a great cancer of this county.

You said: "It's not whether a party is in office or not or whether they have something to "give." Wheeling is wheeling. Period. It's about IOU's and influence. Say "Friends of Joe Roberts" contributes $37,000 to the Monmouth County Democrats. Now, I don't know who all of his friends are, but I do know that George Norcross is one. So if, hypothetically, Vic Scudiery's Democrats get a majority on the Board of Freeholders, they would have a loyalty to the Norcross wing of the Democratic Party."

Norcross would not contribute to Monmouth County as it stands right now. I think that is why he went "R" in here. It's how things got turned around, I believe. Somehow this thing cross-hatched and that is how we started getting the busines relationships among outside D's and monmouth R's in the county. it's why everything went to hell.