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Incumbents lose - public wins

The reality of running against the incumbent Democrat machine is daunting. First the Union County Democratic committee has endless funds to buy votes. It is not shocking news that money wins elections. The Democrats spent over a million dollars county wide last year. They have $340,000,000 to dole out in the form of contracts to businesses that donate to their campaign fund. They have the power to give people jobs, award raises and promotions in exchange for campaign contributions or for doing work for their campaigns committees. The incumbents can use county resources to produce campaign material vailed as county services. The newsletters brochures, special events, cable TV show are all geared to promote the incumbent candidates for November's election.

This is the way the system works. Is it unethical? It certainly is. Elected officials have the public trust to do what is best for the people. When The interest of a few campaign contributors are put above the public's then that trust has been violated. What results from the way the Democrat controlled county government operates is a waste of taxpayers money and a lack of the services that should delivered.

There is a serious question of legality to the way the county operates. Since there is are nine freeholders are all part of one Democratic team there is one to check what is going on. It is such a closed society that the methods and reasoning is unknown. Decisions that are made and resolutions that are voted on are not discussed in meetings and public comment is not just ignored but it is discouraged. Without any one watching they are free to make decisions behind closed doors. It is impossible to know what facts were used in deciding issues. Requests for records of studies or evaluations result in no documents being presented. How could this be? Can the freeholders be signing multi-million dollar contracts without any analysis being done? The answer is yes the only factor that are being measured is the amount that the company receiving the contract donated to the last campaign.

What is worse is that the performance of the companies getting these contracts should not be acceptable. The cost of the initial contract is compounded by the work needed to remedy the problems. For example Galloping Hill Golf Course went through $6 million of renovations. The county did not build a new Golf course. The $6 million was to fix up an existing one. When I speak to golfers who tried the courses after the five year renovation say it's in worse shape than before.
Many projects follow the same M.O. A no bid contract is awarded the work is done but without proper county oversite the project is fails, faces over run costs and time delays. There is no repercussion for the company that doesn't deliver.

With out an outside set of eyes there is no way to know is county employees are stuffing campaign literature into envelopes on county time. Employees who are involved in these types of sorted activities are motivated by a financial rewards in the form of raises, promotions and appointments onto agency boards. Those who don't participate must turn a blind eye and deaf ear to the misgivings for fear of negative retribution. Unless someone is a high ranking administrator there is no way to know if grant money is being spent on the things that it was intended for. This is a way to shuffle millions of dollars inappropriately.

The system has grown out of control because the same political team has held onto the power for so long that they have long since crossed the blurred line of what is unethical into what is illegal. It is paramount that a presence is introduced to the board of freeholders that can at the very least make the freeholder board accountable for their actions. The only way that can happen is by informing the public of what is happening and getting them involved. Elected officials have access to the type of information that can effect change. Right now that information is being kept obscured.

Even as a republican I am still being face with a challenge. In addition to all the advantages the the democrats have running as incumbents there is an tremendous number of registered democrats in Union County as compared to republicans. There are about 90,000 registered democrats versus 40,000 registered republicans. That is almost a 2-1 ratio. A mountain of a deficit to climb. The best hope is that the 150,000 registered independents and unaffiliated voters turn out to vote our way.

I like the fact that there are so many voters registered independent and unaffiliated. It indicates to me that the majority of the people think for themselves and don't pull levers based solely on someone's party affiliation. It seems that a monkey could be put on a party line and party loyalists would vote for it.

My research shows that the Republican party actually wins the majority of the 21 municipalities that make up union county but the shear numbers in the towns the democrats win out numbered the rest of the county. Cities like Elizabeth, Linden, Rahway, Plainfield, Union and Hillside are much denser than the remaining town. The number of registered democrats are overwhelming and so these are the towns that the democrats concentrate on. Their candid-dates com from these towns and their money is spread out amongst the various voting blocks and interest groups. In return they handily win.

The biggest disservice is that the urban towns are hurt the most by the democratic freeholders tax and spend policies. The county has raised property taxes almost 10% each year for the past three years they also added the Open Space Tax to the property tax burden. This resulted in property taxes being raised any where from $75 to $300 per year. This may not mean so much to someone who owns a home in a suburban town but a rent increase for a family of modest means who is renting is very hurtful. The county also increased fees for its services. Money that is spent on project and programs that somehow benefit those in power should be going to programs for those county residents who need it. In this light the lavish perks and benefits of the freeholders and upper management is sickening.

The democrats had a long run at running the show. They have failed dismally and if nothing changes next year will be even worse. It"s time for a change and fresh new start at how politics should be played. Lets get the power back into the hands of the people. Start by voting on November 4, 2003.